RFK Rankings · Shanghai
Best View Restaurants in Shanghai 2026
View · Shanghai · 7 rooms ranked · Updated June 2026
Ranked by Marcus Holloway, Senior Editor · Published June 7, 2026 · Updated June 7, 2026
Thirty-six floors. Two rivers of light. One check that climbs with the elevator. Shanghai sells its skyline twice a night, once from the Bund looking at Pudong's towers and once from Pudong looking back at the old waterfront. The trap is paying for the window and eating like an afterthought. Plenty of rooms here do exactly that. These seven do not. Each one earns the height with a kitchen worth the table, ranked on the view and the food behind it.
1.Jade on 36
Thirty-six floors over the Huangpu, French cooking that holds the room since 2001 — book the window for an anniversary.
Jade on 36 opened inside the Pudong Shangri-La in 2001 and put the Bund in a frame thirty-six floors up, behind floor-to-ceiling glass. The kitchen cooks modern French: a foie gras terrine arrives with Sichuan-pickled radish that cuts the fat, and the six-course tasting is the way to read the room at night. The two-course lunch set runs RMB 698, the best fine-dining value with a view in Pudong. The main room seats about eighty, and even the centre tables face the water. Book a window for an anniversary and arrive before dusk to watch the towers switch on.
Book a window table at the Pudong Shangri-La, 36th floor.
2.Sir Elly's
A one-star Italian room on the Peninsula's roof with a wraparound Bund terrace — reserve it for a special-occasion dinner.
Sir Elly's sits on the 13th floor of The Peninsula Shanghai, above the Bund, with a wraparound terrace that is the most cinematic outdoor table in the city. It has held one Michelin star in the Shanghai Guide, and chef Eugenio Cannoni cooks Northern Italian: Chongming squab three ways, handmade ravioli, well-judged pasta. A tasting from the kitchen runs about 898 yuan, with a la carte plates such as a Wagyu M6 tenderloin near 388 yuan, so a full evening lands around 1,300 yuan a head. Reserve the terrace in warm months and the corner of the dining room when it rains. It is built for a special-occasion dinner.
Reserve a terrace table at The Peninsula, 13th floor.
3.8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana
Umberto Bombana's two-star Italian shaves white truffle over handmade pasta, the Bund in the windows — reserve it to impress a client.
8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana occupies the sixth and seventh floors of the Associate Mission Building at 169 Yuanmingyuan Road, a step back from the Bund with views over the old waterfront. It has held two Michelin stars since 2017, the Shanghai outpost of Umberto Bombana's Hong Kong original, which holds three. The kitchen shaves white truffle over handmade pasta in season, and the Capasanta, confit scallop sliced carpaccio-style, is the other signature. The dining room is calm, warm wood and low light across two floors. Reserve it to impress a client, and put the truffle menu on the table when it runs.
Reserve the dining room at 169 Yuanmingyuan Road.
4.Jean-Georges Shanghai
Jean-Georges Vongerichten's Bund flagship, open since 2004, the egg caviar still on the pass — book lunch to close a deal.
Jean-Georges Shanghai opened in 2004 inside Three on the Bund, the first major fine-dining address on the historic riverfront, and it still looks straight across the Huangpu toward Pudong. Jean-Georges Vongerichten's classics are here, the egg caviar among them, alongside the lighter French-Asian cooking he developed in Bangkok and Hong Kong in the 1980s and 1990s. The private rooms come with their own screens, lighting and full privacy from the floor, which makes them a standard for corporate entertaining in the city. The power lunch is the move: a riverfront window, a short menu, a deal closed before the plates clear. Book the window for the view, the private room for the conversation.
Book a riverfront lunch at Three on the Bund.
5.Mr & Mrs Bund
Paul Pairet's late-night modern French on the sixth floor of Bund 18, the river in the windows — book a window for a first date.
Mr & Mrs Bund has run on the sixth floor of Bund 18 since the room opened, the Huangpu River and Pudong's towers filling the windows. Paul Pairet, the chef behind three-Michelin-star Ultraviolet, keeps this one loose and late: modern French comfort food served family-style, the menu marked with PP for his signatures, the 72-hour lemon-and-lemon tart the one to finish on. It runs past midnight on weekends, which makes it the rare view room that suits a second date better than a stiff dinner. Book a window table, order family-style, and stay for the late hour when the towers are still lit.
Book a window seat at Bund 18, sixth floor.
