The best viewing point on the Pujiang River is the Shanghai Mansion Ballroom. Originally known as Broadway Building, Shanghai Mansion was built in 1934 by British businessmen, this building located next to the Waibaidu Bridge was once a city symbol of Shanghai, and it is also one of the six old Shanghai hotels, and its banquet hall on the 17th floor is the earliest high-rise restaurant in Shanghai. State leaders Chen Yi, Zhou Enlai, Dong Biwu, Jiang Zemin, Zhu Rongji, and others, as well as Kim Il Sung, former general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, former French President Pompidouden, former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, and other dignitaries from many countries have all boarded the viewing platform of the banquet hall of the Shanghai Building to overlook the Pujiang River from the best vantage point. Shanghai Mansion is famous for its Huaiyang cuisine, and to this day, the 17th-floor ballroom is still a classic representative of the city's mid-to-high-end Huaiyang cuisine.

In fact, there are two Huaiyang restaurants in Shanghai Tower, one is the banquet hall on the 17th floor, and the other is Whampoa Xuan on the second floor. The two Huaiyang cuisine restaurants are produced by the same kitchen, and the banquet hall is an all-private room, and the finesse, environment and service of the dishes are better. The Huaiyang Cuisine Kitchen in Shanghai Mansion has gathered famous chefs in the past, the most prestigious of which is Wang Shoushan, the grandmaster of Huaiyang cuisine, who was once the master chef of Mr. Mei Lanfang's family banquet in Peking Opera, and has a close relationship with Mei Lanfang. Today's Chinese restaurant chef Zhou Weihao is a close disciple of Wang Shoushan and has been a chef in Shanghai Mansion for more than 20 years.

The Huaiyang cuisine of Shanghai Mansion adheres to the tradition, the style of cuisine is conservative, and the classic "three heads and one tail" of Huaiyang is the housekeeping ability of Shanghai Mansion. The most famous of the "three heads", the "lion's head", the presentation of Shanghai Mansion can be called perfect, the kung fu is in place, and the production is authentic. The selected pork belly is of high quality, finely chopped and coarsely chopped, and the ratio of fat and lean is configured according to the season, which is six points of fat and four points of fine in winter, and five points of fat and five points of fine in summer. The final shaping process, whether it is beating or seasoning, is handled by Chef Zhou himself, two taels each, all by hand and experience. The fat and lean ratio of the lion's head in Shanghai Mansion seems to be too much fat, but in fact, the fat has already softened after four hours of slow simmering, and the appearance is concave and convex, dissolving in the mouth, and the fishy smell is gone, which is the gist of "sunflower cutting meat".

The "one tail" in "Three Heads and One Tail", that is, the tail of the tiger, has always been a masterpiece of Shanghai Mansion. Tiger tail is a traditional dish in Yangzhou and Huaiyin area, which is made by taking the net meat of the eel tail and mixing it with the meat. The live eels of Shanghai Mansion are provided by a special breeding base, only the thickness of a pen, and the live eels are raised in the pond for a week after arriving at the store, and the sediment is spit out, which can better remove the earthy smell of the eel. When scalding the eel, only take a section of net meat above six inches of its tail, four catties of eel only out of one catty of tiger tail, the finished sauce garlic is fragrant, the eel tail meat is fresh and tender, soft and clear. The other two dishes of "three heads and one tail" are the stewed pig's head and the stewed silver carp head, among which the stewed pig's head has been famous for a long time, the meat is crispy and deboned and only the shape is crisp, soft and glutinous, the flavor is added, the braised silver carp head is also juicy and fresh, and the quality is excellent.

Although the banquet hall on the 17th floor of Shanghai Building and the Huangpu Xuan on the 2nd floor are produced by the same kitchen, the cooking skills, heat and intentions of Huangpu Xuan are much inferior to the 17th floor, and the price of 300 per capita is not cost-effective, so we only include the banquet hall on the 17th floor in the recommendation. Whampoa Xuan generally does not need to be located, while the banquet hall on the 17th floor only accepts advance reservations, and the menu is configured by the restaurant, with a minimum per capita meal standard of 600 yuan, if there are special requirements for individual dishes, it is recommended to book 2 to 3 days in advance. To enter the 17th floor by elevator, you need to indicate your reservation identity, and the waiter will swipe your card. The banquet hall has 7 private rooms, although the decoration is old but the charm still exists, with its own sightseeing platform, sitting on the top of the Huangpu River arc view, the Oriental Pearl, Lujiazui, Waibaidu Bridge and the Bund scenery in full view. As an old state-run hotel, the service of Shanghai Mansion is a complete minus, and the waiters have no sense of service at all, with a wooden attitude and rusty business.

The Huaiyang cuisine of Shanghai Mansion is no longer the top in today's view, the style of cuisine is old-fashioned, negligent in innovation, and it is naturally left behind by the rising star, but it is still diligent to maintain the traditional practices without losing the meaning of Huaiyang. Relatively speaking, the top-notch view has become the allure of the Shanghai Mansion Banquet Hall, but the all-private rooms and the reservation and catering system also make the banquet hall only open to family private banquets or official and business banquets, and the per capita price of thousands is really not worth the frequent visits of diners.