Mr Shangguan Junle, the chairman of Haomen Jipin Restaurants, wrote on the Twitter-like Sina Weibo last week that he had decided to stop serving shark's fin from the beginning of this year to 'protect sharks and the environment'. But the 34-year-old entrepreneur felt it would be too wasteful to throw away his remaining stock. more ›

Christmas is just around the corner! For all of you who couldn't make it home for the holidays, as always Shanghai will keep you swimming in sumptuous Christmas meals. Below we've selected a few options that caught our eye, from the non-traditional to the best bang for your buck. Make sure you call for reservations, as many places tend to fill up. Take a look, and take your pick! more ›

James T. Areddy of the Wall Street Journal paid a visit to some of Shanghai's most popular North Korean restaurants following news of the demise of the "Dear Leader" Kim Jong Il. Here's what he found more ›

Housed on the second floor of Sasha's, the recently resurrected Prime 1921 promises customers a more international and certainly more meat-oriented approach to food than the former dining spot. Along with a new chef, Sacha Hernaus of the Grand Mercure Hongqiao, the venue also touts a fresh motto, "cuisine designed with wine in mind." We hiked over to the historic pink townhouse located on Dongping Lu to see if the fare is designed with quality in mind as well. more ›

Shanghai already has New York Style Pizza, but do we have San-Francisco-style-New-York-style pizza? We will soon. We just heard from a devoted Amici's pizza fan that the popular chain of California-based "East Coast Pizzarias" is set to open up a location on Huaihai Lu called "Ello Amici's". more ›

The restaurant could be be the latest item in a long list of revealed-to-be Chinese inventions! Formerly misattributed as Western creations, gunpowder, printing, and even New World exploration have all been claimed thoroughly as Chinese in origin. more ›

The three laowai thieves who were caught on closed circuit television stealing Da Marco's reservation book may have returned the book to the restaurant, but one of them appears to be at it again! This time an Italian restaurant has fallen prey to the kleptomaniac, and they say 4,000 customer contact details have gone just like that. more ›

Xu Chi of Shanghai Daily reports that the three expatriate thieves who were caught on closed circuit television stealing Da Marco's reservation book have returned the book to the restaurant three days later: more ›

A group of diners snagging hairy crab at a buffet, at a speed more often seen on nature shows featuring sharks devouring something thrown from a boat. more ›

If you're like us, and think discussing China's socio-political currents over dinner with the Telegraph's Malcolm Moore would be the silken cat's pajamas, then here's your chance! more ›

We were curious to check out Dakota after we heard from multiple sources that their happy hour is decent, the decor is warm, and their burgers are quality. They label themselves a French bistro with an American twist and offer "soul-satisfying riffs on American and French cooking." They've been at their Donghu Lu location now for over a year, but we haven't managed to try them out until now. So when they invited us to come taste their new seasonal menu concept, we were more than happy to oblige. more ›

A new Spanish addition to Xintiandi has chosen the Spanish National Day to throw their grand opening party, and we see no better way to celebrate Día Nacional de España. Copeo bar and lounge, presented by la Finca Spanish restaurant, invites you and everyone you know to come celebrate with free-flow Sangria from 9pm to midnight (25RMB per glass after that.) They'll also have tapas to munch on and DJ Clément Pony on the decks. more ›

Welcome to our humble restaurant! To start you off tonight, our anonymous chef has prepared an appetizer of his "four recommendations for eating in China" after which you will be free to dive into your main course: pictures of scary additives and scarier food prep. Bon apetit! more ›

Confirmed: That In-N-Out we showed you yesterday is a fake. Someone from In-N-Out headquarters has written in to CityWeekend to inform them that the burger chain has definitely no plans for Shanghai in the immediate future:

“In response to your question, we hope to expand as far as we can, but do not have any immediate plans for Shanghai at this time. We do hope to continue expanding, but are always careful not to open a new location until we can guarantee the same quality food and service as we provide in our existing locations. But thanks to customers like you, hopefully you will see us in more areas in the future!”

The Global Times reports a "massive upswing" at Yaoji Chaogan, the local eatery where US Vice President Joe Biden recently had a RMB79 meal and won praise for his "noodle diplomacy". The restaurant is doing so well, in fact, that at 3.30pm in the afternoon, it was packed with 150 patrons inside and another 40 queueing outside. A manager told the paper that many customers had come looking for the ‘Vice President's Meal' but maintained "we want to keep a low profile and don't want to take the visit as a chance to promote ourselves." One Shandong traveller was disappointed when he realised that Biden had *gasp* a very ordinary Chinese meal. "I came hoping the food served must be special but it isn't," he said. more ›

This photo was circulated on Weibo yesterday after five demonstrators knelt outside the Xintiandi restaurant South Beauty holding a sign reading "South Beauty lied to us." South Beauty has since issued a statement claiming the demonstrators are tea suppliers angry over the restaurant's refusal to renew their contract. more ›

