A Gastronomic Guide to Shanghai

The Shanghainese table

Local Shanghai cooking, known as benbang cai, is sweet rather than hot and summed up by the phrase “thick oil, red sauce”. Its signature is red-braised pork belly, cooked until glossy and tender, and it extends to drunken chicken, sweet-and-sour Mandarin fish and lion’s head meatballs. The city’s snacks matter as much: xiaolongbao, the thin-skinned soup dumplings, and shengjianbao, their pan-fried, crisp-bottomed cousins.

In autumn the whole region turns to hairy crab, steamed and eaten with ginger and black vinegar. It is the one seasonal appetite that organises a restaurant’s menu and a diner’s calendar.

The starred rooms

In the 2026 Michelin Guide, Shanghai has a single three-star restaurant, Taian Table, and a dozen at two stars, a list that runs from Cantonese and Chaozhou to Italian and contemporary Chinese. Among them, Fu He Hui is the city’s most distinctive: elegant vegetarian cooking, closer to a quiet ritual than to a conventional restaurant.

For Cantonese at a very high level, Canton 8 is a reference, while Tou Zao shows how far Shanghai chefs now reinterpret regional Chinese cooking.

One closure shapes the older picture: Paul Pairet’s Ultraviolet, once the city’s most famous reservation, closed to the public in March 2025. Anyone using an older guide should discount it.

Where to stay for the table

Two hotels make a base for eating. The Peninsula Shanghai anchors the northern Bund, and Bulgari Hotel Shanghai faces it across Suzhou Creek. For a slower stay among relocated historic houses outside the centre, choose Amanyangyun.

Sources: Shanghai Municipal People’s Government: Michelin 2026; Wikipedia: Ultraviolet (restaurant); China for Travelers: what to eat in Shanghai. Check the official websites for current information.