I just completed a stay at Yu Garden Renaissance and it was quite nice.

One may receive breakfast in the lounge or restaurant. The lounge will cook eggs to order and also has Eggs Benedict daily on the buffet, and also two meats bacon and type of sausage varies daily. Fruit, Congee, and other Asian dishes. Nice selection of pastries. I chose the lounge as it had everything I wanted and service was great. It opened at 0600 for breakfast, whereas restaurant opened at 0630.

Evening food offering varied every night which amounted to dinner for me every night. It included a cooked fresh option at the cooking station, and then at least two other main appetizers and a different rice each evening along with 1 or 2 other sides. Also fruit and Sushi one evening. Desserts were excellent and there were usually 4-6 different choices.

As mentioned I did this for dinner 3 of 4 nights. With Labor Day holiday Sunday April 29 - Tuesday May 1, the evening of Monday April 30 was swamped with families so I went down to the restaurant. They had a buffet there along with your choice of Steak, Ribs, Chicken or Fish main. Cost was 198 ¥, but half price for hotel guests so only 99 ¥, or about $15.50 USD. I thought it was for the 230g steak they listed on the menu, and guessed at that price it was for a sirloin cut as opposed to Ribeye or Filet. I ordered the steak and was surprised to see a large 400g Ribeye done to a perfect medium rare delivered to me.

Lounge service was impeccable verging on overkill. I felt guilty when I went up and prepared a Cappuccino myself.

Location for me was perfect. Right next to Yu Garden China Town shopping, nice walk to Xin Tien Di, and Tien Zi Fang. And equally nice walk in the opposite direction to the Bund. I also walked over to the JW Marriott which is by far a much nicer hotel, but I didn't care for its location. It is right next to Tomorrow Square but quite a distance from the Bund, Xin Tien Di, and Yu Garden. Yes, one can take the Shanghai Metro, but it is usually quite crowded as is Shanghai itself.

From and to the Airport I took the Maglev which was not operating at it top speed for some reason. It would max out at 301 km/hr whereas on my previous trip it maxed out at 431 km/hr. It Longyang Rd I then connected to Line 2 for 6 stops to E Nanjing Rd where I changed to line 10 for 1 stop to Renaissance Yu Garden.

While I would stay at this hotel again if I return to Shanghai, the big question there is will I return. Shanghai was busy with people, packed and hot Metro, and very poor air quality to the point I would get bits in my eye on a few occasions, burning eyes, and regularly cough and sneeze from the pollutants. The first two days were the worst. As soon as I ventured into an establishment with proper ventilation, all symptoms would cease within a couple minutes.