Will this make eating out safer, will it? "THE Shanghai Food and Drug Administration yesterday issued a rule requiring local eateries not to use cooking oil for more than three days if they can't control the oil quality. Officials said they have developed an instant oil checking method to test oil quality, and those using oil too frequently will face punishment. A testing method for eateries using kitchen waste oil is expected to be launched in August." [Shanghai Daily] more ›

Sinan Mansions is starting a "Restaurant Week" of its own - only it lasts three weeks and doesn't seem to be very widely promoted. Still, it lasts from this Friday to May 8, according to SmartShanghai, and includes discounts from Chicha, Yucca and Funky Chicken. Speaking of which, Apothecary apparently soft opened on Sunday. You should check it out. more ›

Kelley Lee is the young, talented chef and mastermind behind some of Shanghai's most famous and well-loved eateries (The Alchemist, Boxing Cat Brewery, Cantina Agave). Not long ago, she expanded Mexican favorite Cantina Agave to Pudong and had a slew of new venues open up at the Sinan Mansions complex. A remarkably tenacious business woman, Shanghaiist gets her to open up on what constitutes a good meal, how a guy should impress her over dinner, and whether she has any more plans for world, excuse us, Shanghai domination. more ›

Oh no, when did this happen? When biking through Huashan Lu the other day, we noticed that one of our favorite Mexican joints - Adobo Latin Flavor - had closed down. It’s now replaced with a hot pot chain. What a shame - with the temperature warming, we were hoping to spend at least a night or two on their tiny little balcony area drinking late night happy hour beer. more ›

While there is much dim sum to be had in Shanghai, it's hard to find some place that's both easy on the wallet and still pretty enough to impress. While Yue 1525 (not to be confused with the multitude of other Yues out there) may have some service issues, it's come the closest of any Cantonese restaurant so far to having a perfect balance of good price and good atmosphere. more ›

For those who love delivery, Sherpa’s new menu book came out yesterday. In it are some new Italian restaurants, the now competing chicken empires (Brasa and Funky), My thai @ hiro, and fancy Xinjiang place Xibo. We’re most excited about the news that ordering between 2pm to 5pm now means no delivery fees! Pick up one wherever it is you normally grab a Sherpa’s book. more ›

Old Shanghai hands probably know of and have been to all of these places before, but that doesn't mean it's not worth mentioning for the newbies! While there are now more and more fancy hot pot/shabu shabu destinations popping up in Shanghai, these three chains offer great prices (usually around 50~70RMB per person) and good, hearty meals to fight the remnants of the winter blues away. 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 ›

Starting now, the online reservations system for Shanghai Restaurant Week, the week when some of the town's best restaurants offer a special 3-course menu at a discounted price, is open now. more ›

Let's say your coworkers (and maybe a manager) want to go out with you for lunch and talk some combination of office gossip and actual work. You want to choose some place that's got a nice atmosphere and decent food, but the paycheck doesn't come for another week and you want to save as much cash as possible without seeming cheap. Never fear - despite what some would have you think, there are actual cheap-ish deals to be had in Shanghai... and not just at your local la mian shop! more ›

Shanghai Restaurant Week - Winter Edition 2011 has made it their mission to bring you a ray of "culinary sunshine during the cold winter months" and we're not going to lie...this bit of news made us perk up. The next edition of restaurant week, coming at you March 7-13, has dropped their starting price to 168RMB for a 3-course dinner and 78RMB for lunch. more ›

So it seems that despite an ultimatum from their landlord, Azul is not closing up shop come this Monday. According to manager David Begg, "Azul has been given a stay of execution and will now be open for another six months!" more ›

Toilet seats instead of chairs, urinals on the wall, and turd-like ice cream -- this is not some skanky sex club in Berlin but a bathroom-themed restaurant which has recently opened up in Kunming, Yunnan province. The eatery is the latest addition to a chain of restaurants called Modern Toilet that started out in Taiwan and in recent years expanded to Hong Kong and mainland China. Other mainland cities that are home to a Modern Toilet restaurant include Shenzhen, Jinjiang, Foshan, Xiamen and Chongqing. There isn't any news of a Modern Toilet opening here in Shanghai yet, but they're definitely looking for a franchisee in case any of you thinks this sort of toilet humour will work here. more ›

The new year has barely begun, but we've already got news of the first closure in 2011. Feng Jianwen, proprietor of the well-loved Yunnan restaurant, Southern Barbarian, has written in to inform us of the sad news that his Pudong location has been closed down "due to a dispute with the landlord". We've all got our own evil Shanghai landlord story to tell but one can only imagine the nightmare that he went through -- Southern Barbarian's Lujiazui outlet has been around for only half a year. Well, the good news is that the restaurant is still alive and kicking on Maoming Road in Puxi. Those of you in Pudong will now have to travel a little further to get your goat cheese fix, but hey, it's worth the trek and you know it. more ›