The Best Places in Hongkou

White tablecloths, gloved service, crimson walls hung with avant-garde Chinese art, and a menu that gets progressively weirder as the night goes on. Ling Long is a fine dining restaurant on the Bund built around the concept of umami, with an eight-course set that traces a cross-China journey through regional terroirs. It holds a Michelin star and ranks on Asia's 50 Best list. The room is formal; the cooking is decidedly not.

1. The 50 #9 · Asia's 50 Best Restaurants
2. Michelin Guide 1 Star
3. Chinese Restaurant Awards Top 30 Honourees · Elite 15 Asia

The mirrored ceiling doubles the snowy tablecloths, which tells you everything about the register here. Umberto Bombana's fine dining room, named after his favorite Fellini film, holds two Michelin stars and a Discovery nod from the World's 50 Best. Besuited waiters can discourse at length on Italian wine regions, and the aperitivo bar runs a negroni fortified with sweet wine and grapefruit bitters, so there's no reason to rush to your table anyway.

1. Michelin Guide 2 Stars
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. Michelin Guide 2 Stars

Dim as the bottom of the East China Sea, this French seafood restaurant in Shanghai's Rockbund sits where Suzhou Creek meets the Huangpu, and the room feels like it knows that. Leather banquettes, travertine walls, and restrained plating frame a menu that shifts with whatever the ocean is offering that season. The chef came up at Odette in Singapore, and the technique shows. It landed on Asia's 50 Best Restaurants list.

1. The 50 #48 · Asia's 50 Best Restaurants

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant