Shanghai Surprise: Mr and Mrs Bund

Our final stop on the world tour was the excellent city of Shanghai. This was a lot more like we imagined China would be like, it is a far cry from the more historical feel of Bejing and Xian and a lot more like Blade Runner with smog frequently hiding the tops of the many high rise buildings, most of which are covered with neon lights, although there are currently no flying cars circling them.

Shanghai at first glace looks like any other big city in the world, with fancy new buildings and high rises springing up all over the city. Apparently at one point around 10 years ago there where more large cranes in Shanghai than in the rest of the world put together.

The best restaurant in Shanghai is not located in one of these ultra modern settings and it isn't Chinese cuisine! A modern French style of food (created by chef Paul Pairet) with very little Asian influence it certainly caters more to the expat and rich Chinese crowd. The dining room boasts amazing views across the Bund to the massive high rises which populate the business district, whereas the restaurant itself is in a turn of the (20th) century building on the 5th floor. To give you an idea of the area, the restaurant itself shares its location with a number of shops including Gucci and many other high end labels, and although the price tag is not astronomical it is certainly not  the cheapest eatery you are going to find in Shanghai.


If you book in I would definitely get there early as that will give you a change to enjoy the lively atmosphere in stunning surroundings. They have a very impressive bar area (pictured left) where early arrives and post dinner lurkers can enjoy one of a huge number of cocktails or wines served by the excellent friendly staff.


I should add that although this is China's top restaurant on the worlds top 100 list it is certainly a different atmosphere to those you usually find in Europe's top fine dining restaurants. There is definitely a very lively feel with various posters and advertisements for bingo, disco and karaoke nights. There is also a very exclusive club upstairs above the restaurant if the music and cocktails get you in the mood for dancing.

The food itself was excellent, beautifully arranged and tasty. I am pleased to say that this was one of the only places we found in China where the meat was the sort of cuts you are used to in the parts of the world we have been visiting recently.

The style and philosophy of the restaurant is definitely good food in a laid back environment, the dishes are almost tapas like, designed to share, and active experimentation from the menu is encouraged, although we chose to stick with the chef's choices apparently you can order a sauce from one place on the menu and have it with any of the other meat that they have.

There is also an exceptional wine list and as this was the end of our trip we may have been a bit carried away with sampling several of them, which makes the end of the meal somewhat hazier than it would normally be, however I can assure you that the desserts were very impressive, in fact the whole meal and experience was great. The only shame for us was having ensured that we got a window seat with excellent views across the Bund to the business district the weather prevented us from seeing all of the impressive high rises.

This was certainly a great way to finish our trip and I cannot recommend a trip here enough if you are lucky enough to find yourself in Shanghai. Price wise it was what you would expect from an upmarket restaurant, our food and wine came to around 150 GBP per person, although that could have been greatly reduced by making more conservative wine choices.