One Year Of Shanghai Me And Why London Is Buying Into Dubai-Born Luxury

Shanghai Me London after dark, where the 28th-floor Bund Lounge takes the restaurant from dinner into late-night Mayfair and reflects the Dubai-born brand’s emphasis on creating an entire evening under one roof.

Shanghai Me London

There was a time when the direction of travel in luxury hospitality felt fairly predictable. London, Paris and New York created the restaurants, hotels and lifestyle brands; Dubai imported them.

How quickly things change.

On 23 July, Shanghai Me London celebrated its first anniversary, marking 12 months in one of the capital’s most competitive hospitality markets. Sitting 28 floors above Park Lane in the London Hilton, looking across Hyde Park towards Buckingham Palace and beyond, it has taken over an address that London diners of a certain vintage will remember as Galvin at Windows.

The former occupant represented a particular era of London fine dining: formal, European and reassuringly traditional. Shanghai Me has filled the same extraordinary piece of real estate with something altogether different - 1930s Shanghai glamour, Chinese and East Asian cooking, deep reds and golds, late-night cocktails and the unmistakable confidence of contemporary Dubai hospitality.

And London appears to have approved.

Earlier this year, Time Out named Shanghai Me the best London restaurant with a view, praising not simply its extraordinary vantage point but the food, service and rather fabulous people-watching that accompanies it.

Yet after its first year, I’m increasingly interested in what Shanghai Me represents beyond the 28th floor.

Because this isn’t simply the story of another successful Mayfair restaurant. It’s evidence of a reversal taking place in global hospitality, with Dubai becoming the successful export.

From Imported Luxury To Made In Dubai

Shanghai Me belongs to Fundamental Hospitality, the Dubai-headquartered group founded by Evgeny Kuzin with chef and co-founder Izu Ani among the creative forces behind its restaurant portfolio.

Its London footprint already includes GAIA in Mayfair and La Maison Ani in Knightsbridge, meaning Shanghai Me didn’t arrive as an isolated experiment, more of a deliberate international expansion of hospitality brands conceived and proven in the Middle East.

For years, Dubai’s restaurant landscape was built partly around importing famous international names. A successful concept from London, Paris, New York or Milan could find another lucrative audience in the Gulf. Fundamental Hospitality has inverted the model.

Build in Dubai. Prove it in one of the world’s most demanding luxury markets. Then export it.

And the money behind that ambition is substantial. Fundamental Hospitality is pursuing a $200 million global expansion programme, with plans reported earlier this year to open around 15 restaurants during 2026 across the GCC, Europe and the United States. Its venues welcomed more than five million guests globally in 2025, with the group forecasting that figure could exceed 10 million during 2026.

Selling The Whole Evening

Fundamental Hospitality also understands something increasingly important about today’s premium consumer: dinner doesn’t necessarily need to end with dessert.

Shanghai Me has been designed around the whole evening.

Chef Izu Ani’s menu combines Chinese and East Asian influences with Japanese precision, taking recognisable dishes and ingredients into much more indulgent territory. The surroundings are deliberately theatrical rather than fashionably restrained, with designer Richard Saunders leaning into lacquer, velvet, dramatic lighting and Art Deco references.

The Bund Lounge offers an adjoining cocktail space, retaining both the customer and their discretionary spend for considerably longer.

When the most expensive part of hospitality is often acquiring the customer in the first place, allowing them to leave after two hours means surrendering their next transaction to somebody else, yet The Bund Lounge offers credible ‘after dinner’ offer.

Its Chinese Zodiac-inspired brand world, cocktails and late-night energy turn the restaurant into something closer to a contained lifestyle experience. It also reflects a wider change across premium hospitality, where consumers increasingly expect restaurants to deliver theatre, entertainment and social currency alongside excellent food.

Why Mayfair, Why Now?

Mayfair and the wider West End are undergoing one of their most substantial periods of reinvestment in decades. Oxford Street, immediately to the north, is moving towards pedestrianisation, with the first western section expected to close to traffic by the end of August 2026. The newly established Oxford Street Development Corporation has been explicitly tasked with turning the district into a stronger destination for shopping, leisure and events.

The economics involved are enormous. Oxford Street alone is estimated to contribute around £25 billion annually to London’s economy, while accommodation and food services account for around 12% of employment across the wider West End.

The future of London’s most valuable shopping districts isn’t going to be built through retail alone. Consumers need reasons to stay longer: restaurants, hotels, culture, public spaces and experiences that turn a shopping trip into half a day, or an evening.

It’s why the transformation taking place around Oxford Street, Bond Street and Mayfair should interest restaurant groups just as much as property developers and retailers. London City Hall itself has acknowledged that Oxford Street may need to diversify further into leisure and hospitality as part of its next chapter.

Perhaps that is the real story of Shanghai Me’s first year. It has successfully brought a Dubai-born hospitality concept into one of the world’s most competitive dining markets, captured London’s appetite for a more energetic and experiential version of luxury, and demonstrated that the traditional flow of hospitality influence is changing.

As Mayfair itself evolves, Shanghai Me is a strong example of what the next generation of premium dining may look like: international, highly social, experience-led and designed around far more than what arrives on the plate.