Prada and Wong Kar-Wai dream up a restaurant in Shanghai

A still from Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love (2000)

(Image credit: Courtesy of Janus Films)

Prada has announced the opening of its first standalone restaurant in Asia, a collaboration with acclaimed Hong Kong arthouse director Wong Kar-wai. The dining space will reside in Rong Zhai, a restored 1918 historic mansion and art venue in Shanghai inaugurated by the Prada Group in 2017 as a flexible hub for cultural activities in China.

Mi Shang Prada Rong Zhai, Shanghai

Named Mi Shang – meaning ‘to be obsessed with’ in Chinese – the restaurant will occupy the second floor, offering an all-day café service alongside a fine dining experience. The menu will centre on Italian cuisine infused with Chinese flavours, spanning breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, and evening cocktails, fostering a culinary dialogue between the two cultures.

Although yet to be fully unveiled, the design, led by Wong Kar-wai, promises to channel the distinctive aesthetics of his seminal films In the Mood for Love and Happy Together. The space will incorporate mirrors and contrasts to evoke the director’s signature illusory, sensual atmosphere. The concept also draws inspiration from the philatelic concept of tête-bêche – a pair of joined postage stamps where one has been printed upright and the other upside down, whether by design or accident.

‘The idea of reflection, adjacency, and correspondence hints at the intersection of two great cultures, connecting Milan and Shanghai in a visual dialogue that is both sophisticated and unique,’ Prada shares in a statement.

Prada’s engagement with cinema is longstanding, the brand having collaborated with directors Pedro Almodóvar, Danny Boyle, and Ava DuVernay, and also championed film conservation and funding initiatives. The group’s passion for the moving image is also seen in the design of Bar Luce at the Prada Foundation in Milan, conceived by American filmmaker Wes Anderson, as well as its in-house cinema, named after Franco-Swiss director Jean-Luc Godard.

Mi Shang Prada Rong Zhai will be located at No.186, North Shaan Xi Road, Jing’an District, Shanghai, China. It is scheduled to open to the public on 31 March 2025, with bookings taken from 29 March via WeChat mini-program; prada.com

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Sofia de la Cruz is the Travel Editor at Wallpaper*. A self-declared flâneuse, she feels most inspired when taking the role of a cultural observer – chronicling the essence of cities and remote corners through their nuances, rituals, and people. Her work lives at the intersection of art, design, and culture, often shaped by conversations with the photographers who capture these worlds through their lens.