A few people have asked what restaurant served that live lobster. The restaurant is Dynasty and it’s unlike any restaurant you’ve ever seen – at least on this side of the world. Dynasty is a restaurant in Shanghai (the city has three of them). Created because Deng Xiaoping said, “To get rich is glorious!” Dynasty is a perfect example of conspicuous consumption ran amok. Today’s China is getting very rich. The country has over 300,000 citizens with net worth of over $1 million US, excluding property. Nowhere is this more evident than in Shanghai, China’s biggest and richest city.
Dynasty caters to Shanghai’s high society class, government officials with expense accounts, and foreigners wishing to experience a restaurant that is beyond anything they can get back home. Dynasty is five stories tall and looks more like a grand hotel than a restaurant. The floors are made from imported marble and there is gold everywhere. All the dinning rooms are private except the open dining area on the fifth floor.
The service at Dynasty is fit for royalty. No less than six female greeters welcome you when you enter the restaurant. One greeter will escort you to the elevator to take you to your floor. A greeter inside the elevator pushes the floor button so you don’t have to. When the elevator door opens, two more greeters will be waiting to take you to your table or private dining room. If you decide to take a walk through the restaurant, on coming waiters and hosts will stand aside and bow their heads as you walk by. It’s really quite overwhelming.
How much does a Dynasty experience cost? My dinner bill came to 1000RMB, which works out to $125US. You have to love that US exchange rate! 
Keep in mind that the average factory worker in China makes $100US a month. Here are some more photos.
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{ 98 comments }
Sweet goodness. That’s ridiculous. Though, the price for all of that actually seems comparatively low. But that all of that interior decoration really is just over the top.
Dynasty – It really does feel like immersing oneself to an age back then, and living like a king for a meal. What say you?
The price is low if you can bring North American dollars. As John said, the average Chinese worker earns that much in a month.
I saw one of the worlds best footballer house.Seemed like it was a Five Start hotel.They spend money to beat the top star hotels
All addsd to the experience I supppose, would certainly impress….
Dugg!
http://digg.com/offbeat_news/Dynasty_One_of_Shanhai_s_fanciest_restaurants/
Yes, I realize I made a typo.
Wow that is one nice looking restaurant, and to think I thought you were in Vancouver
I did too, John didn’t tell us he wasn’t home – I guess the Root Of All Evil has to keep us out of the loop.
Guess he likes to give surprises.Thats what readers too like.Out of nowhere and it rocks
Same here…well, actually I thought it was Vegas personally.
It could pass for a restaurant at the Venetian or the Bellagio!
perhaps this is why kwan has been posting so much… johns away so the kwan will play.
* Grins, that is how one describes a person who is lending a helping hand? Being away does not warrant the blog to remain ‘static’ I guess, in John’s opinion.
WordPress has a great feature that lets you publish posts in the future, so your site doesn’t have to be “static”!
Thats what is Web2.0. Read and Write and Web 3.o Will be read write execute.It will rock
I should use this, to be honest I ignore all the good advice about posting frequency and just let them go, even if I know I wont post for a while. I just like to see them on my blog imediately
Lol so thats one more strategy i found.
That sounds a little funny, What’s Kwan playing with…
…is that some kind of tin take-out dish next to the lobster? What kind of high class restaurant serves food in those!?
LOL! $125 bucks for all that? Man, I’d be crazy rich in China.
Looks like aluminum foil
I think the chicken was cooked in that….
John?
That was stewed pork.
Sorry, it was hard to tell from the picture!
Saman = -1 Evil Point
Lol come down to india , with the money JC earns he will be king.LOL
Wouldn’t we all?
I kid, I kid…
May be not.It depends may be they made it like for looks or surving style but JC will be able to tell better.
Well, such places like this for reserved for the high-and-mighty. You know what they call this? ‘Fine dinning’.
Lol naw u just say spend some extra money.It depends on your taste.
With that kind of talk John could buy Dynasty no problem.
Look at that deadly pile of cooked spinach.
barf
Whoa!
Very Nice!
Wow that cost much less than I expected… but I have a question: what is an RMB?!
RMB = the currency of China. Ren Min Bi is more commonly known as RMB.
Ren Min Bi roughly translates to “The People’s Money”
John me too thaught you were in Vancouver
With regard t the Chinese alary , here in India also an average factory worker gets not more than USD 125 a month
Thats a new thing.Making it popularize as peoples money its a good strategy of government
What camera do you use? I have been dynasty before. It is beautiful, but not as stunning as it looks as in your photo!
Those photos were taken with a Canon SD300.
I have asked you this many a time before but you never replid,, any way please post some photos of the camera
You can read my review of the SD300 here: http://www.thetechzone.com/?m=show&id=328
I love the canon’s, I have an SD550 that I got about a 1.5 ago. I had a Rebel before that and I think I prefer my rebel. You can do soooooo much more with it.
It looks like a hotel in Vegas. Are you sure you didn’t take a quick trip out there??
Lol who knows JC’s Ideas had been rocking !!! I hope thats not vegas lol
So what you’re saying is I can take a year’s salary, go to China, and live in a house of gold? Nice.
You can. It depends on where you want to live. There’s a new saying in Shanghai, “No matter how rich you are, there are parts of Shanghai that can make you feel poor.”
A walk through the new financial district will do that.
