On my first visit to Vivant since it received its Michelin star, the dining room was full and alive with movement. It felt as though the restaurant had secured a place at the forefront of Shanghai’s rising French fine-dining scene. Vivant was busy yet composed, with none of the rigidity of a fixed performance. The front-of-house team was elegant and assured; the cooking was precise, the mood relaxed. We passed between two walls of wine, then an open, silver-toned kitchen, before sitting down beneath a retro arched ceiling.
The last time I sat in this seat, I watched the same fountain show. Back then this place was called Wing Lei Palace, and Chef Tam Kwok Fung was in the kitchen.
On the top floor of Yuejie Yongjia Court, at 570 Yongjia Road in Shanghai, the elevator doors open with a soft ding on the fourth floor. Just inside, a low sofa sits beside a fireplace, while a wall of windows is cradled by the green embrace of plane trees. Their shadows sway across the wooden floor, and for a moment, you can't help but think: what a perfect afternoon.
One of Taipei's most anticipated restaurant openings of the year is Polux, the casual French restaurant by Chef Paul Pairet, whose Shanghai flagship has long been one of the city's hottest tables to book. The restaurant also marks the Taiwanese debut of the chef behind the three-Michelin-starred Ultraviolet, which closed in March 2025 after redefining modern gastronomy for more than a decade.
The foie gras raspberry lollipop was my first impression of Amber. Rich, silken foie gras melted on the tongue like chocolate, while the sweetness of raspberry unfurled slowly in the finish, brightening the overall richness of the dish. The two melded together in the mouth and turned impossibly light.
One evening in Tokyo, I found myself seated at the counter of a three-Michelin-starred kaiseki restaurant. Across from me was a 63-year-old chef effortlessly filleting fish for sashimi while switching seamlessly between Japanese, English, and French.
On the day I walked into Hangzhou Botanical Garden, the leaves at Taoyuan Ridge had already turned a lush, overwhelming green. The plum rains had not yet begun, and the summer heat had not fully set in. In Jiangnan, these are the most comfortable days of the year.
For a food lover, describing Asador Etxebarri is extraordinarily difficult.Over the years, I have dined at countless restaurants, but only a handful make me look forward to my next visit the moment I leave. Hidden away in the Atxondo Valley of Spain’s Basque Country, Asador Etxebarri has always been one of them.
I had the opportunity this time, invited by City of Dreams, to attend the collaboration dinner between Jade Dragon and Chao Shang Chao. Jade Dragon, eight consecutive years of three Michelin stars, three Black Pearl diamonds, the only Cantonese restaurant in Greater China holding both top ratings at once.
I always prefer not to leave Taipei whenever possible, and my visits to Tainan can be counted on one hand. That said, food has always been the one thing that can pull me out of the city — and this time was no different. I took the high-speed rail down south for a 24-hour flash trip to Tainan, and for good reason: L'évo, the two-Michelin-starred French restaurant from Toyama, was making its first-ever Taiwan appearance with a four-hands dinner at Tainan's Yu-Dao (予島). Two restaurants I deeply love, joining forces — an opportunity too rare to pass up.
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