North American

The Cheesecake Factory

My first experience with The Cheesecake Factory was at Walden Galleria, Buffalo, New York. I was surprised to find that it was a fully fledged restaurant with excellent food and not just a place for cheesecake. The Shanghai venues are no different. Located inside Taikoo Hui mall, a firm favourite with my son, this is a great place to have American style food. The portions are huge, so order carefully. Surprisingly, we rarely have any cheesecake because the food is so good we don't usually have any room left for dessert. Personal favourites include the Gumbo and the fish tacos. Food quality and service is always good here and it gets very busy at peak times. They have another location at Taikoo Li as well as the original location at Disney Town. In all locations, you may need to take a number and wait for a table at busy times.

Address:
3rd Floor, Taikoo Hui Mall, 288 Shimen Yi Road, Jingan District
静安区石门一路288号兴亚太古汇 3 楼

Cages

A huge sports bar with a decent selection of casual food (burgers, pizza, salads, pasta etc), countless screens to watch sports events live, lots of games like bowling, pool, pinball, basketball shooting hoops, darts and a lot more. Great for adults and kids. This may not seem like an obvious choice for Shanghai visitors, but I think it’s worth a trip to see how successful western style venues can be, even such a big venue like this. My pick of the food menu is the Jambalaya pasta - absolutely delicious with a slight chilli kick to it.

Address:
3rd Floor, 428 Jiangning Road, Jingan District
江宁路 428 号 3 楼

Lawry's The Prime Rib

The original location was opened in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles in 1938. It isn't cheap, so it is more suited for special occasions. Lawry's offers fantastic prime rib, which is basically what American's call roast beef. The beef is kept at the perfect temperature in special trolleys that also prevent the meat from drying out, so what you get is melt in the mouth, juicy cuts of tender beef. Opened in early 2024, this is Lawry's second attempt at conquering the Shanghai market after their failed first opening in Xintiandi. When that first location went dark, I used to fly to HK for my Lawry's fix (as well as Taipei), but now it's back, I can cross it off the Hong Kong to-do list whenever I visit. Don't waste time with their other options, just get the beef, ideally the Lawry's cut rather than some of the thinner cuts which just aren't the same. If you can't finish a Lawry's cut, just share with a friend. The beef is carved just before serving to your desired cut and comes with the famous spinning salad and Yorkshire puddings as well as mashed potatoes, which as a Brit, is the only negative I can think of here. For me, it has to be roasted potatoes, but I can overlook this faux pas because the beef is just so good.

Address:
B1, 168 Wuyi Road WYSH development, Changning District
武夷路168号B1, 近昭化路99号