Listings:

Trattoria Isabelle is a quiet and subdued cafe/trattoria, with a warm, laid-back, lived-in dining environment for both large and small parties, with prices to match. Expect standard Italian dishes like the requisite pastas and pizzas, as well as classics like carpaccio. Prices are eminently reasonable and the cozy quarters make it an ideal choice for a date.

A renovated French-style villa with spacious enclosed garden houses one of Shanghai's most popular Thai eateries. Like its sister restaurant Lost Heaven the dim, candle lit interior decorated with Buddhist artifacts make for an atmospheric setting.

Set in a refurbished colonial building overlooking a private garden, Casanova is a fusion of modern and traditional Italian fare. You'll find some rare seafood here such as baby octopus and soft shell crab, as well a selection of sinful desserts.

Bali Laguna was one of the first restaurants of its kind in Shanghai. The menu here consists of your standard Indonesian fare like nasi goreng, satays, and aromatic curries. Over the years, the menu has gotten a bit tired. However, its location overlooking a pond in Jing'an Park still manages to put people in seats.

Thai bar and restaurant serves fine Thai food, the food is prepared by a Thai chef imported from Taiwan after doing an eight-year stint on the island. Their specialties are seafood-based, with the crab items being their most expensive offerings. But they also recommend their beef stir-fries, and you can't go wrong with a nice chicken curry. They've also got a wide selection of soup, salads, and...

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.

Mi Tierra occupies a colonial style colonnaded courtyard and features and extensive list of specialty tacos and other traditional Mexican fare.

Mistral is a mid-priced Spanish restaurant from the current management of Tara 57, located in the space that used to be Moroccan restaurant Marrakech. The food is Spanish, but makes the conscious effort to appeal to both Chinese guests and continental Europeans (some French influences). The main selling point of Mistral is the space itself, a casual, Mediterranean-ish feel, with several...

Jade on 36 is the flagship restaurant and bar of the luxe Shangri-La Hotel group's flagship hotel. Both, designed by NY bigshot Adam Tihany, are modern China, two steps removed -- the bar is enclosed on one side by an abstract hot pink and jade-colored jewel box and as you walk along the Italianate marble floors (it's a five-star hotel, after all) to the restaurant, you pass through a blue...

While the service has built up a rep for arrogance (reportedly on the decline), the food here speaks for itself. The emphasis is on quality, not quantity. Guests select from the daily board which features simple bistro fare -- homemade terrine, simple meats, fish, salads -- done with a high level of attention of detail and quality. Deservedly, it's an icon among Shanghai's many French restaurants.