August 9, 2025

Shanghai Me brings big plates, bold flavours and 1930s glamour to London

The latest restaurant to occupy Hilton Park Lane’s prized rooftop spot, Shanghai Me delivers good pan-Asian cooking, attentive service and skyline view

By Suzanne Elliott

Shanghai Me is the latest Dubai outpost to arrive in London, taking over the prized spot on the 28th floor of the Hilton Park Lane, Mayfair’s tallest building, that was formerly Galvin at Windows.

The restaurant, brought to the UK by the team behind Gaia Mayfair and La Maison Ani, is just the latest to occupy the iconic rooftop space over the last six decades and is a clear signal in what direction London’s foodie scene lies: east.

The space boasts fantastic views across Hyde Park and the City and if you’re seated in the right spot, at the right time, you will get to enjoy an unrivalled sunset.

The stage is certainly set, but in an increasingly crowded pan-Asian scene, can Shanghai Me make its mark in London?

Interiors

The interiors of Shanghai Me are pure 1930s Shanghai, bringing the Art Deco golden era of China to 21st-century London. With red accents, lacquered screens, golden dragon motifs and oversized lanterns, they don’t hold back.

The glitzy interiors are a rather welcome change to the blue velvet, wood-heavy, low-level lighting trend. The place seems to want to show you a good time.

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Food and drink

The menu features a modern interpretation of pan-Asian cuisine with a focus on Chinese and Japanese flavours and techniques brought to you by a team led by heavyweights in the region’s cuisine: Chef Izu Ani heads up the kitchen and global culinary ambassador Chef Yukitaka Kitade.

The menu spans China to Japan to Vietnam and includes yellowtail carpaccio with black truffle, Cantonese-style roast duck with foie gras and caviar, spicy bluefin tuna oshizushi and braised beef short rib Shanghai style.

The inventive cocktails riff on the Chinese signs of the zodiac. We plucked for the gin-based ‘Dreamer’ laced with cacao liqueur and the ‘Visionary’, a play on a pisco sour, while we tackled the menu.

Starters included an avocado and cucumber salad, the butteriness of the avocado, a foil to the crunch of the cucumber, and tiger prawn tempura with a delicately sweet sauce that enhanced, rather than overwhelmed, the batter.

There is an extensive dim sum menu, which guests could centre their whole evening around, or, as we did, enjoy it as a curtain-raiser. The steaming baskets filled with savoury king oyster & shiitake mushrooms and umami wagyu and kimchi dumplings are offset with a selection of sauces.

The Schezen pepper beef is a pile of well-cooked strips, if you prefer if rare, be sure to mention it, in a zesty sauce with bold Szechuan flavours, layered with chiles, garlic and ginger. A standout dish was the aubergine in chili bean sauce: a generous plate of crispy fried eggplant dressed in an umami-rich sauce, accompanied by a side of broccoli in oyster sauce for added texture and crunch.

The portions are huge, but the desserts are too intriguing to turn down. We opted for the chef’s special, the milky cake, and a comedically large slice of sponge arrived, topped with almost savoury sesame ice cream and sitting in a puddle of fruity compote. The big bowl of brown butter ice cream appeared impossible to tackle, but our server – a friendly Italian who seemed to understand what we wanted before we did – assured us we had ‘done very well’.

Wine can be difficult to match with pan-Asian food for the inexperienced; Shanghai Me’s sommeliers were on hand and hit the sweet spot with 2023 Julien Crinquand ‘Les Canons du Jean’ Arbois Le Coup de Plou, a gorgeous, berry-rich red.

Service

The service was attentive, knowledgeable, and down-to-earth. Our server helped guide us around what we found to be a rather overwhelming menu with expertise and humour.