This year I’ve formally penned something in the region of 52 reviews of Shanghai’s new, renewed and most hopeful restaurants striving to make their mark on - or at least make a profit from - the world’s largest city.
Now that the dust has settled from the great Maoming Lu migration, we followed Pane e Vino to its new Sinan Mansions habitat. The result is the same fine Italian cuisine at even loftier prices.
The quintessential bierhaus, Brotzeit offers plenty of beer, meat, cheese, potatoes and bread in various pan-German forms. Above all else, here's a place to take you from ravenous to completely stuffed in 30 seconds flat.
La Tagliatella is a faithful rendition of an Italian-themed tourist restaurant. It has enough seating to host the mall-walking masses, clichés all over the walls and a wide selection of slightly overpriced, slightly nefarious pizza and pasta.
Fifteen kilometres outside the city center in virtually every direction, Shanghai is going strong. No direction is developing as strongly, though, as the east. Pudong is the sprawling, all-consuming younger brother, held back by a swathe of deep water. This is the signature move of China's population in the 21st century... bolting a few million people onto the side of trade and economic epicenters. It's happening right under our noses.
When Eduardo Vargas closed Chicha, he told us that Ceviche, a similar concept located just down the street, would step in to fill the void. As its name suggests, Ceviche specializes in plates of citrus-marinated fish. It doesn’t have much else, though its cute lane house and relaxed eating style can be enough of a draw for some particularly invigorating cuisine.