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Meet the Bund

Shanghai

Fujianese cuisine’s fine-dining flagship

On the Pass

Chen 'Yoda' Zhiping

Fujian in focus: Characterised by pristine seafood dishes and umami-rich soups and stews, Fujianese cooking – one of China's eight great culinary traditions, dating back 5,000 years – is a delicate balance of elegance and restraint, layered, subtle flavours and exacting knifework. There's no finer place to sample its light, bright, wholesome cuisine than Meet the Bund, a super sophisticated eatery perched on the 56th floor of the Raffles City tower in Shanghai.

Meet the chef: Chen 'Yoda' Zhiping was raised in Quanzhou, a historic port city surrounded by mountains, rivers and coastal waters – a landscape that helped shape the essence of Fujianese cuisine. With every dish, he strives to summon memories of his home province, interpreting age-old recipes for a 21st-century clientele. As he puts it: "Modern techniques are simply new brushes for painting tradition."

Set the scene. Meet the Bund is more than just a name: it's a serving suggestion. The restaurant really does invite diners to get to know Shanghai's iconic waterfront, with floor-to-ceiling windows framing the boat-flecked Huangpu River and the city's incandescent skyline. If you can tear your eyes away from the spectacle, you'll notice classy touches like brick-red walls (inspired by the Minnan houses of southern Fujian), warm wooden ceilings and timeless Chinese furniture, all sufficiently pared back so as to allow the views – and, even more importantly, the food – to take centre stage.

Must-orders: For a quintessentially Fujianese hit of painstakingly produced, pure flavour, opt for the duck essence: an amber-coloured consommé achieved by steaming a whole duck for hours in a sealed vessel, then collecting the concentrated juices from a drip-bowl below. And for an elevated, sustainable take on tradition, pre-order a storied soup named Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, a luxurious dish that swaps the usual shark's fin for a more sustainable blend of abalone, sea cucumber, fish maw, dried scallops and mushrooms.

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