One of my longtime favorites in Shanghai has been Lost Heaven, the Yunnan-style Chinese restaurant on the Bund (17 Yan An Lu, just a few yards from the main road along the Bund on the west side of the river). It is beautiful, upscale, with an exotic menu. But after many meals there, typically with Western guests, I’m taking it off my list of favorites. Too often the food is lukewarm when it should be hot, and often lacks depth or intensity in flavor. And it’s quite expensive. 68 RMB for a small pile of fried rice with very little in it is just too much. The meal we had last night was OK, but for the guests I had, I wanted and expect something exciting. Nothing of all the dishes we ordered generated any “wows.”
Lost Heaven is beautiful and has a menu to be proud of, but the cuisine doesn’t fit the aura, the expectations, and the price.
For stand-out Chinese cuisine at reasonable, some other choices include Xin Wang (amazing Cantonese), Cui Hua (Taiwanese chain with amazing dishes and great deserts and drinks), and dozens of others all over Shanghai. More on these selections later.
