Huangpu has its fair share of classy hotels and high-end restaurants, but with an atrium twinkling with Christmas lights and piano music, potted palms doing their best to scrape the high glass ceiling, and amenities that land the hotel squarely in the five-star category, The Westin Bund Center Shanghai is a hard act to beat.
At Time Out Shanghai, we’re big fans — you’ll see that from the display cabinet of awards we’ve bestowed upon the hotel’s restaurants.
The Bund-side hotel is perhaps best known for its buffet brunches — free-flow feasts famed for a side of exciting entertainment and plate after plate of high-quality, global cooking.
This holiday season, the beloved buffet is getting a festive twist for both Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Find out what’s on the menu and how you’re getting your money’s worth:
FESTIVE ROASTS
Picture this: a whole, golden turkey tucked up against plump sausages, a delicious cooked ham and cuts of flame-grilled American bone-in beef eye, all carved in front of you at a deck trimmed with tinsel — the very image of a Christmas feast.
Who could resist? The roast meats section alone is enough that you’ll be giving thanks to whoever it was that came up with the all-you-can-eat concept.
COLD SEAFOOD,
SUSHI & SASHIMI
At any limitless buffet it’s best to lay out a careful plan of attack...
You’ll need to take a spin past the seafood counter to load up on oysters, mussels, lobsters, and several varieties of prawns, but save space for the sushi and sashimi selection.
On top of the traditional fare, you’ll have Indian and Chinese food to squeeze in too!
That’s before you even get to the cold cuts and cold dishes. It is here where you’ll find a seasonal speciality...
SEASONAL SPECIALITY
Both buffets on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day include as many glasses of cocktails, wine, beer and soft drinks you can put away.
DESSERTS
THEMED
TREATS
A veritable feast for the stomach and the eyes, the dessert selection sees cakes styled like Christmas trees and pine cones, chocolate tartlets shaped like reindeers, and berry pies like baubles, not to mention tiramisu, jelly, and other sweet bites too numerous to list in full here. Expect to leave the hotel’s buffet with a satisfied sweet tooth.
LIVE ENTERTAINMENT
The restaurant where all this goes down is called The Stage — a fitting name, given the entertainment they lay on.
Between top ups of free-flow Champagne, and returns to the buffet counter, troupes of choir-backed dancers steal the show back from that drunken crab. They even have a full, live orchestra singing their hearts out.
…oh, and a special appearance from Santa Claus himself!
LUCKY DRAWS
Maybe it’s just us, but after a fine meal in a good hotel, conversation usually drifts towards the dreamy. We start asking questions like ‘How could we live here one day?’
Included in the price of your ticket, the buffets feature lucky draws with generous prizes!
The Christmas buffet has 50 prizes while the New Year’s Eve buffet has 30 prizes. Top wins include an iPad or an Apple Watch. Another is a two-night stay in the Shanghai Westin Executive Suite.
Two nights is a far cry from making this place a full-time home, but it’s also an offer you’d be crazy to pass up on when it comes from The Westin Bund Center Shanghai.
Christmas Eve Dinner Buffet
🗓️ Tuesday, December 24, 2024
⏰ 6 - 10 PM
🎟️ Early bird 898 RMB | Door price, 998 RMB | Kids from 4 - 12 years, 368 RMB
*All adults get four hours of free-flow drinks.
New Year’s Eve Dinner Buffet
🗓️ Tuesday, December 31, 2024
⏰ 6 - 10 PM
🎟️ Adults, 798 RMB | Kids from 4 - 12 years, 368 RMB
Can’t get enough of the goodies you’ve been enjoying at the festive buffets?
The good news is that The Westin Bund Center Shanghai sells some of them, as well as a few excellent extras in their Christmas Goodies range, from now until Jan 5, 2025. Details below:
Christmas Goodies
Take-away turkey package: 1288 RMB
Take-away ham package: 888 RMB
Christmas Stollen (500g): 105 RMB
Panettone: 168 RMB
Home-made gingerbread house: 228 RMB
Home-made gingerbread tree: Big, 108 RMB | Small, 60 RMB
Christmas cookies: 48 RMB
Christmas dolls: 68 RMB
Christmas card: 28 RMB
Nutcracker: 158 RMB
Christmas cutlery gift box: 68 RMB
📍The Westin Bund Center Shanghai,
88 Henan Zhong Road, Huangpu
☎️ 021-61035048 / 63351888-7368
Photos shot by the writer and provided by The Westin Bund Center Shanghai. This article is not to be replicated without prior consent.
