Daily Blog
Thursday, 27 August 2009 07:08
Written by Justin Fischer

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Ah, the illustrious grand opening party... The buckets of free booze, the standard soundtrack by Cafe del Mar, the Z-list celebrity appearances. You attend enough of these and they soon become a tired cliché. But hey, just because I'm jaded doesn't mean I'm going to pass up an opportunity for an evening of freeloading. Besides, the opening of Lost Heaven on the Bund has been six months in the making. I felt that I owed them a visit.

So what are my first impressions of the Lost Heaven Group's latest venture? I can sum it up in one word: ambitious. For one thing, setting up shop here is a gutsy move; there are a few cards stacked against them. The entrance is smack-dab in the middle of a major municipal construction project at the very tip of Yan'an Dong Lu. So, for the time being, access from the street will be tricky. Not only that, the place is huge! Four floors! The entire first floor is a retail boutique dealing in everything from Pralinor chocolates to household items. The second floor is a vast indoor dining room; the third floor is a bar with a vast, fountain-studded terrace. Then to top that off (literally), there is a fourth floor bar with a deck that overlooks the terrace below. The entire venue easily takes up a few thousand square meters. Now, of course, it's easy to fill that much space up when the refreshment is on the house. But paying customers? That's a different story. I'm curious to see how that will pan out.  

As for the look and feel of the place the decor, not surprisingly, is stunning--lots of dark stained wood with occasional glints of red while varnished concrete stairways break up the old world vibe a touch. As for the food? Well, buffet style is never a good indicator of any kitchen's merits and that's what was on offer last night, but I think you can count on it being every bit as good as what they've been doing at their original branch for the past few years. Nevertheless, stay tuned for a full review in the October issue of that's Shanghai.

Opened August 26

Lost Heaven

17 Yan'an Dong Lu, by Sichuan Lu (6330 0967)

延安东路17号， 近四川路

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