But in 1990, one of the biggest players in the international food industry, McDonald’s, saw the city’s potential and chose it as its entry point to the massive mainland Chinese market (the Beijing branch didn’t open until 1992). Its first restaurant in China, in Dongmen, Shenzhen, is still operating.
Shenzhen has the potential to become a major player in the international gastronomy scene
Ricardo Chaneton of Mesa, a Spanish restaurant in Shenzhen
Three decades on, Shenzhen remains as open as ever to new ideas, and the city has more to offer than branches of global fast food chains.
Restaurants that offer more refined dining experiences have been opening in Shenzhen since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the reputations of the chefs working there now match Shenzhen’s status as the Chinese city with the highest gross domestic product per capita.
Chefs from Michelin-star restaurants in Hong Kong have been among the first to open restaurants there – no surprise, given the special administrative region’s proximity to Shenzhen.
Chef Ricardo Chaneton at Mesa, a Spanish restaurant with South American influences, in Shenzhen. Photo: Mesa
These chefs point to Shenzhen diners’ greater openness to try new things compared with those in other Chinese cities as the reason they chose to go there first.
In June Ricardo Chaneton, the Italian-Venezuelan chef-owner of one-Michelin-star Mono, a modern Latin-American restaurant in Hong Kong’s Central neighbourhood, opened Mesa, a Spanish restaurant with South American influences, in Shenzhen.
“I believe Shenzhen has the potential to become a major player in the international gastronomy scene in mainland China,” Chaneton says.
14 new Hong Kong restaurants in August 2023, for Thai street food and more
“What I find particularly impressive is the openness of diners to try new things and their considerable knowledge about Western cuisine compared to other cities I have visited.
“We only had to make minor adjustments to some dishes, as the main customer base already had a good understanding of how dishes should taste.”
The restaurant is still in its soft opening phase, but one thing is for sure: it will present a more casual dining experience than Mono in Hong Kong, with menus offering tapas and dishes such as Cuban-style rice with beef tripe, and Iberico suckling pig.
Chef Antimo Merone, of Hong Kong restaurant Estro, opened an Italian restaurant called Terra Madre in Shenzhen in November 2022. Photo: Terra Madre
Antimo Maria Merone, of one-Michelin-star Italian Hong Kong restaurant Estro, opened Terra Madre in Shenzhen in November 2022.
The restaurant, whose name means “motherland”, serves Italian comfort-food dishes such as home-made fettuccine with Neapolitan ragout and Iberico pork, and introduces itself as “Shenzhen’s first authentic Italian restaurant with a touch of southern Italy”.
Merone says that although customer expectations can make it challenging to present the true facets of his culinary heritage, Shenzhen is welcoming overall.
Homemade pappardelle with ragout and wagyu beef cheek at Terra Madre. Photo: Terra Madre
Refined French bistro L’Avenue opened in Shenzhen’s Futian district in 2021, with Arran McCredie, formerly sous-chef of Michelin-star Hong Kong French restaurant Belon, as its executive chef.
The restaurant serves delicate dishes, such as chicken au torchon with preserved black truffle, tomato consommé with burrata and basil, dry-aged turbot with clams and vegetables braised in white wine .
“The response to the food overall has been positive. We had to change some of our recipes, especially when it comes to sugar levels in desserts,” McCredie says. “The Shenzhen market can still be challenging, but with more Western restaurants opening, hopefully things will keep moving in the right direction.”
Arran McCredie of L’Avenue. Photo: L’Avenue
Ensue by Christopher Kostow is arguably the most widely recognised restaurant in Shenzhen to have been opened by an international chef.
Kostow is the executive chef of Meadowood, a restaurant in Napa Valley, California, which has held three Michelin stars since 2011. In 2013, Kostow received the James Beard Award for best chef.
Ensue, on the 40th floor of the Shangri-La Shenzhen hotel, opened in 2019 and to date is the only restaurant in the city to have made it onto the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list.
Christopher Kostow of Ensue, in Shenzhen. Photo: Ensue
The restaurant’s sommelier, Della Tang, also received the organisation’s best sommelier award earlier this year.
The menu is inspired by Californian farm-to-table culture, and the kitchen only uses locally produced ingredients, such as avocados from Yunnan province and oil from Chengdu. Sourcing such ingredients is easier in Shenzhen than in Hong Kong, given the former’s connection to the rest of mainland China.
Despite the development of Western cuisine in Shenzhen in recent years, the fine- dining scene is still nascent.
Shenzhen’s Luohu District, an area of the city Yip recommends heading for authentic Chinese food. Photo: Getty Images
“Over the past five years, fine dining has gradually found its way into Shenzhen but it is still in its infancy,” Yip says. “Such ‘gastronomic’ restaurants remain few and choices are limited. On the upside, I found more local cuisines elevating their standards to that of fine dining.”
For those looking for more authentic Chinese food in Shenzhen, Yip recommends venturing into the streets and small restaurants in the city’s older districts, like Luohu and Baoan.
“I found the food in the Hakka settlements on the eastern coastline of Shenzhen interesting. Still largely untainted by modern development and tourism, the food was authentic with a heavy slant towards seafood,” Yip says.
The interior of Shang Garden at the Futian Shangri-La hotel. Photo: Shangri-La Hotel
For high-end Chinese food, Shang Garden at the Futian Shangri-La hotel may be a good choice for its updated version of Huaiyang cuisine.
“Huaiyang cuisine is one of the four major cuisines of China and is particularly known for its cutting-edge knife skills,” Yip says.
“In between the dishes, I managed to glimpse this skill displayed by chef Dong [the restaurant’s executive Chinese chef].”
Fried Italian rice with Teochew aged preserved radish and sea urchin at Shang Garden at the Futian Shangri-La hotel. Photo: Shang Garden
Sea urchin 5J ham and palmito roll with sea urchin at Shang Garden. Photo: Shang Garden
A number of restaurants from Japan have opened in Shenzhen, too.
Tempura Maehira, a one-Michelin-star tempura restaurant in Tokyo led by chef Tomokazu Maehira, has opened a Shenzhen outpost called Tian Fu Luo Qian Ping, which serves tempura omakase.
Yuichi Arai, the chef behind Sushi Arai, a popular sushi restaurant in Tokyo’s Ginza district, is consultant chef of Komuro, a high-end sushi restaurant in Shenzhen that soft-launched in April and will officially open this month.
Since Shenzhen is only a 14-minute high-speed train ride away from Hong Kong – and there are 89 trains departing every day – Hongkongers have every reason to make a quick trip to get a taste of the Chinese city’s dining scene as it enters a new era.
Denial of responsibility! Web Times is an automatic aggregator of the all world’s media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials, please contact us by email – webtimes.uk. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.
