Shunfenglou Seafood Restaurant— Zhejiang, China

For Wenzhou natives, Shunfenglou has, for over 35 years, been a byword for home-style cooking and wok-seared seafood. Its second-generation owners, however, spotted an opportunity to modernise the brand.

The blue-on-blue interiors – lined with undulating gold waves, abstract fish-scales cut into perforated aluminium panels, and flashes of brass and silver around the door frames of the VIP private dining rooms – were conceived by Topos Design Clans, the Shanghai-based designers semaphoring a distinct aquatic theme, but, save for the shoals of copper fish decals on the terrazzo floor, avoiding overly literal tropes. 

Jin Ye, the mother of the owner, takes charge of the kitchen, sending out seemingly unending iterations of seafood-based delicacies, including fish skin braised with garlic, and san si qiao yu, a local favourite of fish cooked with chicken, ham and wood mushrooms.