The Long Bar at the Waldorf Astoria

Hilton Hotel Group has brought the Waldorf Astoria to Shanghai. Housed in a new tower and the Heritage Building, which was once the Shanghai Club, the Waldorf Astoria sits at Number 2 on the Bund. The Shanghai Club was once the most exclusive club in the city during Shanghai's former glory days in the 1930s. The Waldorf Astoria has refurbished the former club's Long Bar, right down to the 34-meter-long mahogany bar that runs the length of the room. You're steeped in history when you sink into a leather chair for a whiskey at the Long Bar.

No. 2, Zhong Shan Dong Yi Road, Shanghai | 中山东一路2号 ｜ tel +86 (0)21 6322 9988 | fax +86 (0)21 6321 9888 | web www.waldorfastoria.com

Bund Area

Expensive to Very Expensive - Be prepared to shell out some serious cash for a few drinks and nibbles at the Long Bar. While food portions are a little on the light side, the drinks are large and delicious.

Daily 11am - 1am

The Long Bar has become a frequent stop on our Bund Walk afternoons with friends and visitors. With its history, you would think it would be a terribly formal place but while it oozes class, it's quite low-key. I've sought shelter at the Long Bar on a cold afternoon after a rainy walk with my husband, two kids and father and I've also been with friends on a weekend evening night-on-the-town. Both times, I've found the bar to be the perfect place for a drink and the drinks, I must add, are fabulous.

I haven't gone in for their famous Zaza (notoriously famous as Queen Elizabeth II's favorite cocktail at the New York bar) or the Waldorf Cocktail. We stuck with classics like whiskey sours and bloody marys. Both were excellently concocted so well so that my husband followed the waiter down to the bar to watch the bartender make his second whiskey sour - it was that good.

The nibbles are expensive and small, so I wouldn't go there hungry. But they do have a sumptuous oyster bar at the back that is highly tempting.

Make sure you try to get seats at the eastern side of the bar so you'll have the view out onto the Huang Pu River and Pudong. When the sun sets and the lights come on, the view is stunning. As you sip your drinks, remember that only the Taipans were allowed to sit where you're sitting when the Long Bar was part of the Shanghai Club in the 1930s. Newcomers had to sit at the end of the 34-meter bar (that's a long way from the windows) and network their way up. Things are a little less socially complicated these days.