Our curiosity had been piqued when we first saw news of Jimmy's Kitchen, one of Shanghai's first Western restaurants, coming back to the city after over 60 years away. When they asked us if we'd like to preview their menu ahead of the April 28 grand opening, we jumped at the chance. This is the new Shanghai Jimmy's, which like the new Shanghai, now caters to expense accounts rather than sailor's wages. more ›

After opening up to much buzz last May, Avalon seemed to drift a little below expectations. Before the year had ended, the chef was out and the menu and the look was promised a revamp. Now, Sean Jorgensen (formerly of MAYA) has taken the lead - and I was incredibly pleased with the results. more ›

So the weather's been giving us a decent respite but you know there's going to be at least one or two more cold spells before winter relinquishes its grasp. Nothing better to fight that off than with some hot pot, I say, and you can do worse than the immaculate cleanliness and parade of meats available at Mo-Mo Paradise. more ›

One of the Shanghaiist staff's favorite hang outs, Yunnan restaurant Southern Barbarian, is opening its second location in Lujiazui this week and we went there to check out the menu. In short: same great food, same insane beer menu, fancier digs. more ›

For bagel lovers across Shanghai, your prayers have been answered. Last month, a new shop dedicated to the simple yet satisfying bagel was opened in Shanghai's Jing an area. more ›

I think the first thing anyone hears about Yasmine's (located in the Expat enclave of Jinqiao, Pudong) is their massive two kilo burger. Chris St.Cavish went there sometime near the end of last year and watched two friends polish off one each. But there's more to the place than just that burger - and by more I mean, jeebus, EVERYTHING there is super-sized. more ›

It was 8pm on a Thursday night and we were dying for a place that would give us a buzz to last into the weekend - yes, we're alcoholics like that. Luckily, located conveniently on Fumin Lu and Julu Lu was the prescription for our needs: Dr. Wine. more ›

The Shanghai Tang Cafe opened a few weeks ago and, curious about the thought of a store opening their own restaurant (though, yes, I know, lots of "lifestyle pimping" stores do it), I went to check it out. Turns out the eatery is exactly like Shanghai Tang proper: expensive traditional Chinese dishes with twists(!) that ranged from nicely thought out to confusingly off. more ›

The grumblings of “where can I get a decent taco in this town?” have long been echoing throughout the Shanghai expat crowd since basically the dawn of the Shanghai expat crowd. To ease this age-old gripe, there have been plenty of “solutions” cropping up over the years: hearty Cantina Agave, classy Maya and the down-and-dirty Togo, to name a few. Well, here’s another remedy to add to the mix: Mi Tierra - where authentic ingredients are given an upscale twist. But by upscale, don’t you dare go thinking Mexican “fusion,” because, as the name suggests, this restaurant is all about recreating the Mexican food of “my land…my family…my tradition.” more ›

Recently, we were invited to go to a winter menu tasting by a restaurant called Aqua Bar. The only way we would have ever gone was to be invited, since not only is the place out in Pudong, it's smack dab in the middle of a residential complex, making it near impossible for us to ever have discovered or tried to discover it for ourselves. That having been said, the food was good enough to write about... and so we shall. more ›

Maybe it's because we're American and therefore required to make fun of Canadians about everything, but when we walked into the Pudong Julie's Food Experience, located off the Science and Technology Museum stop, the jokes started pouring out. But like a good ol' Northern Neighbor, the restaurant didn't let us deter it... and by sheer force of niceness and thoroughly decent food, shamed us into feeling a little guilty about it afterward. more ›

Second in our winter series of hotpot reviews is Aberdeen (春秋火锅), a Cantonese style hotpot located in a renovated old house on Fuxing Lu. For us, Cantonese hotpot has always connoted clean and uncomplicated broth spread across a variety of regions. Want a spicy or satay stock? Aberdeen's got it, but don't expect anything more than a mild tang. What they do have is an assortment of seafood and premium meats that you wouldn't find at your local Little Sheep. more ›

Shanghai has the definitive brunch culture, with a plethora of Sunday brunch deals at a variety of price ranges and always one taxi ride away. Hankering for some all-you-can-eat dim sum this past Sunday, we headed to EEST. Situated on the fifth floor inside the Westin Hotel, EEST Crystal Garden has their three kitchens -- Chinese, Japanese, and Thai -- intermix and intermingle to create a five-star feast in your mouth. Over three hundred dishes to choose from, for 98RMB (plus 15% service fee). more ›

In preparation for the upcoming National Day holiday and the enormous amount of tourists that it will bring to the city's eateries, top restaurant review website Dazhong Dianping (roughly "Reviews by/for the Masses") has posted a list of the best locations to indulge in five of Shanghai's local specialties: more ›

Because Shanghaiist is too poor to afford satellite TV, he's often had to entertain himself with China's favourite (and only) English-language channel, especially when he's suffering from insomnia. Today's news coverage includes a story of what is touted as "Asia's first Dark Restaurant" which has just opened in Beijing (we briefly told you about this on Jan. 5). The video to the right is from a Chinese-language CCTV report. more ›

Hey, have y'all been using our new "Recommend this" feature at the bottom of each post? This week we're bringing you the "Most Recommended" posts from across the -ist world, as well as recommending some of our own. more ›

Shanghaiist doesn’t eat much spicy food, but every time we pass a xiaolongxia (小龙虾 or "little dragon shrimp" or "little lobsters" or crayfish -- the most popular food in Shanghai now) restaurant, we always try really hard to keep ourselves from drooling. The idea of cracking the crayfish, sucking out the meat and licking the messy goodness off our fingers is way too enchanting. Mmmmmm. (We realize this is strange talk coming from the site's resident animal activist, but life would be boring without contradictions.) more ›