2 Hot New Restaurants: Stiller & Ling Long

Stefan Stiller of Michelin three-star Taian Table opens a modern European restaurant in Xintiandi, and Jason Liu of Beijing's Ling Long (Asia's 50 Best) opens a contemporary Chinese fine dining restaurant on the Bund.

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Modern European

Stiller by Stefan Stiller

📍 No. 22-23, Xintiandi, 181 Taicang Lu, near Huangpi Nan Lu 太仓路181号新天地22-23号, 近黄陂南路
📞  18930609363
🕒  Tue-Sun, 11:30am-2:30pm, 5:30pm-10pm (soft opening)

Stefan Stiller of Michelin three-star Taian Table has opened a contemporary European restaurant in Xintiandi. It’s an all day menu of modern European dishes with a distinctive German touch, the latter a nod to Stefan Stiller’s heritage. 

It’s located across the fountain in the main Xintiandi plaza. You’ll notice it from the bright red awnings over the terrace. The design, courtesy of A00, takes inspiration from yachts—cabin-style seating, wood-lined floors, and suede finishings. It’s a comfortable space, nothing too obtrusive.

Fine dining brands adding a more affordable concept to their portfolio isn’t a novel idea. Just look at Polux by Paul Pairet and New Wave by Da Vittorio. These concepts are by extension a more accessible branch that takes cues from the fine dining menus and techniques at the flagships. Stiller is exactly that, and more.

Stefan Stiller & chef de cuisine Remy Ye

Some dishes at Stiller incorporate main ingredients used in the Taian Table menus, for example, the blood pudding in the ravioli. (The ravioli is a must-order.) While dishes like the Kasespatzle, a mess of deliciously doughy noodles that would never find a place on the Taian Table menu fits in marvelously at Stiller.

Bread Basket (¥55) – Laugen buns and sourdough slices, served with brown butter and basil butter. Worth it even just for the delicious compound butters.  

House Pickles (¥35) – A medley of house pickled pumpkin, carrots, daikon, radish, etc.

Duck Rillettes (¥125) – Melt-in-your-mouth rillettes. Foie gras terrine with apple and rhubarb compote served with toasted sourdough bread. This is when the breadbasket comes in handy, too.

Smoked Eel Toast (¥125) – Smoked eel over fluffy scrambled eggs on a toasted sourdough slice with chives.

Pellkartoffeln (¥285) – Eggs on eggs over boiled baby potatoes. A generous amount of caviar and trout roe with boiled eggs and crème fraiche.

Käsespätzle (¥85) – Spätzle is a traditional German dumpling made with an egg-based dough. Here it’s rolled out into thick, twisty noodles, which are cooked in a rich, glossy onion jus served with parmesan foam. My guess is that it was also left to bake under the salamander, roasting the top bits and caramelizing the sauce.

Gummy, wonderfully rich, and flavorful.

Pretzel Dumplings (¥95) – Pretzels in the shape of crispy medallions over a lusciously creamy sauce with mixed mushrooms with lashings of jus. The dumplings have an almost cakey texture, great for soaking up the sauce. This and the käsespätzle, both comfort foods.

Crispy Pork Knuckle (¥210) – Unlike the stereotype German pork knuckle, this version is deboned and served as large cutlets. It is as heavy a dish as the traditional version, rich and fatty, served with even richer sauerkraut and mustard jus, topped with fried onions.

Black Pudding Ravioli (¥155) served over creamy sauerkraut. The black pudding itself is meaty, earthy, and nutty, enlivened with seasoning and spices. Refined flavors lifted by the acidity in the sauerkraut, tied together with the foamed cream. Excellent.

Side dish of green peas and carrots (¥60).

Brioche Pudding (¥85) – I love me some bread pudding, and this one sates all those cravings. The bread pudding is moist and custardy in the center, speckled with pieces of strawberries. It’s served with strawberry and rhubarb coulis and vanilla ice cream.

As for drinks, it’s mostly wines. The selection is 60% German. Wine prices are actually quite reasonable, starting from ¥70 a glass. I had the Von Buhl Bone Dry, a dry German Riesling; ¥70/glass, ¥350/bottle.

Overall impressions are that the food is very enjoyable. Some dishes appear to be on the higher end, while others like the Käsespätzle are within my sweet spot. From fine dining to mass market crowd is a difficult one, and I expect after a few more trial weeks, adjustments will be considered.

