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 art deco lobby on the Bund sets the tone: celadon walls, black marble floors, and the quiet suggestion that Shanghai's golden age never quite ended. This Forbes Five Star hotel carries a Michelin 2 Keys distinction and makes good on both with rooms where the tub fills at a button press and the drapes obey accordingly. The spa channels 1920s Paris, and the in-house restaurants cover fine dining and Cantonese without either feeling like an afterthought.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. Michelin Guide 2 Keys
3. The 50 The 50 Discovery

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

The green copper roof has presided over the Bund since the Twenties, back when Noël Coward was allegedly writing plays here between drinks. This Art Deco landmark is a luxury hotel where the octagonal marble lobby, glazed dome, and original Lalique wall art do most of the talking. Rooms are elegant and genuinely comfortable, the Jazz Bar's house band holds a Guinness record, and the location, where the Bund meets Nanjing Road, is as central as Shanghai gets. A Forbes Four Star property.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

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 Hotels

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant