Looking into the room at Shanghai Me - the room has been opened up a little compared to its previous incarnation.
What can you tell us about Shanghai Me?
The Hilton at Park Lane (that's the tallest hotel in the area) has been going through something of a revamp over the past year. They've even made a TV show about it, as is the done thing these days. We've already visited Mr Porter, the steak restaurant that recently opened in the basement, and now we're onto the other end of the building. Right up on the top floor is Shanghai Me, a very high-end restaurant and bar that's inspired by Shanghai but features a pan-Asian menu, which originated in Dubai.
Where is it?
The hotel itself is closest to Hyde Park Corner (although not too far from Green Park), in an area where various five-star hotels have clustered together, with The Dorchester, Four Seasons and Intercontinental hotels all close by.
The restaurant is right at the top of this.
The restaurant, and bar which we'll get to, are on the top floor of the building. They've taken over what was once Galvin at Windows, for a long time one of London's most well-known high-rise restaurants. We have fond memories of that place, not least because it was where the lovely Fred Sirieix was working when he first found TV fame, and the service was absolutely top-tier as a result.
Shanghai Me takes over the restaurant space and the bar is now called Bund.
Which brings us to the best places to drink?
Indeed. Normally, we'd recommend heading to nearby Shepherd Market for a pre/post-dinner drink, but Bund really is the place to go. Here, the drinks are all based around the Chinese Zodiac and are pretty well constructed. But really, the main selling point here is the view, which is arguably better than the restaurant, mainly because you get a view both east and west.
Looking into the Bund bar at Shanghai Me
The biggest benefit here, however, is the narrow terrace area on each side of the building. It's almost like a corridor, mostly covered but with some air filtering through, with benches facing outwards towards floor-to-ceiling windows. From here, you get a fantastic view and a real sense of the height you're at. It seems to be being pitched as a smoking area more than anything (note the tiny table half taken over by a huge ashtray in the photo), but really it's the place to be if you can find space on the pew.
The narrow terrace features a bensh facing outwards to a (mostly) unrestricted view.
How about the restaurant, what's that like?
One thing we immediately noticed was that (in daylight) it's much brighter than the original photos of the space led us to believe. There are two semi-private areas on each end of the room (both can be closed off), with one getting the main view and a pretty spectacular table (although if this room is closed off, it will hamper the best view in the restaurant). If you can muster enough people who can afford it here (we'll get to that too), it's by far the best table to get.
While most of the rest of the tables are well spaced, tables for two people fare pretty poorly. Set around the edges of the room, they may get some good views, but the space between them is incredibly tight - tight enough that you worry your arse might be in someone's dinner as you edge out to go to the loo. For a dinner where you could very easily break the £300-for-two barrier (and that's being conservative), we'd frankly be expecting a little more space than something you might find in the middle of Soho. Still, hopefully that's something they can look at.
So what about the food?
Being Pan-Asian, it does stretch its influences, so you'll find noodles, sushi, rice dishes and lots more on offer. It's very specifically a high-end affair, with very few dishes below the £20 mark and many priced well above that. We steered towards their signature dishes to help give a sense of the place, and as you'll see, some of the pricing here is very, very punchy.
But leaving that aside for a moment, it was all pretty good, with only one dish of the night underwhelming. Unfortunately, that was their main signature dish:
Roast duck with foie gras and caviar (£110).
There are two things in that roast duck dish that might immediately put you off - the inclusion of foie gras and the price. Leaving both of those aside for the moment, we were expecting fireworks from this ultimate dish, but we decided it was "just fine" and maybe even a little too rich. But it's hard to also forget that every bite-sized piece is over £20.
Thankfully, the rest of the menu was much more successful. Pricey, yes, but not offensively, and generally all very good. Here's a taste of what we had:
Yellowtail carpaccio with black truffle (£30) - excellent carpaccio and beautifully plated.
Evgeny's wagyu beef sub (£42) - Not so much a sub as a sando, this was great, but on reflection we would probably have swapped this out for one of the noodle dishes as it doesn't offer too much more than wagyu sandos on offer elsewhere in town.
Mixed, steamed dim sum basket (£30) - Very Instagram friendly, of course, but also a pretty great selection of dim sum, which included wagyu beef & kimchi, black cod, prawn & truffle har gow and creamy & spicy corn.
Lobster corn shells (£25) - veering into taco territory. Good, but not that memorable, if we're being honest.
Crispy crab maki (£24) - probably the best savoury dish of the night, this was an excellent maki selection which suggests that the sushi part of the menu deserves more of an exploration.
That's scratching the surface of a pretty large menu that includes whole Cantonese roast duck (£63), rice and noodle dishes which are on the more reasonably priced end (Singapore noodles are £22) and a selection of salads and soups (the latter including a king crab and black truffle soup at £18).
But most importantly, you are 100% going to need to...
...save room for dessert?
Much as the rest of the meal was generally pretty good throughout, the dessert was where things really start to shine. There are lots of things on here which tempted us, like a brown butter ice cream with olive sponge (two sizes at £12 and £24) and there's a big dessert platter if you find it hard to choose (£68 or £110, so that's more for larger groups).
However, we would steer you instead towards two of their signature dishes as the must-orders. Frankly, either of these are big enough to share (particularly the first one), but we'd recommend both of them equally.
First off:
Giant fortune cookie, with a chocolate and matcha filling (£22).
Looking not unlike a large chocolate-covered volcano, they offer to break the cookie up for you, but you should keep that pleasure for yourselves. Once semi-destroyed, you'll see that there are two separate fillings on each side, the chocolate and the matcha, which you can dip the shards of cookie into. It's a fabulous dessert.
Oh, and it does come with a couple of fortunes too, such as:
Quite apt for right now.
And if you don't fancy that, go for this:
Milky cake - milk sponge cake, mango, passion fruit and banana compote, sesame ice cream (£16)
While the sesame ice cream proved a little divisive on our table, this gloriously light cake in a pool of milk sauce was also really great. So yes, you could share either of these desserts, but we'd nudge you towards getting both.
How about drinks?
As far as the bar is concerned, the cocktails should be your first port of call. They're all based around the Chinese zodiac, so if you find choosing a cocktail a little difficult, you can go for the one that matches your birth year. They're priced around £18, which is standard for London (and actually pretty good for a high-end bar) and they also serve mini versions for £13. Classic cocktails are available, of course, and they also delivered a pretty great martini, perfectly ice cold.
The Perfectionist/Rooster (£18) and the Stalwart/Ox (butter-washed gin, yuzu sake, bitters, vermouths, panna cotta)
Overall thoughts?
Shanghai Me is a very different restaurant to what came before with Galvin at Windows, but going by how busy it is, it was clearly a good decision by the hotel to change things up here. We may not be fans of the tables for two, but the food is mainly pretty decent (if pricey) and we can see the bar in particular becoming a real scene. Our recommendation would be to come up to check out the bar, where you can also try some of their signature dishes as well as taking in the great views, and if it sings to you, follow up with a dinner. Just make sure you stay for dessert.
More about Shanghai Me
Where is it? 28th Floor, Hilton on Park Lane, 22 Park Lane, London W1K 1BE
How to book: Book online or call 020 4553 5888
Find out more: Visit the website or follow them on Instagram @shanghaimelondon
Hot Dinners ate as guests of Shanghai Me. Prices are correct at the time of writing.
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