Restaurant review: Epicure on 45 – Shanghai's latest revolving restaurant

In the past years several revolving restaurants have been built in Shanghai, among others in the Ocean Hotel, the Jin Jiang Hotel (new tower), the Novotel Atlantis and the Sofitel Oriental in Pudong. The latest one is Epicure on 45, the restaurant on top of the new Radisson Hotel on Nanjing Lu/People’s Square. The building where the Radisson is located was built several years ago, but had been empty ever since (does anybody know why?) until Radisson decided to put a hotel in there.

The location is excellent for a revolving restaurant, with views over People’s Square and Huaihai Lu in the south, then Nanjing Xi Lu with the Marriott in the front and Plaza 66 in the back in the west, part of the Suzhou creek in the north (incl. an excellent view of Toodou.com’s new office) and then Nanjing Dong Lu and the Pudong skyline in the east. I had dinner here last night, and had an excellent experience. We were lucky that the sky was very clear, and you could see many miles around (not very usual in Shanghai!). The restaurant turns very slow, we finished almost one turn during our dinner, which lasted from 7 to 10. I am not an expert, but I think that normally revolving restaurants turn in 60-90 minutes. What makes this restaurant special is that you do not only have the view to the outside, but also to the inside: the different kitchen’s all have glass fronts and are located in the middle of the restaurant. This means that during the turn you can see the cook’s in all the kitchens at work.

The restaurant offers Western, Chinese, Japanese and Indian cuisine, and you can choose your starter and main course from different cuisines. We were offered an amuse after ordering our food, something I always appreciate. I decided to have seared foie gras to begin with. It was in one word excellent. Both the taste and the way it was served were great. I combined it with a glass of Australian Chardonnay, which fitted quite well. Qi decided to go for the beef carpaccio, which she also liked a lot. As a main course I had an Australian Beef Tenderloin with a glass of Beringer Pinot Noir. The meat was very tender and cooked exactly right. Qi had cod fish, which also tasted great (I finished it for her; the portions were not small). For desert I ordered a plate of international cheeses (a blue cheese, Edam, Emmenthaler, and a goat cheese – the waiter did not mention the names to me when serving, a small minus), with a glass of port wine. Also this was very good, and I truly enjoyed it.

Any negative points? Not many, although the service could still be improved a bit. The waiters do not speak English very well, which is always a problem in China, and have difficulty understanding what you order. The drinks did not come on time with the food, and the main course was not served for both of us at the same time (for which they immediately apologized). The great food and atmosphere completely compensated this, and I would highly recommend the restaurant to everyone. We paid less than RMB 1400 for the food and wine, which I feel is reasonable for this kind of restaurant and location.