First impressions: There are white tablecloths, avant-garde Chinese art-decorated walls in crimson and onyx hues, and gloved service, yet Ling Long diverges from the modern Chinese fine dining trend in that the meal follows a whimsical path, leading guests further down the (white) rabbit hole. The level of tongue-in-cheek eccentrics build throughout, resulting in each course more imaginative than the last. 

What is ‘xian’: The ever-changing set menu orbits around the concept of “umami” – or xian in Chinese. The aim is to re-create a cross-China journey over eight courses, pulling inspiration from regional tastes.

Playful pairings: A cohesively designed experience that is at once nostalgic and ingenious, the menu weaves through pairings like flash-fried Taizhou rockfish in a lip-tingling mala Sichuan broth sipped alongside spontaneously-fermented Cantillon gueuze – a union that is separate from a late-night Chengdu curbside street snack, but still very much a part of it. Or bouncy fish maw “mac’n’cheese” – a velvety aged parmesan sauce laced with majiagou celery, pudgy sticky rice gnocchi, and a nip of 20-year aged chengpi matched with 30-year-barrel-aged rice wine – robustly floral yet clean. 

Chef CV: Humble and soft-spoken, executive chef and partner Jason Liu, has more than ten years of culinary experience under his belt (despite being in his late twenties). At sixteen, he began at Grand Hyatt Taipei, working up the ranks while simultaneously attending Taiwan Kai-Ping Culinary School. He cut his teeth at Taipei's Café Bellini Dunnan, Paris 1930, and at Bistro 3 as the chef and owner, before opening Ling Long Beijing in 2019 and eventually Ling Long Shanghai in March 2023. In his decade-long career, he’s landed a slew of awards, including 2022 Youngest Chinese Michelin Chef, 2022 Black Pearl’s Young Chef of the Year, 2022 Food and Wine China’s Young Chef of the Year, and 2021 Ctrip Gourmet List’s Chef of the Year. He’s also been featured as CCTV’s first chef documentary role lead entitled Find Me Beyond the Kitchen.

 READ MORE: Modern Chinese Ling Long Making Waves at The Waldorf Astoria

Ling Long, 2 Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu, by Guangdong Lu, 中山东一路2号外滩华尔道夫酒店,近广东路.

This article was originally written for and published on the Asia's 50 Best Restaurants website here.