MercatoMercato

About This Restaurant

Jean-Georges Vongerichten's Italian restaurant on the Bund, combining rustic Italian cooking with stunning river views and Shanghai flair. Mercato occupies a sprawling corner of the Bund's iconic Six Stories building, where floor-to-ceiling windows frame a panorama of the Pudong skyline that transforms into a constellation of lights as evening falls. The room is deliberately rougher than its Bund neighbors — exposed brick, reclaimed wood tables, and a long marble bar that invites lingering over natural wines. The menu is Jean-Georges' take on Italian coastal cooking: ingredient-driven, unfussy, and built around the wood-fired oven that anchors the open kitchen. The black truffle pizza is the undisputed signature — a thin, blistered Neapolitan base topped with fontina, mozzarella, a farm egg, and a generous shaving of black truffle that perfumes the entire table. Hand-rolled ricotta gnocchi, impossibly pillowy, arrive in a brown butter and sage sauce that tastes like autumn on a plate. The lobster pasta, a special more often available than not, piles generous chunks of Maine lobster over house-made tagliolini in a light tomato broth. The raw bar offers oysters, crudo, and beef carpaccio that rivals any in town. The weekend brunch is a scene — a three-course format that includes a Bloody Mary bar and a dessert tray that changes weekly.