Southern Tour 南巡: Gong Yan 宫宴 Shanghai Traditional Chinese Imperial Dynasty Banquet Experience Restaurant Review

Want to dine like the good olden days? Dress up as a royal to dine and wine? This is your chance to do so when in Shanghai. Gong Yan 宫宴 Shanghai Traditional Chinese Imperial Dynasty Banquet Experience Restaurant is one of the hottest things in town right now. It is what everyone talks about! Reservations are mandatory and it goes off like hotcakes. You also get the opportunity to immerse in the experience by dressing up and getting into the theme with your outfit. You can dress up, set your hair and be called gentleman or lady. Enjoy a multi-course banquet-style dinner with staff in traditional outfits and performances. For more videos on this experience, you can check out my IG. It is time to live like a king!

Booking Process and Prices

The Gong Yan dining experience for lunch costs 498 CNY (VIP Seats) and 398 CNY (Normal). For dinner, it will be 698 CNY (VIP Seats) and 498 CNY (Normal). I highly recommend going for dinner at this rather lengthy affair. The dinner will take around 2 hours and by the time you are done with everything, it will be around 9.30pm to 10pm. If you get lunch, be prepared to spend the entire morning and half the afternoon here. If you want to do this, get the VIP Seats! The additional 100 – 200 CNY is worth getting an unblocked view for your viewing experience and photos/videos. Furthermore, you will get the full experience when they serve you drinks and food from the stage too. Some of these are done by the performers themselves rather than normal service staff for the ordinary seats.

Reservations are mandatory and the seats go like hotcakes. This is especially true for the VIP seats. There are two ways of making reservations. They have an online interface on the WeChat Mini Program where you can choose your dates, timings, seats and even upgrades for the extras online. I did not have much luck on this despite camping. They release slots up to 14 days ahead.

Little did I know that you can contact them directly via phone to make a reservation. Through this method, you can book up to 1 month ahead. You can also text them on WeChat. I managed to get VIP seats through this method and made the payment for the deposit via Alipay. All reservations require a 100 CNY deposit, refundable up to 48 hours before your reservations. They will refund you this 100 CNY on the day of your reservation when you turn up. You will then make full payment upon arrival in person.

When you make the booking, do let them know your dietary requirements as well. They will be able to make adjustments. We informed them that one of us does not take beef. If you are celebrating your birthday, do let them know as well. If you are coming here on the day of your birthday, they will throw in a complimentary outfit, hairstyle and makeup bundle.

Seat Map

VIP seats are first-row seats on both sides while the rest are ordinary seats.

Outfits / Hair / Makeup

You can get fully immersed into the experience by dressing up for the dinner too. They offer two different packages. Outfits and hairstyle cost 100 CNY and facial makeup cost another 100 CNY. For guys, there is no option for the facial makeup. For ladies, there is an additional option of doing makeup. The options for clothing here are extensive, you also get a fan for the full look. Staff will be on hand to advise and help you. There is no need to reserve this ahead and you can just pay for it at the time of arrival.

This is the chaotic part! They recommend you come early if you want to do your outfits, hair and makeup. The latter takes the longest. While they say that you can come no earlier than 4.30pm, come right on the dot at 4.30pm. We reached at 5pm and there was already a queue. Since there is limited space in the closet area, we were invited to take a seat in the banquet hall first. We were only done at 6.45pm which is quite a rush for the dinner which starts at 7pm. You will want to have some time to take pictures after finishing with your outfit and makeup. I feel the closet area is too small and it can get packed.

For guys, you just wear over your clothing, so don’t wear anything that is collared or high cut. For ladies, you have to queue for a waiting room. Then you have to queue for the styling which takes the longest. They did have these cute Ling Pai 令牌 or tokens that you use for the outfits/hairstyle and makeup.

The weird part here is your shoes, so either opt for something simple and plain like white school shoes or get yours online if you really want to blend in.

Restaurant Grounds / Photography

The lower level offers a little garden area for guests to take pictures with their outfits. While you can opt for their photo package at 498 CNY, you can also self-take yourself with your phone. Do make sure to cater some time for this. It is another reason to come right on the dot at 4.30pm, get everything done and snag some photos while it is still bright.

Gong Yan 宫宴 Imperial Dynasty Banquet Experience

I enjoyed the sound and lighting effects. They were top-notch. Some of them include these interactive show effects on your dining plates. The whole experience seems to tell a story from the Song Dynasty. It kind of alternates between a performance and a course of food.

First up when we got to the dining hall, the waitress ushered us to the seats and we were offered the choice of our tea cups! Wuyishan Da Hong Pao tea is served and they also check with us on our dietary requirements. HAHA they also address us as “Ling ren” (伶人) and “Gong zi” (公子)

On the table, you can also find some pastries, these are the 宫廷点心 or Royal Pastries.

Nearer to the banquet start time, there are already dancers performing the wine dance on stage and pouring them into your glasses. This is only offered for VIP seats. The 桂花青梅酒 Osmanthus Plum Wine is excellent. The drinks are refillable.

金华火腿豆腐汤 Jin Hua Ham n’ Tofu Soup

鮮黑机當虾球脆葱芋头 Black Truffle Shrimp Balls Taro

宫廷烩花胶 Stewed Fish Maw

东坡肉 Dongpo Pork

黑教脆改雪花牛肉 Crispy Black Pepper Beef

栗子鸡 Chestnut Chicken (Beef Substitute)

三丝鸿汤阳春面 Noodle, Chicken Soup, Winter Bamboo, Bean Sprout, Garlic Chive

桂花蜂蜜酸奶 Sweet Scented Osmanthus Honey Yogurt

Since we were celebrating a birthday, the staff came over to give us greetings and a bowl of birthday noodles. It was really cute that they had Happy Birthday carved with carrots.

There are way too many pictures and videos of the performance to share here. I will just insert a couple of them. For more, you can watch the highlights on my IG.

Conclusion

To be honest, I was expecting something different. It was surely fun but I didn’t expect it to be this hectic and tiring. For more videos on this experience, you can check out my IG. The sound and lighting effects are excellent. With this price point, I was expecting it to be more exclusive and the service to be better. I would say that the service is good, it is just way too crowded and busy making it feel like they are understaffed. It was so busy! We only managed to get here at 5 pm and it is already so busy. We only managed to get everything done at around 6.45pm and barely made it for the commencement of the dinner at 7pm. They will not delay the start no matter what. It is also quite a hassle to carry around all your belongings. I wish that they had some lockets or a closet area. We were stuck with holding on to our winter jackets and shopping bags. Try not to bring too many valuable shopping items or huge bags here. There is barely enough space for your jackets and clothes. I would still recommend this dining experience if you are in Shanghai. Just make sure to get the VIP seats and come on the dot at 4.30pm if you want the outfits, hairstyle and makeup. The performance is top notch and the food is pretty good too. Great experience!