Not looking to drop 1K per head on a meal but still want next-level eats in stylish digs? You've come to the right place. Here are this year's nominees for New Casual Dining Restaurant of the Year. 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! Check out the full list of awards and nominees here.
Cobra Lily
Giving Shanghai a culinary tour through reimagined, modern versions of pan-Asian street food, this eatery is a displaced hipster in Xintiandi’s crowd of commonplace dining chains, and that’s a stellar thing. With its creative takes on some of East and Southeast Asia’s most defining dishes and flavours and lust-worthy signature cocktails, Cobra Lily is a femme fatale whose grasp we can’t escape.
Xintiandi North Block, No. 19, Lane 181 Taicang Lu, near Madang Lu, Huangpu district.
Daimon Bistro
The wild, wacky mind of Alvin Leung is a fascinating place you could get lost in: 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, but also wild, raucous and unchained – in atmosphere and in food – and the journey is fantastic.
Sixth floor, Five on the Bund, 20 Guangdong Lu, Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu, Huangpu district.
Highline
It doesn’t get more achingly cool than Highline: clean lines and white marble table tops, a stylish crowd of the city’s tastemakers circulating in and out all night, and a high-powered team with CVs including hip nightclub Le Baron, chic French bistro Coquille, Italian trattoria Scarpetta and modern gastropub Liquid Laundry. A combination of atmosphere and menu showstoppers like Cajun-spiced fried chicken and waffles and Girl Scout cookie dessert bars put Highline on the map.
Sixth Floor, The Ascott 282 Huaihai Zhong Lu, near Songshan Lu, Huangpu district.
Pelikan
Dreamt up by the Mr Willis group and helmed by Danish Chef Kasper Elmholdt Pederson, a meal at Pelikan tastes as though a young, emerging chef cooked it amidst great sparks of inspiration. Fresh, funky and Instagram-perfect, it’s a place you want to love, and you will, ‘cause when the dishes hit at this contemporary Nordic’ concept, they hit hard.
225 Xikang Lu, near Beijing Lu, Jingan district.
Raw Eatery and Wood Grill
Though the team strips things down to basics, focusing on fresh ingredients prepared or cooked in ways that best preserve their natural flavour – charcoal grilling and straight up raw – the results are beautifully simplistic dishes that will never, ever let you down. This is honest, hearty food at its absolute best.
Second Floor, 98 Yanping Lu, near Xinzha Lu, Jingan District.
The Cannery
From the team behind perennially popular Rockbund hang out The Nest, The Cannery (literally) shines golden from dishes to decor. The restaurant delivers a laid-back elegance; its stylish interior paired with casual, filling dishes and excellent drinks. With its concise but well-executed menu, ever-changing range of freshly flown-in seafood and cocktails nothing short of outstanding, The Cannery is a fabulous addition to the Shanghai scene.
Room 106, 1107 Yuyuan Lu, near Jiangsu Lu, Changning district.
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