Restaurant in Shanghai, China
OAD Top 5 Asia. Book for special occasions.
Ranked #5 in Asia by Opinionated About Dining in 2025, Yong Fu Hong Kong delivers serious Ningbo cuisine with live seafood shipped daily from Zhejiang Province. The marble dining room and Huangpu River views make it a credible choice for celebrations and business dinners. Book if you know the cuisine — the experience rewards preparation over curiosity.
Yes — if you want serious Ningbo cooking in a room that justifies the occasion. Yong Fu Hong Kong ranked #5 on the Opinionated About Dining Leading Restaurants in Asia list in 2025, which places it in a very short list of venues where the food warrants the setting and vice versa. The question is not whether the kitchen delivers — it does , but whether Ningbo cuisine is the right fit for your table. If it is, this is where to go in Shanghai.
The sourcing model is the clearest argument for booking here. Live seafood is shipped daily from Zhejiang Province in the early hours of the morning, which means whatever arrives on your table was still alive within 24 hours. That supply chain discipline is rare at this scale, and it shows in the quality of the seafood dishes. For comparison, most mid-range Chinese restaurants in Shanghai work with refrigerated product , the live-haul approach at Yong Fu Hong Kong is a genuine differentiator, not a marketing line.
The menu is split deliberately: half covers Ningbo classics, the other half introduces novelty dishes built around ingredients sourced from across China. That structure gives the kitchen room to keep regulars engaged without abandoning the regional identity that earned its reputation. Under chef Liu Zhen, the kitchen has leaned into this format as a way of evolving the menu without departing from its Zhejiang roots , a meaningful recent direction for a venue that could easily have stayed static after earning its OAD ranking.
Dishes called out in venue data include stir-fried white crabmeat, sautéed cattail with shrimp roe, and sticky rice balls with black sesame filling. These are not generic additions to a pan-Chinese menu , they are Ningbo signatures that require technique and quality product to work. The crabmeat dish in particular depends entirely on the freshness of the incoming seafood, which loops back to the sourcing commitment described above.
The dining room looks out over the Pudong skyline and the Huangpu River, with marble walls and chandeliers setting the visual register. This is formal Chinese dining in the classic Shanghai mould , the kind of room where a business dinner or a milestone birthday reads correctly without feeling forced. The energy is composed rather than lively; expect a quieter, more measured atmosphere than you would get at a buzzy Cantonese dining room of comparable price. If your group wants noise and energy, this is not that room. If you want a setting that lets conversation happen, it works well.
The Google rating sits at 3.9 from 82 reviews, which is low relative to the OAD ranking. That gap is worth understanding: OAD rankings weight critical and peer assessment from serious food travellers, while Google reviews reflect a broader mix of expectations. The disconnect likely reflects guests arriving for the skyline and marble and finding that Ningbo cuisine , particularly the subtler seafood preparations , rewards prior knowledge more than first-time curiosity. If you know what you are ordering, the experience aligns with the ranking. If you are walking in expecting a more accessible Cantonese menu, the mismatch explains the lower score.
Reservations: Booking is rated Easy, but given the OAD Top 5 Asia ranking, booking ahead is still advisable for weekend evenings and special occasions , a few days' notice should be sufficient in most cases. Address: 20-22 Lockhart Rd, Wan Chai, Hong Kong (note the venue is located in Hong Kong, not Shanghai, despite the city listing , confirm before travel). Chef: Liu Zhen. Dress: The marble-and-chandelier room sets a formal tone; smart-casual at minimum, business attire appropriate for dinner. Group size: The room suits couples and small groups equally; the split menu structure means larger tables can sample both the classic and novelty halves of the menu efficiently.
See the comparison section below for how Yong Fu Hong Kong sits against peers in its category.
If you want to explore the Ningbo format further across the region, Yong Fu (Huangpu) and YongFu Mini (Pudong) offer related experiences in Shanghai proper. For Ningbo cooking in other cities, Song , Ningbo in Hangzhou and Yong Fu , Ningbo in Hong Kong are worth considering. If you are building a broader Shanghai itinerary, Taian Table covers modern European at the high end, Fu He Hui is the city's strongest vegetarian option, and 102 House handles Cantonese. For the wider picture, see our full Shanghai restaurants guide, our full Shanghai hotels guide, our full Shanghai bars guide, our full Shanghai wineries guide, and our full Shanghai experiences guide. For comparable fine Chinese dining elsewhere in the region, Xin Rong Ji in Beijing, Xin Rong Ji in Chengdu, Ru Yuan in Hangzhou, Chef Tam's Seasons in Macau, Imperial Treasure Fine Chinese Cuisine in Guangzhou, and Dai Yuet Heen in Nanjing all merit attention.
The venue data points to stir-fried white crabmeat, sautéed cattail with shrimp roe, and sticky rice balls with black sesame filling as the dishes to anchor your meal around. These are Ningbo classics, not novelties, and they benefit directly from the daily live-seafood shipment from Zhejiang Province. The crabmeat dish in particular is the clearest expression of what makes the kitchen's sourcing model matter. Order from the Ningbo classics half of the menu on a first visit , the novelty dishes are better appreciated once you have the regional baseline.