My selection of dishes turned my meal into a rather heavy one. If you decide on ordering in similar fashion, do get the pickles, as those will come in handy to cut the richness. I hear the fish dishes are quite well received, too. 

The highlights are unmistakable. I highly recommend ordering the black pudding ravioli, kasespatzle, pretzel dumplings, and brioche pudding.  

Currently in soft opening. More dishes will be added over time and hours will extend shortly. 

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Contemporary Chinese

Ling Long

📍 The Waldorf Astoria Shanghai, 2 Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu, near Yan'an Dong Lu 华尔道夫酒店, 中山东一路2号, 近延安东路
📞  23290313
🕒  Wed-Sun, 5:30pm-10:30pm (soft opening)

By way of Beijing comes Ling Long, a contemporary fine dining restaurant by chef Jason Liu, located in the Waldorf Astoria Shanghai. Ling Long Beijing currently ranks #77 in Asia’s 50 Best, a new entry in the 2023 edition. 

Chinese media are calling chef Jason Liu a dark horse. It's probably true, but not for long. Jason Liu’s name has been featured in quite a few headlines in the past couple of years, but coverage of the young chef has flooded food media since the opening Ling Long Shanghai.  The attention is very well deserved.  

Jason Liu is from Taiwan, and opened Ling Long Beijing in 2019. Before he hit 30 years of age, he received the Young Chef Award and a one-star rating in the Beijing Michelin Guide 2022. Then, he was bestowed recognition by Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants, ranking him #77 as a new entry in the 2023 edition. I don't know him personally, but he has been described to me as humble, modest, and talented. 

The menu at Ling Long Shanghai reportedly has very few similarities to the Beijing menu, with some dishes like the Shandong Wagyu featured on prix fixe 9-course dinner. The meal has four themes, Xian (鲜), the Chinese equivalent word to describe umami, tradition, localization, and memory. The menu is ¥1,680 plus 15% service charge. 

Amuse Bouche “Xian” – Sweet peas, smoky scarmoza cheese, and caviar. A simple yet evocative bite.

King crab leg poached with fermented grain sauce (糟卤) and finished with butter and cream, served with tomato water.

A soup made with house-dried chicken thighs. Clean flavors with a crunchy clam.

Jasmine infused butter over tangzong toast. Slightly sweet, fragrant butter. Served tableside in a block of ice to keep chilled.

Blue lobster with shaoxing wine jelly. Intoxicating flavors from the seafood stock with a subtle undertone of fragrant shaoxing.  The most memorable dish of the whole menu.

Grilled scallop with heart of palm from Xishuangbanna and a sauce made with caviar, trout roe, and chives. Brimming with flavor and texture.

Sticky rice and fish maw cooked in a sauce of parmesan cheese and orange peel livened with peppercorns, garnished with a parmesan cheese crisp. The parmesan cheese is made in Beijing, an artisanal production commissioned by chef.

Rock fish with puffed, crisped skin dipped in chili oil and served with sour soup. Sour, sweet, and spicy enough for you to break into a sweat. Paired with fresh and fruity lambic.

For mains, it’s Hetian Chicken or Shandong Wagyu (supp ¥298).

The Hetian chicken and cuttlefish farce is served with crispy skin, a glossy jus, chestnut purée, and charred hen of the woods. The dish is finished tableside with shavings from a giant, dried white flower shiitake.

Wuchang Rice – A claypot rice complete with guoba. Seasonal vegetables, cured meat, eggs.

Chinese honey – The dessert, from tuile to mousse, is made with three kinds of honey from Yunnan. Flowery, notes of caramel. Delightful. Paired with Tokaji Aszu.

Memory – Dessert, a nostalgic ode to one’s childhood. Toasted popcorn, crispy olive bread, white rabbit marshmallow, and a sugar ball.

Petit Fours – A cart laden with candies reminiscent of a sundry shop display, accompanied by a purse with coins that powers up a music box. 

The drinks pairing was excellent, too, priced at ¥980. In addition to the variety of wines, which ranged from new and old world, sweet to even savory, dishes are also paired with ice wines, huangjiu, and a gueuze.    

Service was exceptional, not at all stiff, and sincere. 

Ling Long is an artistic opus, a storytelling of chef Jason Liu’s vision and interpretation of Chinese ingredients and traditions. It is extremely personal. I’m usually quite skeptical when it comes to excessive storytelling based on past experiences at restaurants that focus too much on background only to fall short on delivery. Ling Long is the exception, and delivers a pleasurable dining experience with an abundance of flavor and a memorable narrative.

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