The Merchants

Should You Book The Merchants?

If you are deciding between The Merchants and Yè Shanghai in Tsim Sha Tsui for Shanghainese dining in Hong Kong, the choice comes down to setting and price positioning. Yè Shanghai leans on a well-known formula; The Merchants, positioned on floors 43–45 of Gloucester Tower in Central's Landmark complex, offers the same cuisine category with a views-and-altitude premium and back-to-back Michelin Plate recognition in 2024 and 2025. At the $$$ price tier, it sits below the city's top-table splurge bracket while delivering enough credibility to make it a defensible choice for a business lunch or a considered dinner with someone who appreciates regional Chinese cooking done properly.

The Venue Portrait

The Merchants occupies a rare slice of real estate in Central: a Shanghainese kitchen at significant height in one of the district's most address-conscious towers. The Landmark building draws a clientele that expects a certain level of finish, and the restaurant's Michelin Plate status — awarded in both 2024 and 2025 — signals that the kitchen is producing food worth taking seriously, even if it has not yet crossed into starred territory. For a returning visitor deciding what to try next, that gap between Plate and Star is actually useful information: you are getting food that the Michelin inspectors found worthy of attention at a price point that does not require the commitment of a full tasting-menu budget.

Shanghainese cuisine as a category rewards patience and familiarity. The cooking tradition leans on careful braising, precise sauce work, and the kind of restrained sweetness that distinguishes Shanghainese preparations from Cantonese or Sichuan alternatives. The aromatic register in a well-run Shanghainese kitchen tends toward soy, Shaoxing wine, and slow-rendered pork fat , the sort of base-note scent that builds gradually from the kitchen rather than hitting you at the door. If you have eaten here once and found the food technically correct but slightly cautious, a return visit focused on the kitchen's more traditional preparations is likely to be more rewarding than chasing novelty. Venues like Liu Yuan Pavilion and Jardin de Jade in Wan Chai offer a useful calibration point for what committed Shanghainese cooking looks like across the city.

Lunch vs Dinner: Where the Value Sits

This is where the practical calculation matters most. At the $$$ price point in a Central tower, dinner carries an implicit premium in expectation and occasion , you are paying for the full experience of the setting, the service rhythm, and the altitude. Lunch, by contrast, is where the value proposition sharpens. Central's lunch trade is driven by proximity and efficiency; a Michelin Plate venue at this address will attract a professional crowd who expect quality without ceremony. If you are deciding when to go, lunch gives you the same kitchen at a pace and price that tends to feel more proportionate. For a dinner comparison at a similar price tier, Feuille in the $$$ bracket offers a French Contemporary alternative that may suit a more occasion-driven booking. For dinner at The Merchants specifically, the refined setting earns its keep if you are entertaining or want the full Central skyline framing , but for a first return visit, a weekday lunch is the lower-risk, higher-value entry point.

For context on how Shanghainese cooking travels across formats and cities, the benchmark kitchens are worth knowing: Fu 1088, Fu 1015, and Fu 1039 in Shanghai represent the upper register of the genre; Lao Zheng Xing and Cheng Long Hang in Huangpu anchor the more traditional end. The Merchants is operating in a Hong Kong market where genuine Shanghainese specialists are not overwhelmingly common , Wu Kong Shanghai Restaurant and Wing Lai Yuen cover parts of the same audience , which gives The Merchants a more specific position than the venue count in Central might suggest.

Timing and Booking

Booking difficulty here is moderate. The address and Michelin recognition mean you should not assume availability on short notice for peak dinner slots, particularly Friday and Saturday evenings. Weekday lunches and early-week dinners are more accessible. The Google rating sits at 4.3 across 45 reviews , a small sample that suggests a consistent but not yet widely reviewed experience, which is worth factoring in: the venue is not operating at a volume where crowd-sourced consensus is fully formed.

Reservations: Book in advance for weekend dinners; weekday lunch is more accessible but worth confirming. Budget: $$$ , expect a meaningful spend without reaching the city's top-end price ceiling. Dress: Smart casual is the floor given the address and Michelin recognition; business dress is appropriate and common at lunch. Access: 43–45/F, Gloucester Tower, Landmark, 15 Queen's Road Central , connected to the Central MTR via the Landmark mall network.

For more on dining and staying in Hong Kong, see our full Hong Kong restaurants guide, our full Hong Kong hotels guide, our full Hong Kong bars guide, our full Hong Kong wineries guide, and our full Hong Kong experiences guide. If you are planning broader dining in Central and want contrast, Le Salon de Thé de Joël Robuchon at ifc mall offers a lighter daytime option nearby. For a very different piece of Hong Kong dining history, the former Jumbo Floating Restaurant in Aberdeen is worth knowing about as context for how Chinese dining traditions have evolved in the city. And if Shanghainese cooking is your focus across the region, Shanghai Cuisine in Beijing is a useful reference point for how the style adapts to a northern Chinese market.