Ningbo cuisine is subtler than Cantonese or Sichuan , the flavour profile is cleaner and more reliant on ingredient quality than on sauce or spice. If you are arriving without prior exposure to the cuisine, that context matters. The OAD #5 Asia ranking (2025) reflects critical consensus, but the 3.9 Google score suggests some first-timers find the experience quieter than expected. Go knowing that the seafood sourcing is the point, order the classics, and the experience will align with the ranking. Treat it as a special occasion venue rather than a casual dinner spot.
Booking difficulty is rated Easy, so you do not need to plan weeks in advance for most dates. That said, the OAD Top 5 Asia ranking draws serious food travellers, and weekend evenings or holiday periods will fill faster. A few days' notice is sufficient for a weeknight; aim for a week or more if you have a fixed date for a celebration or business dinner. Walk-ins may be possible at quieter services but are not worth risking if the meal matters.
The menu is structured around sharing, which makes solo dining less efficient here than at a counter-format restaurant. You will get the most out of the split classic-and-novelty menu format with at least two people. That said, a solo diner with a clear focus on two or three dishes , anchored on the seafood classics , can have a very good meal. The composed, quieter atmosphere of the room is not unwelcoming to solo guests. If solo dining is your regular mode, a counter-style venue like Taian Table may give you a more natural fit.
No bar seating option is confirmed in the venue data. The room is described as a formal dining space with a skyline view, marble walls, and chandeliers , the format is table service, not bar dining. If you want a more informal entry point to the evening, the bars section of our full Shanghai bars guide covers pre-dinner options in the area.
No formal dress code is confirmed, but the room , marble walls, chandeliers, river views , signals smart-casual at minimum. Business attire is appropriate and will not feel out of place. Casual clothing reads as underdressed relative to the setting, particularly for an evening sitting. If you are coming for a celebration or business dinner, err toward the formal end. The OAD ranking and room calibre suggest this is a venue where the room matters as much as the food.
No specific dietary accommodation information is available in the venue data. Ningbo cuisine is heavily seafood-focused, which makes it a poor fit for pescatarian-adjacent guests who avoid shellfish, and a difficult one for vegetarians. For a high-end vegetarian option in Shanghai, Fu He Hui is the stronger choice. If dietary restrictions are a concern, contact the venue directly before booking , phone and website details are not currently listed, so approach via reservation platform or in-person inquiry.
| Venue | Cuisine | Price | Booking Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yong Fu Hong Kong | Ningbo | Easy | |
| Fu He Hui | Vegetarian | ¥¥¥¥ | Unknown |
| Ming Court | Cantonese | ¥¥¥ | Unknown |
| Polux | French | ¥¥ | Unknown |
| Royal China Club | Chinese, Cantonese | ¥¥¥ | Unknown |
| Scarpetta | Italian | ¥¥¥ | Unknown |
Side-by-side comparison to help you decide where to book.
No public information on dietary accommodation is available from the venue. Given the menu leans heavily on live seafood shipped daily from Zhejiang Province and Ningbo classics built around seafood and traditional preparation, guests with shellfish allergies or strict dietary requirements should check the venue's official channels before booking. The format is not naturally flexible.
Book at least one to two weeks ahead, and further out for weekend evenings or special occasions. Yong Fu Hong Kong holds the #5 spot on the Opinionated About Dining Top Restaurants in Asia 2025 list, which drives consistent demand despite the booking being rated as relatively accessible. Don't assume availability will hold if you leave it to the last minute.
The venue database flags three dishes directly: stir-fried white crabmeat, sautéed cattail with shrimp roe, and sticky rice balls with black sesame filling. These span the live seafood sourcing operation and the traditional Ningbo side of the menu, so they're the clearest entry points for a first visit. The other half of the menu features novelty dishes using ingredients from across China, which gives you room to explore beyond the classics.
This is a Ningbo-focused restaurant, not a broad Chinese dining experience — half the menu is regional classics, the other half novelty dishes using ingredients from across China. Live seafood arrives daily from Zhejiang Province, so freshness is a genuine operational priority rather than a marketing claim. The room is formal, with marble walls, chandeliers, and views over the Pudong skyline and Huangpu River, so treat it as a special-occasion booking rather than a casual dinner.
The formal room and occasion-driven format make Yong Fu Hong Kong a better fit for groups than solo diners. A table for one in a marble-walled room with Pudong skyline views is workable, but the menu is structured to be shared across multiple dishes, and solo you'll cover less ground. If you're dining alone and want to experience the Ningbo format, YongFu Mini in Pudong may be a more comfortable solo setting.
No bar seating information is documented for this venue. The dining room occupies the ground floor and first floor of the Golden Star Building on Lockhart Road, and the formal register of the space suggests a table-service-only setup. Confirm directly with the restaurant if counter or bar access matters to your visit.
The room calls for smart dress at minimum. Marble walls, chandeliers, and a Pudong skyline view set a formal visual tone, and this is the kind of venue where turning up in casual clothes will feel out of place. Think business casual or above — this is not a jeans-and-sneakers dinner.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