They know how to spend some money… and there will always be someone richer than you.
Ah hem.. It looks, and feels really high class yea? At my age, I still can’t go around spending that much money on a meal, yet.
That looks totally ridiculous. The phony ‘high class’ of China is one of the funniest things about that country
Yeah, I mean when will they learn that the true symbol of wealth is 28″ rims, LCD screens in your headrests and fabulous clothes for your micro sized dog. They’re so tacky. Someday the rest of the world will stop being so silly and get with it
OHH! HAHAHAHA Now that is hilarious – but so true!
Well, not everywhere will be defined ‘high-class’. It is still in the process of development, even the developed countries do not portray high-class standards everywhere! Where it is needed, will it take place.
LOL you just blew china? What do you mean BTW
Not sure its phony, must have cost a fortune, not in the best taste perhaps, but impressive all the same
ABSOLUUUUUUTELY GORGEOUS!!!!!!!
But how was the quality of the food overall?
You can spend that kind of money at a good live seafood place in NYC of SF and eat really well.
(But not as luxuriously)
The live lobster, which accounted for 60% of the entire bill, was fantastic! All the other dishes were very good as well, especially that tin foil dish.
Wow 60% of the bill, is the best dish of that hotel or something? or is it because it is alive
I think it’s expensive because the lobster is imported and it’s used for 3 courses.
Unbelievable! Tell us more about the live lobster. That sounds very interesting, not to mention disgusting.
Yeah even i am looking for a good description on it.Hey JC if you reading this do tell u !!
I wrote about the live lobster in this post: http://www.johnchow.com/playing-with-my-food/
Thanks JC.Now i will solve the puzzle of Live lobster
JC, Just wanted to know did the top commentators list got reset?
Ashish
The list gets reset every night. It shows a running seven day total, so it never goes to zero.
Oh my god, that’s pretty intense. I feel really out of place there lol.
It looks amazing though.
Live lobster? Sounds…different
. I’m not a fan of any seafood though lol.
Neither am I, nor am I a fan of food that’s still alive just before I eat it.
Ryan: You kidding right?
non-sense. You would fit right in! The only thing that makes you not fit in is the self perception of not fitting in…that or you really don’t fit in.
Wow very very nice and for only 125 I would say its a great deal. Hope I can take my mom there with me some day
JC
Yeah, I have been to a couple mom and pop restaurants in LA that are about the same price. No where near the elagence.
Holy hemeroids batman!!! Wow. I’m coming to Canada in June but I might have to change my plans to go to China instead. How was the view out over the city from where you were John?
Wow!! This place looks amazing and because of the exchange rate even I could easily afford to eat there.
I’ve spent that money in places that don’t even look one hundredth as fancy as that one does :S!
WOW!!! Very beautiful and extravaganza restaurant…looks like hotel.
hmm must be expansive…
Yea, a hundred plus in US dollars term is pretty much alot. In China, fancy restaurants like this go by themselves and occupy a single building.
I think it’d be pretty amazing to spent relatively small amounts of money while in the nation you’re in it might be a small fortune – feeling a bit like king in the castle I suppose
.
Yea, it is akin to the feeling of being ‘one of the richest man in the world’. You will know it when you are there.
yeah you can walk around for a while feeling happy, but thats why we gather money isnt it?
In a way, that is. Of course spending it on good food is well worth the money. Better than spending on ‘worthless’ luxuries.
Just make me hungry when the first thing in the morning is checking Johnchow.com.
Amazing restaurant.. I will check it out when I land in China!
There are so many restaurants in China that I doubt that you will even be able to find it. Go check the rest out too!
I am sure if we start our private discussion here JC will be moderating the comments.
wow.. that’s really look like a palace. OMG. I will go there one day.
damn looks fun
, i need to go to china
That’s a pretty nice looking resteraunt:)
Excellent pictures!! Now I am hungry!
The amoutn fo comments on such a simple post about food is just amazing.. the top commentators plugin does it I guess.
Not only the plugin, but rather the change in the plugin. Previously people would give up trying to get on the top list one week in. Now since it changes weekly, there’s an opportunity for anyone to make it at any particular time. Hence the increase in comments, particularly one liners…
yeah its benefit for ppl who can hog on JC blog for all day..not for ppl who have to invest time other places to.I would prefer some other way where even ppl making good comments can get a chance not just ppl who made mazimum comments.
One of the greatest drawback i found in brains threaded comment is it does not tell from where the comment came from.You have to scroll through the comments to find the right place where the comment was made.Its should be easy to update it but
Is that a “man purse” you’re carrying John?
No, that was the backpack for my Dell XPS. LOL
I love the colors (tones) in that restaurant. It makes me just want to sit and relax all day long.
woah man! the lobster!
Personal Development
Hi John: Thanks for the review. Last week we went to this restaurant. Outrageous prices, but we enjoyed the experience. Forgive me, but I borrowed one of your pictures of the table settings. I gave you photo credit. I just wanted to show my friends and relatives the table setting. I took picture of the food, but forgot to take photo of the interior because I was so in awe
http://picasaweb.google.com/skwoo1/DinnerAtDynasty
I love food…anyway…this was the first post I ever saw on JohnChow.com. Now, less than 2 weeks later, I have my own blog. I hope to have enough money to eat at restaurants like this someday.