The Experience
Imperial Treasure is a Singaporean institution that has built, over several decades, what is arguably the most consistently excellent portfolio of Chinese fine dining restaurants in the world. The group's Shanghai flagship, on the fourth floor of the Yi Feng Galleria at 99 East Beijing Road, is the mainland expression of that mastery — a two-Michelin-starred room decorated in the group's signature palette of black lacquer, crystal chandeliers, and warm amber lighting, positioned less than three minutes on foot from the Bund.
The room is designed for group dining in the grand Cantonese banquet tradition. Large round tables with lazy Susans accommodate parties of eight to twelve; private dining rooms for smaller groups and corporate events line the perimeter. The decor is opulent without ostentation: wall-mounted crystal panels catch the light at every angle; the carpeting absorbs sound so effectively that conversations remain intimate even at capacity. This is a room built for occasions — anniversaries, client dinners, deals finalised over roasted pigeon — rather than solo meals or quiet tete-a-tetes.
The kitchen operates in the full spectrum of Cantonese cooking: extraordinary dim sum in the daytime, a roasting programme that produces some of the finest char siu and roasted chicken in Shanghai during service, and a seafood-focused evening menu that draws on premium ingredients — live Dungeness crab, wild-caught grouper, abalone of multiple calibres — handled with the finesse the Michelin inspectors recognised. The kitchen's technical excellence is most visible in the dim sum: each piece arrives at the correct temperature, with pastry-to-filling ratios that bespeak years of training, and seasoning that is assertive without being aggressive.
Service matches the cooking's register: formal without stiffness, bilingual, and capable of managing complex group orders — including split dishes, ingredient substitutions, and the choreography of a twelve-course shared feast — with visible competence. This is the kind of restaurant where both the guest and the host feel well-looked-after from arrival to departure.
Why It's Perfect for a Team Dinner
Imperial Treasure is the definitive answer to the question: where do you take a team of twelve for a celebratory dinner in Shanghai? The round tables eliminate hierarchy — everyone is equidistant from the lazy Susan, everyone serves everyone else. The menu is constructed for communal abundance: multiple cold starters, shared mains, a barbecue course, a whole fish, a dessert programme. The kitchen scales effortlessly to large groups — there is no sense of portions shrinking or timing slipping as the party grows. The private dining rooms, available for groups of eight to twenty, provide the discretion that team conversations sometimes require.
Why It's Perfect for Impressing Clients
Two Michelin stars make the invitation easy to frame. The room's grandeur communicates seriousness before anyone sits down. The Cantonese cuisine — accessible enough for guests unfamiliar with Chinese fine dining, complex enough to educate those who think they know it — provides natural conversational material. The wine list carries both an international selection and a curated Chinese baijiu and pu-erh tea programme for clients who prefer traditional pairings. The restaurant's Yi Feng Galleria address — four minutes from the Bund riverfront — means clients can be walked to the promenade post-dinner for a moment of Shanghai spectacle without requiring transport.
Signature Dishes & What to Order
The scrambled osmanthus egg with crabmeat is the kitchen's most celebrated innovation: soft-scrambled eggs perfumed with dried osmanthus flowers, folded through with fresh Shanghai hairy crab meat in season, arriving in a translucent porcelain bowl. It is the dish that most consistently astonishes first-time visitors. The char siu is carved from pork neck, glazed three times during roasting, and arrives with a lacquer that cracks at the table — order the whole portion rather than the half. For dim sum, the prawn and chive cheung fun is the standard-bearer: silken rice noodle, aggressively seasoned filling, served with a light soy that enhances without obscuring. The roasted chicken stuffed with glutinous rice is the kitchen's most labour-intensive preparation — order it with at least 24 hours' notice.