The 8 hottest bars and restaurants in Shanghai this month
February is shaping up to be a great month for new bar and restaurant openings, as well as brand-new menus at old favourites. Check out what we're digging this month.
Highline
Drawing together quite the Shanghai power trio of Cody Allen (Le Baron), John Liu (Coquille, Scarpetta) and Michael Sun (Muse – the group behind concepts like The Nest), this Xintiandi restaurant and bar is all clean lines and achingly cool vibes. Run, don’t walk, there for the fried chicken and waffles (128RMB).
Cobra Lily
From the Boxing Cat Brewery and Liquid Laundry crew comes this slick Xintiandi eatery with modern takes on Asian street food. Set in an old shikumen building, its digs are styled à la a Brooklyn-meets-Hanoi warehouse. The pan-Asian food tour hops around from tiny riffs on bánh mì with lemongrass and carnitas (78RMB) to a rich, creamy butter chicken (118RMB).
FiKA
FiKA bakery and café is the venture of Valentina Chan, who spent her whole life living in Sweden and decided to come back to her Shanghai roots just a few months ago to share her affinity for Nordic desserts and baked goods. The result is a lot of cute, detail-driven delights in the form of pastries, desserts, breads and other light fare. Stop in for the airy cinnamon rolls, fluffly Princess Cake, chewy-chocolately Biskvi and the cream-filled Sweethearts.
Dodu
It’s certainly the weather and the season for roast chicken. ‘Dodu’ means ‘plump’ in French, a nod to the size of the birds this new Changshu Lu rotisserie is serving up. Offered in three styles and various portion sizes, the free-range chickens are a premium French breed – raised locally and hormone-, steroid- and antibiotic-free. Sunday dinner just levelled up.
Trio
With a deep-house soundtrack, a chill, sophisticated interior and a solid roster of drinks, Trio has all the right parts in all the right places. Set on Taian Lu, the bar is run by head bartender Kimi Chu, only a few doors away from Heyday, where he previously presided. The name Trio comes from what Chu sees as being the essential elements to a cocktails: a threesome of the base spirit, sweetness and sourness. Founded on this fundamental belief, the menu is divided into two levels, separated by section: junior, which are lighter in flavour and often floral, and senior, which implies more technically involved preparations and deeper, more complex flavours.
EPIC
Celebrating their two-year anniversary, Cross Yu and the team behind EPIC are refreshing the Gaoyou Lu cocktail spot’s menu for the first time since its opening. Launching officially at the beginning of the month, the new line-up features gorgeous presentations like the beautiful Lady Islay pictured above.
Rastaco
Akin to a mum-and-pop taco truck that decided to retire its wheels for a bricks-and-mortar space, Rastaco’s our kind of vibe. It’s a minimalist operation of tequila shots and tacos for 20RMB each – a frankly remarkable bargain for Shanghai. Sure, Rastaco isn’t the only place in town with cheap tacos, but it’s the only one with delicious cheap tacos. Best of all, they're open until 2am, so pull up a stool, relax and enjoy the steady flow of roots reggae playing from the speakers.
Above The Globe
Eddy Yang of Tailor Bar is on a roll this season, opening two new concepts simultaneously. Tucked behind Spicy Moment on Wuyuan Lu is speakeasy Second Moment, while over on Beijing Xi Lu above immersive theatre performance Sleep No More his other project Above the Globe has opened. White leather banquets and gold accents complement a menu themed on Tragedy, Comedy and History.
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