I mean, food, service, ambience, everything. Thanks in advance!

Perhaps we just had an isolated bad experience but I'd avoid T8. It's one of the most expensive restaurants in Shanghai and it was terrible. The service was sporadic. First of all we sat there for almost half an hour before we could get anyone to take our order. Then two out of four dishes they brought us were wrong despite us having clarified in both English and Chinese which dishes we were ordering.

M on the Bund is a good Western restaurant to try. Food is good and service was too.

Heard good reports too of the Jean Georges restaurant in the Three on the Bund building. We didn't try it though as we went to the Whampoa Club instead (which was great but not Western more modern Chinese).

I don't really care for Xin Tian Di restaurants but some are ok. T8 isn't a great value but the food is ok. Va Bene is actually pretty good interms of food as well and the ambiance and service is really good.

The restaurants at Park 97 are what you find at Lan Kwai Fong in Hong Kong. Pretty good but better know for the party crowd after.

Personally, I think that one cannot miss going to M on the Bund for it's ambiance and views...however, the food isn't that great anymore. Nice bar area though and great if they have a jazz night.

Three on the Bund is a must as well. The various restaurants are nice and the food is quite good. Jean-Georges is probably where you want to go.

Also, western food at the Hyatt restaurants are great. Won't go wrong there...especially if you get a view.

If you are around the St Regis Shanghai in Pudong for some reason, Danieli's is a great restaurant. I really like that one for food and service. Ambiance is nice but nothing special.

For champagne brunch, I throughly recommend the Radisson Plaza Xing Guo Hotel. They have a freepour Veuve brunch for RMB250 or something. The ambiance is nice with a string trio, the food quite good and it's in a surprisingly nice Radisson garden hotel.

Now if you want the best burger in Shanghai, you need to go to Malones (near the Portman Ritz Carlton). It's a bar but the burgers are super! Especially at 0100 in the AM.

perhaps you missed this thread?

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...ai+restaurants

Great list! As for Bi Feng Tang, food is not good and unusually heavy...however, there isn't much to eat at 300 in the morning...

The best is Crystal Jade at Xin Tian Di for Canto food.

Avoid Le Bouchon as it's really bad. And to add insult to injury, they are expensive.

I just had my secretary call Danieli's to find that they have no dress code! Is this correct?

who told you there was a dress code there? (news to me) interestingly, unlike oontiveros, i like the ambience (best view in the city plus nice music and furniture) but think the food/service is nothing special. my impression of the food is italian, but with a distinct chinese essence (and that's not a good thing). however, the desserts are pretty good and the champagne prices are reasonable so i often try to stop by after dinner when i'm in the area.

Hmm, what do you mean by distinct chinese essence, Moondog? And I was under the impression that such a restaurant would have a dress code.

imo the food tastes more like chinese food than it should. perhaps the chef is a little too fond of the spices and grease that comprise shanghai cuisine. if you're really into italian food, i suggest you try da marco (my friends prefer the original location because of the italian chef; i like the new one due to its proximity to fuxing park) and the italian place in the hyatt in addition to danielli's. you might also want to check out isabelle for a more down-home experience:

Trattoria Isabelle
Daily 11am-2pm, 5.30-10.30pm. No cards. 139 Xing�an Lu, by Yandang Lu. (5386 0827)
伊莎贝尔, 兴安路139号，近雁荡路



as for dress codes, i don't know of any places in sh that have them.

I think I will try Danieli's first, and then the other two places, thanks. And ah, perhaps I am too used to dining elsewhere? The people in Shanghai all seem very... casual, to put it nicely. What are some specialities/food that you like from Danieli's? And you mentioned about good dessert/champagne - what specifically? Thanks in advance!

the tirimisu is pretty solid and i usually get the australian chandon for around Y250, but higher end stuff is value-priced as well. (i usually reserve the more expensive stuff for my house or obnoxious places like guandi.)

regarding dress code, having spent the past month in washington and baltimore (and presently portland, or), i have to say that shanghai compares extremely favorably. in fact, i can't think of any us cities where people are better dressed on the whole.

Haha, if you say so. And I would love to try the tiramisu, and I'll take a look at the winelist when I get there. What about main courses, oh superior one?

The best Western meal I ever had in Shanghai was at the Hard Rock Cafe. I know, bear with me a moment.

It was late Sunday morning and we were looking for a reasonably priced lunch (didn't want to fork over the big bucks at the GHyatt).

We saw the HRC on the map and took a taxi.

The meal was pretty good for HRC, but the environment was excellent. There was this magician/comedian who walked from table to table (I couldn't tell if he was American or European) and he was hilarious.

We were the only westerners in the place and apparently his particular brand of humor wasn't going over so well at the other tables. So he hung around us (we had finished eating, of course) for about 45 minutes. I haven't laughed that hard in years.

I'm headed back to Shanghai in Jan., hope to find him again.

I hope you got have means to locate his current place of employment because the HRC was closed over a year ago (HRC Guangzhou is also nothing but a memory and I've heard that others are feeling similar economic pressure).