Enjoy an Enchanted Christmas at the Pudong Shangri-La

By Mike Norton, December 2, 2022

As you make your way through a constellation of twinkling fairy lights, you just know there’s something deliciously festive waiting for you inside the front door of the Pudong Shangri-La this Christmas.

The Magical Lounge

The halls have been decked, the ceilings festooned, and the Christmas elves have been busy creating an atmosphere of pure enchantment in the Magical Lounge.

A floor to ceiling Christmas tree, along with a rather charming Christmas house, are the perfect places to take a break from your afternoon tea and get your WeChat moments ready for photos with snowmen, nutcracker soldiers and perhaps even Santa Claus himself in his ice cave.

The indulgent afternoon tea includes a spectacular array of festive treats specially crafted for the season, while every 30 minutes you can take in a magical 3D visual projected into the centre of the lounge.

Enchanted Christmas in the Magical Lounge: Daily, 8am – 9pm.

Christmas Afternoon Tea: Daily, 2pm-6pm, RMB588++/two persons.

The Christmas House

Set next to the lounge, a European Christmas emporium has been dropped straight into Shanghai – The Christmas House has an array of yuletide treats, festive gifts and indulgent home baked goodies.

The festive hampers are things of pure beauty, the perfect gift for those who appreciate the fine things in life. This is where the good boys and girls gifts will be coming from this Christmas.

Open Daily, 10am–5pm.

YISEA

There’s festive dining Japanese style at YISEA, inspired by izakaya but elevated to a whole new level by a passionate and skilful kitchen team. Two celebration ‘Kaiseki’ menus are available with a choice of 6 or 7 courses. The emphasis here is on quality ingredients prepared in-house.

Every aspect of each dish is painstakingly created by hand, with even the silken tofu created from scratch, beaten into creamy unctuousness through sheer human effort.

The sashimi is fresh and skilfully presented while the Seafood Teapot Soup is delicately prepared and served at the perfectly warm temperature to beat the recent Shanghai chill.

Beef sukiyaki is cooked tableside using the finest M9 wagyu and a deliciously umami sukiyaki broth made in house. Complemented by a fine range of sake, the whole experience provides a wonderful alternative to traditional festive fare.

YISEA Festive Kaiseki Set Menu: 6 course RMB788; 7 course RMB1,088++ per person.

YICAFE

The art of brunch is taken seriously at YICAFE, with more choice and variety than your most optimistic Christmas wishes.

More than ten live cooking stations provide wide ranging cuisines from traditional Chinese to classic Western, Japanese sushi and sashimi, freshly grilled meats, suckling pig, a great selection of Southeast Asian dishes.

Your only problem? Where to start...

This is the ultimate foodie experience, and for the festive period there are added specialities, with succulent roast turkey and a tender slow roasted beef short rib in addition to the seemingly never-ending parade of lusciousness.

Christmas Month Buffet Nov 24-Dec 30 (Except Dec 24, 25 & 26), RMB324 per person net

Festive Brunch Dec 24-26, Dec 31-Jan 1, RMB487 per person net

Festive Dinner Dec 24, 25 & 31, RMB788 per person net

Jade on 36 Restaurant

At the top of the hotel, Jade on 36 is the pinnacle of French fine dining. This is food expertly conceived and prepared; innovative dishes with roots in classical French cuisine.

The Christmas Set Menu is available with either 6 or 7 courses, both of them a culinary journey created by talented French chef Olivier Pistre. A traditional duck galantine, beautifully rich, is complemented by a sharp root vegetable salad cut through with a festive spritz of citrus peel.

Perfectly cooked dover sole is presented in a delicate Gewurtztraminer sauce, a couple of tiny potatoes with the flavour of brown butter adorn the edge.

There’s a playful take on festive fare, with a soft, yielding turkey ballotine covered with an indulgent sauce ‘a la Royale’, topped with confit apricot, black truffle and the compulsory Christmas Brussels sprout.

All of this against what is surely one of the finest views in the city, where the pinpricks of light from across the river on the Bund provide Shanghai’s own nightly Christmas lighting ceremony.

Until December 30, 6-course menu RMB988, 7-course menu RMB1,388++ per person

Jade on 36 Bar

Situated next the restaurant, Jade on 36 Bar offers the same unrivalled views across the Huangpu River on one side, with huge picture windows looking out onto the Pudong skyline on the other. This is the perfect setting for post- or pre-dinner drinks, or your festive celebration.

In addition to a huge selection of crafted cocktails and fine malt whiskies, a couple of seasonal treats have been added to the extensive list.

The ‘Winter Garden’ melds south Asian flavours, vanilla ice-cream and chocolate chips, while a delicately spiced advocaat combines Christmas spices and Chinese Baijiu to wondrous effect.

Another one? Why not, it is Christmas after all.