Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Forums Other Destination advice Shanghai hotel recommendations?! Reply To: Shanghai hotel recommendations?!

JDB 6,254 posts

I have never been to China. I’m off to Shanghai in March for a few nights and have opted for The PuLi because I liked the modern style. I suspect that it may not be in the best area for tourism? Can I hijack the thread a little and ask for a couple of restaurant recommendations for Shanghai? I’d like somewhere fancy/trendy etc but also somewhere quite the opposite; good food but more chaotic/lively/fun such as a place with street stalls etc. If someone could throw in a restaurant recommendation for Kathmandu as well that would be superb!

The Puli is next to the Shangri-La and also next to the Yan’An elevated highway, like staying by the Chiswick flyover. Most hotels in Shanghai are modern! The Puli was I think built for the Expo year in 2010. Personally, I’m not sure Jing’An is a very nice area to stay. People get excited about the temple, but it was built about 30 years ago having been entirely destroyed by fire some years earlier. It does have a very recognisable gold top! It’s surrounded by an upmarket shopping mall and streets. For us, you could be anywhere really whereas so many parts of Shanghai are totally unique settings.

The municipality has been discouraging street food of a type that used to be set up every evening, particularly the very popular shaokao, so much of that type of food is now stands/small stores in malls.

In terms of restaurants, we particularly like yunnanese food, so Hong 0871 is a firm favourite of ours (unusually, it is essential to book). Canton 8 (the Runan Road branch) is probably the cheapest two star Michelin around – we had lunch in October, £70 for two with a bottle of wine, water and tea (expensive – £10+ these days if you like a nice one). You will need to queue as you can’t generally book after 11.30. We liked Chic 1699 in Times Square a lot on our recent visit but it was spookily quiet and Chengdu Accents next door was perhaps even better. We really enjoyed Shi He Yuan – have been three times, very good and always busy. Yong Fu Mini next door is a Ningbo style restaurant with superb seafood, the junior of a famous parent. More casual is Lan Xin on Jinxian Road where you will likely have to queue for a while. Avoid Lost Heaven, very popular, used to be good, now awful! The place is coming down with good restaurants, but it’s a considerably more expensive place to eat than Beijing.

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.