We've launched our very first Time Out Shanghai Food Awards. The Restaurant of the Year category asks which restaurant epitomises the best of Shanghai's contemporary food scene right now? Here are this year's nominees.
Show your most-loved restaurants, eateries and food personalities you care – and enter for a chance to win a trip to Macau while you’re at it! See details on how to vote below and check out the full list of awards and nominees here.
Bo Shanghai
Alvin Leung's new fine-dining venture on The Bund certainly isn't cheap, but the chef of three-Michelin-starred Bo Innovation in Hong Kong isn't pulling any punches. The tasting menus – riffs off China's eight traditional cuisines created via techniques and ingredients of international cuisines – are all-out, no-regrets meals of some of the most interesting food in the city. The Demon Chef’s sophisticated dishes build on China’s longest-standing culinary traditions and rocket them into the 21st century.
Sixth Floor, Five on the Bund, 20 Guangdong Lu, Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu, Huangpu district.
The Cannery
This new spot from the team behind perennially popular Rockbund hang out The Nest delivers a laid-back elegance – its stylish interior paired with casual, top-notch dishes and excellent drinks. With a concise but well-executed menu, ever-changing range of freshly flown-in seafood and cocktails nothing short of outstanding, this place (literally) shines golden from dishes to decor. Always the talk of the town with its brunches, special occasion menus and awesome events, The Cannery is one of the year’s most welcome additions to Shanghai’s food and drink scene.
Room 106, 1107 Yuyuan Lu, near Jiangsu Lu, Changning district.
The Commune Social
That ineffable X-factor, that unbottleable ‘it’ atmosphere – The Commune Social’s got it. From an always-fresh, ever-quirky global menu and coveted weekend brunches by Scott Melvin to the white-on-white ‘dessert bar’ with Kim Melvin crafting unparalleled sweets to order, the eatery never fails to remain trendy, interesting and passionate about what it serves. This Shanghai-famous spot spends year after year ceaselessly winning the hearts and minds of city’s diners, and in an ever-changing culinary landscape, that’s an accomplishment worth recognising.
511 Jiangning Lu, near Kangding Lu, Jingan district.
Daimon Bistro
Ever thought Cantonese food could be just a little more exciting? Enter Daimon Bistro with its chicken tom yum soup dumplings, cuttlefish with kaffir lime leaf mayo siumai, five-spice ox tongue spiked with herbs de Provence but also rippling with Sichuan flavours… and that’s just the start. It’s casual yet classy, but also wild, raucous and unchained – in atmosphere and in food. In 2016, Daimon Bistro brought to Shanghai a totally fresh perspective on what is perhaps China’s most globally recognised regional cuisine – and it’s fantastic.
Sixth floor, Five on the Bund, 20 Guangdong Lu, Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu, Huangpu district.
Taian Table
A dining experience at this intimate restaurant feels like coming home – always a relief, even if you didn’t expect it – which is exactly as Chef Stefan Stiller intends, and it makes for an inarguably unique evening of dining. A monthly-changing 14-course menu ensures intrigue with each visit, and Stiller’s food is flawless… there won’t ever be a dish you dislike. Earning a Michelin star within the first six months of opening (and the day after having to shut down and move locations), 2016 has been a thrilling year for Taian Table, and the team is just getting started.
Exact location provided on required reservation; taian-table.com.
WUJIE Shanghai on the Bund
This creative and considerate vegetarian concept throws everything you think you know about meat-free cuisine out the door. From elegant but playful dishes and gorgeous plating to the adaptation and reinvention of the menu according to season, the talented team of chefs at WUJIE dream up foods that you simply won’t find elsewhere. Its innovative treatment of nature’s best makes for culinary works of art whose flavours and textures surprise every time, showcasing Chinese cuisine at its finest and most imaginative.
Fourth Floor, Bund 22, Zhongshan Dong Er Lu, near Xinyongan Lu, Huangpu district.
Scan the QR code below to vote for your favourite eatery to win the Restaurant of the Year award.
