I love to eat and I love to share. Search entries by city, cuisine, and other things like 'cheap eats,' 'brunch', etc. I hope this will be useful for others to find good eateries :)
Check out http://aki-eats.yelp.com for US-based food
I think Century Avenue is the best way to experience the World Financial Center in Pudong, Shanghai's tallest building (for now).
The restaurant and bar are on the 91st to 93rd floors of WFC in the Park Hyatt Shanghai Hotel. The observation deck is about 10 floors higher, but really at 90-100 floors above the city it doesn't really make a difference, you are still looking down on the neighboring Jin Mao Tower (#2 tallest). And for a few hundred kuai I'd rather get a bottle of wine.
Beautiful space and expensive but great food. My mom and I split the Chinese BBQ tasting plate and friends had sushi platter.
91-93 Floor, Park Hyatt Shanghai, 100 Century Avenue, Pudong New Area
Shimauta-rakuen (島唄楽園) is a great Okinawan restaurant in Roppongi that co-workers had first taken me to, and I have since taken my big boss to because it is so yummy and unusual.
Okinawa has its own distinct culture and heritage (kind of like Hawaii in the US) and that includes food. They use ingredients that are not available anywhere else in Japan, like sea grapes (海ぶどう) and goya (ゴーヤ) and have funny names for their dishes too. "Rafty" (ラフティー) is pork belly (豚の角煮) and "chample" (チャンプル) means stir-fry. Okinawa is also known for an amazing and potent shochu called awamori (泡盛), and there is an extensive awamori and cocktail list here.
I arrived tonight to a raucous Okinawan performance by Nakasone Mitsuru-san (仲宗根充). The restaurant has live performances about twice per week (schedule). Most of their seating is family style communal tables and you pay 1000 yen cover for a seat where you can see the little stage. I was a little skeptical at first, since I had planned on a quiet dinner with a book, but I am so glad I got to experience this! Not only was it super fun and interactive with people getting on stage to sing and the whole room dancing, the people were incredibly welcoming and inclusive. I can't wait to visit Okinawa!
Btw, in addition to his musical talents, Nakasone-san runs a taxi service in Naha, Okinawa. I am so calling him when I visit!
The restaurant is on the 4th floor of a building on the big Roppongi corner of Roppongi-dori and Gaien-dori. Here's the g-navi site (Japanese)
Zapata's is the outdoor bar adjoining to Sasha's in the French Concession. We went for the USA-Slovenia World Cup game, and the place was packed with Americans. Oh how obnoxious we are, it was so much fun. Tie was unfortunate. Nice patio seating under tents I think, and they had set up several screens outside. Mexican, beer, fun.
A homey Southern style bar with a great outdoor patio and happy hour, it was a great Sunday afternoon booze spot on a beautiful May day. It's an expat bar, not so much local presence. Budweiser on tap and for happy hour, but decent bottle list also.
The bar at the top of the Hyatt on the Bund. Has a fantastic view of the Pudong side and Bund, though I think there is a cover to sit a the tables by the window. There is a rooftop area with beds to lounge on and a jacuzzi outside.
I had the worst viognier ever and a good virgin mary (weird drink mood...) Pretty crowded for a lounge and they had good house playing.
I went for rooftop drinks, but Mesa also has dinner.
Drinks were very fun, great crowd inside with pop-music dancing and outdoors.
The Thailander was interesting Absolut Peppar drink with a huge kick. It was good for one drink, not for the night.
Muombie is a ridiculous (secret) concoction of alcohol and some kind of Malibu rum or coconut juice that goes for 98 rmb. It says two per person, but you really shouldn't need more than that.
New Heights is the bar/restaurant on the 7th floor of Three on the Bund, the high end contemporary shopping and dining establishment central to the Bund. We had a brunch on a unusually pleasant Sunday, so we sat outside on the patio overlooking the Bund walkways and Pudong side. Fantastic view, I don't think there is anything better.
There is a two course brunch for 148rmb - I had a salmon terrine and sea bass with gnocchi and mushroom sauce, which were quite good. We split the three crepes, pretty good.
Service is pretty miserable. Expect to take a long time for your meal and service.
Almost all foreigners there, but I think most of Three on the Bund is.
Great bar in Bund, with (I think) a 6th floor balcony patio that has panoramic views of the Bund lights and skyline across the river. We were some of the first guests at their grand 're-opening' we were told.
Very expat, very little Asian faces, lots of champagne accompanied by sparklers. Wow.
We did a work dinner at the Moroccan fusion restaurant about a 3 minute walk from the JW Marriott Tomorrow Square, located right by Shanghai Art Museum and Kathleen 5 in a small park in a cute house in the middle of a lake. It was nice to see some green space in Shanghai.
There's a second story lounge as well as bar and dining space on the first floor. Good mojitos, plenty of Western alcoholic options, and pretty good food. Appetizer plates are nice, and Moroccan lamb shank was pretty good
Went back a second time, and loved the wagyu burger.
Sasha's is a lovely restaurant and bar located in a historic house on the corner of Dongping Lu and Hengshan Lu. Nice couch seating. Great bloody mary's and tea, that comes in clear pot and kept warm over candles. Yummy tomato, mozzarella and basil salad, and rest of menu looked quite good.
A low key bar in Leblon with incredible selection of the Brazilian liquor. While no one spoke English, we picked through their extensive menu (fortunately in English) and ordered 5R shots after the other, as well as other mixed cachaça shots. The Brazilian cherry one was kind of a miss, but I liked the shot with honey and brown sugar. My brother had had a shot of a really good cachaça at dinner – unfortunately the name is lost, but it was about 20R and totally worth it.
Three story beer house that we happened to stop for lunch during out Rio sightseeing tour. Our tour guide kind of made fun of us for wanting to try feijeoda, a black-bean dish cooked with salted pork and other meats. It is served with rice and stewed kale, and typically eaten on Saturdays. Super yummy, though rich, we had several refreshing glasses of chope (draft beer) and also fried fish and cheese.
We stopped in here for a post-dinner drink because the recommended bar down the street, Devassa, was too packed. No matter, we loved this place – got some chope, or draft beer and a plate of chicken hearts, which was perfectly grilled and super garlicky, we have been talking about it all week! I had a yummy spicy tomato juice, which we were split on whether it had none or a ton of alcohol, but good either way. This is also a hang out of Tom Jobim and Vinícius de Moraes, of the famous bossa nova “Girl from Ipanema,” bar eponymously named.
We came here again for our last Rio lunch. We had the chicken hearts again, and palm heart salad, pizza, fried fish, soup and sandwiches.
Trendy faux-Japanese bar but with great sake list and some shochu. Great place to snack on edamame with Sapporo off tap and sake sampler. If you like sweet, go Suishin. More dry, try Otokoyama.
Junnoon is an "eclectic modern Indian" restaurant with a great sitting/lounge area in the front, which is perfect for a pitcher of mojito before dinner.
Lavanda is a University Ave Italian place with a good bar for drinks and nice dining room. Alka and I had their pick-three-antipasti-for-$15 with grilled calamari (cold), grilled shrimp skewers (hot and yummy) and potatoes with brava sauce (I love it). Alka had her wine and salad, and I had some tea, so not a huge dinner -- about $40. Service was a little funky. I didn't think we were there that late (9pm) but they kind of rushed us at the end.
I think Century Avenue is the best way to experience the World Financial Center in Pudong, Shanghai's tallest building (for now). 
