Shanghai's high-end dining table is crowded right now, but a handful of rooms stand above the rest — a Michelin-decorated Ningbo seafood house on the 56th floor, a vegetarian temple on Yuyuan Road, and a private-dining concept inside the childhood home of architect IM Pei's family. Here's what to know before you try to book.

Yong Fu North Bund and Meet The Bund Skyline share an address — the top floor of Raffles City on the Bund — but very different menus. Yong Fu, opened by industry veteran Weng Yongjun, is a shrine to Ningbo cuisine from Zhejiang province: seafood flown in daily from the East China Sea, a signature red cream crab cut into 18 pieces with sweet coral roe, and pan-fried glutinous rice balls with molten black sesame. Set menus start at RMB 2,000 (about US$380).

Meet The Bund Skyline is chef Wu Rong's ode to Fujianese cooking — he was the first chef to win a Michelin star for that cuisine in 2021, and the restaurant currently ranks sixth on Asia's 50 Best. The centrepiece is a shark fin-free Buddha Jumps Over the Wall simmered for a week, with a broth alone requiring two days. Don't skip the scallion-oil baked Lipu taro, named Dish of the Year in the 2024 Black Pearl Guide. Set menus from RMB 1,500.

For something quieter, Amazing Chinese Cuisine hides in a Changning villa with just five private rooms. Chef Du Jianqing's modern Chaoshan cooking earned two Michelin stars this year — expect brined 36-month-old goose head, a geoduck and clam soup, and fried rice with 30-year-aged preserved radish. Also RMB 2,000 and up.

Fu He Hui, on leafy Yuyuan Road, has held a Michelin star for a decade and a place on Asia's 50 Best for 12 years running. Chef Tony Lu's plant-based tasting menus are the most affordable of the five at RMB 998, and the tea pairing — rather than wine — is the smart match. And in Jing'an, The House of Rong (from the Xin Rong Ji group) occupies the 1934 Pei Mansion, once home to the family of architect IM Pei, serving aged-Huadiao-soaked mantis shrimp and a beloved braised yellow croaker.

Why it matters: these are destination meals that need planning — several have just a handful of tables, and the priciest run close to US$400 a head before drinks. But together they map China's regional coastal cuisines, from Zhejiang to Fujian to Chaoshan, at a level you'd struggle to find outside the country. Book well ahead, especially for weekend dinner slots.