6.L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon
Robuchon's Bund counter, reopened in 2025 under Francky Semblat, caviar and king crab at eye level — book the counter for a solo dinner.
L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon reopened on the Bund in 2025, a third-floor address built around the open counter that defines every Atelier. Francky Semblat runs the kitchen, and the Robuchon classics carry over: caviar, langoustine, king crab, the famous pomme purée. The counter is set close by design, stools near enough that a solo diner falls into conversation with the cooks and the neighbours, with the Bund through the windows behind. It is the rare view room that rewards eating alone. Book a counter stool for a solo dinner and watch the pass work the caviar service.
Book a counter stool on the Bund, third floor.
7.Hakkasan Shanghai
Carved teak, low light and the Huangpu through the lattice on Bund 18's fifth floor — book it for a group that wants the duck.
Hakkasan took Alan Yau's London original, which opened in Hanway Place in 2001, and set the Shanghai room on the fifth floor of Bund 18, one of the waterfront's heritage buildings. The Huangpu shows through full-length windows that break the carved teak lattice screens, so the view arrives in pieces rather than a wall of glass. The cooking is high-end Cantonese, and the Peking duck with caviar is non-negotiable if the party runs to about ¥3,000 a head. The room reads dark and clubby, built for a table of six rather than a quiet two. Book it for a group, order the duck ahead, and take the window side.
Book the window side at Bund 18, fifth floor.
Skip if the view is the whole point
Great restaurant, no window
Ultraviolet. Paul Pairet's three-Michelin-star room is one of the best meals in China, but it has no view at all — by design. The dining room is sealed and windowless, a single table of ten wrapped in projected walls and piped scent. If you want the skyline, this is the wrong restaurant on purpose; book it for the show, not the glass. For the river, take Mr & Mrs Bund instead, two floors up in the same Bund 18 building.
How to win the view in Shanghai
Timing beats the menu. The skyline lights run roughly from dusk, so a reservation forty minutes before sunset buys you the daylight Bund, the switch-on, and the full neon hour from one seat. Ask for a window or terrace when you book, not when you arrive, because the river-facing tables go first. The Bund rooms look at Pudong; the Pudong towers, Jade on 36 among them, look back at the old waterfront, which is the better photograph.
Weather is the variable nobody plans for. Shanghai's summer haze can flatten the view, so a clear evening after rain is the one to chase, and an indoor window beats an open terrace on a grey night. For the same skyline ranked across every city, see the world's best restaurants with a view, and for the rooms that double as power tables, the Shanghai dining guide.
Frequently asked
What restaurant has the best view in Shanghai?
Jade on 36 holds the most complete dining-room view in the city. It sits thirty-six floors up in the Pudong Shangri-La behind floor-to-ceiling glass, looking across the Huangpu to the Bund, and the modern French kitchen is good enough to hold its own against the window. For a Bund terrace looking back at Pudong, the one-Michelin-star Sir Elly's on The Peninsula's 13th floor is the other contender, with a wraparound outdoor table.
Which Bund restaurants have a view of Pudong?
Several of the best sit on the Bund 18 and Three on the Bund towers. Mr & Mrs Bund and Hakkasan share Bund 18, on the sixth and fifth floors, with the Huangpu and Pudong's skyline in the windows. Jean-Georges Shanghai looks across the river from Three on the Bund, and 8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana sits just back at 169 Yuanmingyuan Road with views over the old waterfront. Ask for a river-facing table when you book.
How much does a view restaurant in Shanghai cost?
Plan for the high end, with one good-value door. Sir Elly's runs about 898 yuan for a tasting and near 1,300 a head for a full evening; the Bombana truffle menu and Jean-Georges climb higher. The exception is Jade on 36's two-course lunch set at RMB 698, the best view-with-a-meal value in Pudong. Hakkasan's Peking duck with caviar pushes a group bill toward ¥3,000 a head.
Do you need to book Shanghai view restaurants?
Yes, and you should specify the table. The window and terrace seats are the whole point and they go first, so book several days ahead and ask for a river-facing table by name rather than hoping at the door. For sunset, reserve about forty minutes before the skyline lights, and chase a clear evening after rain, because summer haze flattens the view. Most of these rooms take cards and bookings through their hotels or own sites.
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More from RFK
Browse the full Shanghai dining guide, read the verdicts on Jade on 36 and Sir Elly's, compare the world's best restaurants with a view, or open the full RFK rankings index.
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