Listings:

Adjacent to the New World Shanghai Hotel, this Cantonese restaurant is under the direction of executive Chef Wong from Hong Kong who is passionate about the health benefits of home-style Cantonese cuisine. The main dining room has room for 78 with traditional tables and booth seating. There are also seven private dining rooms with space for either 6 or 12. Massive windows allow in plenty of...

Specializing in the tribal cuisine of China's Yunnan province, Lost Heaven has all the makings of a proper date restaurant: exotic cuisine, enchanted decor, atmospheric music and dim, flickering candlelight.

Southern Barbarian is a casual, somewhat bohemian restaurant that specializes in the exotic and diverse cuisine of China's Yunnan province. Dishes feature ingredients like goat cheese, fresh herbs, tropical flowers, and chili peppers. For the more adventurous, there are dishes like fried honey bees with dried beef. The owner is quite the beer enthusiast and stocks craft brews from the US,...

Guyi is an institution of a Hunan restaurant in Shanghai, among both foreigners and locals, for its upscale environment and excellent fiery food, unaffected by local tastes. It's a step up from almost all other Hunan restaurants in Shanghai, and though quality has wavered in the past, is still a solid bet. Cumin-crusted ribs (ziran paigu) are their signature. No reservations after 6.30pm, so...

This is the merging of two restaurants, Yin from the Jinjiang Hotel and Le Garcon Chinois. The cuisine here can best described as Shanghainese and Sichuan. The setting is classy with lots of elegant old-world China style-decor.

Crystal Jade is a chain from Singapore that's consistently packed for its combination of stylish decor and Cantonese cooking. Dim sum, in particular, is wildly popular. Most people go for the crispy pork belly, the roast pork, shrimp dumplings, mango pudding, and even xiao long bao. Xintiandi's store is the flagship, and often considered the best. Reservations are essential.

Din Tai Fung is a Taiwanese chain, but don't hold it against them. Their versions of Chinese snack food -- dumplings, noodles, steamed buns, and simple vegetable dishes -- are impeccable, as is their highly-trained service. You pay for the luxury of all of this, of course. A basket of DTF's excellent xiaolongbao, whose delicate folds (always exactly 18), translucent skin, and remarkable...

This is the "old" Jesse restaurant, the shabby but clean cornerstone restaurant of Shanghainese cooking that has since spawned a chain of "new" Jesse restaurants -- Xin Jishi -- in all corners of Shanghai. The original is still the best by far, with unfussy but delicious Shanghai staples like hongshao rou, braised pork shoulder, a braised fish head covered in fried spring onions, and plenty of...

Hong Kong style comfort food and value for money. This place is always busy particularly at dinner times. Originating on Hengshan Lu, now expanded to other areas. Open til 4am this is one of a handful of places in Shanghai to get a late night fill.