Hong Gong Guan

Hong Gong Guan (Red Mansion) occupies a grand Republican-era villa of the kind Nanjing is famous for, and its dining rooms - chandeliers, parquet, sepia portraits - recreate the elegance of 1920s official banquets.

The kitchen serves Huaiyang cuisine, the refined Jiangsu tradition of knife work and clear broths: lion's head meatballs, boiled dry tofu, and the region's famous soups. It is the restaurant Nanjing chooses for weddings and business dinners, and it photographs like a film set. English menus and staff who explain the Republic-era stories behind each room make it a cultural evening as much as a meal.