The end of dining’s industrial revolution
A recent weekend jaunt through Shanghai's best restaurants impressed on me the importance of intimacy and warmth in dining. "Restaurants...have to feel authentic, organic and, above all, comfortable," stressed Michelle Garnaut, of M on the Bund, who expects to open Capital M in Beijing's Qianmen district.

Beijing's "au currant" canteens are often factories of food that highlight glass, steel, stone and concrete far better than the savory and natural fare we intend to ingest. Fortunately, murmurings within our high-end dining scene foresee a move away from the grand, often overwhelming spaces in many hotel restaurants, entertainment complexes and industrial lofts—and toward smaller, cozier eateries.

Historically, immediate, private interactions between individuals and food were stressed, as a peek inside any siheyuan shows. Xu Xiaoling, manager of Source in Nanluoguxiang, explains that they "want to keep things small so people will not be overwhelmed and be able feel at home." This Sichuan-style siheyuan, and award-winning Dali (Yunnan cuisine), both harken back to the way food used to be done in Beijing with their intimate, partitioned rooms.

Casa 13, a Spanish-colonial villa in Shanghai's French Concession, focuses on home-style Mediterranean. Owner Eduardo Vargas was so committed to enhancing the ambiance, he decided to scrap the distracting art work hanging on the walls. As a result, it was natural to slide into imbibing and chatting as though we'd known each other for years.

People complain they're tired of eating in dressed up concrete boxes. Morihisa Fujisaki, owner of Beijing’s cozy Le Café Igosso, sees "fashion, style, environment—and of course, food—as an entire package" with all parts complementing each other.

As Garnaut points out "so many restaurants start with a 'concept' and then develop the menu. Really, it should all start with the food and the experience of the dinner."

Manuela Zoninsein