Restaurant and Bar Favorites (Beijing and Shanghai)

[eltongore]

What are your favorite restaurants and bars in Beijing and Shanghai?

Let me start this thread by introducing my favorite restuarants and bars in Beijing:

Da Dong (Beijing duck) tel: 10 65822892

Din Tai Fung (high end dumplings): 6462-4502 ext. 101

Daneli's (high end Italian): 6460 6688 x 2441

Red Moon (expensive bar in Grand Hyatt): 10 8518 1234

Black Sun (cheap bar in Chaoyang West Gate): 10 65936912

Some in Shanghai:

Boca (great brunch): 53066111

Park 97 (star bar): 5383 2328

PS: When I was new to China, most of my ideas for restaurants and bars in China came from this user review website: www.foobai.com.

[novemberfog]

I believe Din Tai Fung is available abroad as well, no? I think they operate in NYC, LA, Tokyo, and many other places as well. Their xiaolongbao are wonderful!!!

[Gary Soup]

Din Tai Fung is actually Taiwan-based. In the US they are in the LA area but not in NYC. From the reports I've seen, the quality of the xiaolong bao varies a lot from branch to branch. Consensus seems to be that the XLB is excellent at the home branches in Taipei, and the Singapore branch has the poorest quality. I've seen several comments that the Xiaolong bao at Crystal Jade are better than at DTF in Singapore; I haven't heard any such comparison for any other city.

In Shanghai, I tend to favor the old-line places (Lao Banzhai, Lao Zhengxing, Meiyuan Cun, etc.) for formal dinng, but also love street food (and Food Streets). I'm not much of a bar person at my age, but like a tall, cold Reeb Gold with dinner whether out or at home. I don't have any experience with Beijing dining.