A savvy 3-year-old

Shanghai's Hakkasan is a relative newcomer to the city's competitive dining scene, but it enjoys a big boost from a corporate parent that knows how to deliver an elegant experience, Mike Peters reports.

At first glance, Hakkasan seems like what many of my Chinese friends would dismiss as "Chinese food for foreigners". It's a global chain that began in London in 2001, with Michelin-starred locations around the world. It's nestled in the glitzy Bund, a fine-dining magnet for tourists and affluent Chinese. Dishes like "salad of Australian Wagyu rib-eye beef with black truffle" and "Sesame prawn toast with foie gras" leap off the first page of the menu.

But when I visit the popular restaurant in Shanghai with local friends, they find a lot to like. The menu, created by the Hakkasan Group's much-lauded head chef Tong Chee Hwee, boasts "a strong Chinese identity" and a reverence for local ingredients rather than a pure underpinning of traditionalism.