Our May 2013 brunch picks are in. This month: Champagne wishes and caviar dreams, lazy Sundays in the sun, primo barbecue and sophistication in the sky ***

Henkes

There’s a pleasant simplicity to Henkes’ brunch, something that’s welcome before the first cup on coffee on a Saturday or Sunday morning. The menu is one page long and contains at most a dozen choices: sweet things such as blueberry muffins (18rmb), poached pears with ginger (32rmb) and pancakes (68rmb), with either berries or bacon, depending how healthy you’re feeling. Eggs come poached and served with bacon, smoked salmon, spinach or the lot (from 78-118rmb). Then there’s an omelet with ricotta, rocket and lemon. A lot of this feels familiar from Craig Willis’s other restaurant, Mr Willis, which serves some very similar dishes, but while nothing at Henkes is going to revolutionize the mid-morning meal, it’s well priced, fresh and tasty, and its impossible not to enjoy the bright, high-ceilinged dining room. They have at least two dozen seats outside, too, so now the weather’s getting hot, the terrace here will be an ideal location at the weekends. Sat-Sun: 11:30am-5pm For a full brunch listing click here.

The Four Seasons Pudong

The Four Seasons in Pudong is an exercise in good design married to impeccable service, and now the ground floor restaurant, Camelia, offers this champagne brunch. Can it match the splendor of the hotel’s jaw-dropping spa, its top-floor infinity pool, its sci-fi rooms which seem to catapult guests into the near future? It certainly does, both on the finesse and quality of food on offer and on the use of Camelia’s bright, relaxing space. All the staples of a five-star hotel brunch are present — a raw sushi bar with sashimi sliced to order, an embarrassing array of roasted meats and fish, a Technicolor assortment of impossibly dainty desserts and sweets (see the cover picture to this article), and endless amounts of champagne. But the best reason to go is the outdoor barbecue station, where a chef will grill you up lamb chops, steaks and skewers of fresh vegetables to order. Camelia’s terrace is also given over to brunch guests, so you can sit out sipping flutes of cool champagne in the sunshine, ducking back into the air conditioned dining room for one more trip to the dessert bar. Like all the best things in life, this does not come cheap: 488rmb plus 200rmb if you want the champagne. Sun: 11.30am-3pm For a full brunch listing here.

Park Hyatt

The most upscale of Shanghai’s three Hyatt hotels already has a popular Sunday brunch, an all-you-can-eat lobster fest. However, the new chef there (Gregor Streun, formerly of Stiller’s) has launched a slightly lighter, a la carte Saturday version. The menu has two options: the Traditional Brunch (280rmb) begins with a selection of canapés, then dives into breakfast fare such as Australian yoghurt, fruit, baked goods and a perfectly cooked poached egg with smoked salmon, spinach and hollandaise sauce. Then comes a dish of potato gnocchi, tuna, pesto and feta with a seasonal garden salad tossed with white asparagus. The other option is more lunch than brunch, with charcuterie, a white asparagus risotto and a main course of either cod or pork medallions. It rounds out with a selection of desserts and comes in at 360rmb. Add 120rmb for free-flow sparkling wine, beer or juices. Given the splendor of the dining room, the view and the silver service, this feels like a deal at those prices. It’s a lot of food, and you can taste the exceptional quality, but it’s light enough so it’s not going to incapacitate you for the rest of the day. Sat: 11.30am-2.30pm For a full brunch listing click here.

The Westin's Ultimate Sunday Brunch

This month, The Stage at the Westin unveils its Ultimate Sunday Brunch. For the princely sum of 5000rmb+15% per person (yes, one five and three zeroes) you and seven to nine of your closest, richest friends get your own private table upstairs. You arrive to team of butlers in tuxedos and white gloves, wielding bottles of Dom Perignon, ready to serve your every whim. Brunch starts with a spread of freshly shucked Fin de Claire oysters on the half shell, Alaskan king and snow crabs, giant Canadian scallops, a selection of sushi and sashimi, wagyu beef tataki. By the time you've tossed back your fourth flute of Dom, the caviar course comes out. Each diner gets an individual tin complete with a mother of pearl spoon and all of the classic accoutrements: blinis, minced egg, scallions and creme fraiche. The rest of brunch is prepared table side, the slice up chestnut-fed Iberico ham, Beijing duck, torched shrimp with Thai-style tom yum mayonnaise, pan-seared foie. The Dom keeps coming, and then the mains, which run the gamut from butter-poached Boston Lobster, pan-seared Blackmore wagyu beef. Finally, the pastry chef arrives with souffles, tiramisu, fresh fruit with marsala sabayon and more. If all of this sounds ludicrously decadent, that's because it is. Just keep drinking Dom, and eventually brunch will pay for itself. Rome, however, wasn't built in a day. So if you want to partake, you need to make a reservation at least 72 hours in advance. Of course, if all of this seems slightly cost prohibitive, you can always dine with all of the plebs who can only afford the buffet downstairs. At 538rmb+15% per person it's still a the standard bearer of the Shanghai brunch. Sun: 11.30am-2.30pm For a full brunch listing click here.