We Ate at a North Korean Restaurant in Shanghai (The Food, The Show, The Dilemma)

At A Glance: Visiting Pyongyang Koryo Shanghai

Location	2nd Floor, Tong Mao Hotel (通茂大酒店), 357 Songlin Rd, Pudong, Shanghai
Chinese Address for Didi	深圳市浦东新区松林路357号通茂大酒店2楼
Best Time to Arrive	6:15 PM – 6:30 PM (Show begins strictly at 7:00 PM)
Average Cost	¥120 – ¥200 ($17–$28 USD) per person
Reservations	Recommended for stage-view seating (Ask hotel concierge to call ahead)
Payment Accepted	Alipay / WeChat Pay (Foreign Visa/Mastercard works)

How to Find Pyongyang Koryo North Korean Restaurant in Shanghai

Finding Pyongyang Koryo (平壤高丽馆), Shanghai’s official North Korean state-run restaurant—feels more like a covert operation than dinner. Hidden on the second floor of the quiet Tong Mao Hotel in Pudong, it operates with almost zero English signage or public advertising. The hotel’s website lists their Chinese restaurant and their Western restaurant. It does not list the North Korean one. There is no English sign outside. The only indication you’re in the right place is a small sign in Korean near the elevator, and if you don’t read Korean (we don’t) you could walk past it three times.

We found it eventually. Took the elevator up, walked through a quiet corridor, and there it was. A hostess in traditional dress smiled and gestured us in.

We were in.

Inside the Pyongyang Koryo Dining Room

The dining room is bigger than you’d expect from the entrance. Dark wood furniture, low lighting, a stage at the front with traditional instruments set up and ready to go. Tables spaced generously. A mix of groups – mostly Chinese, a table of Russian speakers, a few couples. Several tables had bottles of soju and plates of fruit arranged like someone was celebrating something. Birthday energy, if not necessarily a birthday.

We were seated in the back room, without a view of the stage as we came without a reservation. A waitress appeared immediately. The menu was extensive with full-color photos, Korean dishes we recognized and plenty we didn’t. All the waitresses are young women in their early twenties, dressed in traditional Korean hanbok. They speak multiple languages. Ours cycled through Mandarin, Korean, and English without pausing, and she did it with a warmth that felt genuinely hospitable.

(I should note: she was also mic’d. They all are. For the show.)

What We Ate at the North Korean Restaurant

We ordered Taedonggang beer, the most famous beer in North Korea, and honestly the main reason we wanted to try it. They brought it out with a bowl of free nuts and some complimentary appetizers. Kimchi, pickled vegetables, the kind of small plates that signal a restaurant that knows what it’s doing.

(The beer is fine, by the way. Light lager, nothing offensive, nothing remarkable. Drinkable. You try it because you can say you did.)

We opted for a classic North Korean-style bulgogi beef skillet alongside cold buckwheat noodles (Pyongyang naengmyeon). The flavors were distinctly milder and far less sweet than typical South Korean dishes—honest, simple, and functional.The food is not the reason you come here. You come here for the experience, and the food is the price of admission.

The North Korean Restaurant Show: What to Expect

And then the show started. We left our table and stood in the rear of the room with the stage. Good thing we didn’t have hot food yet.

The lights dimmed. The same women who had been taking our orders and pouring our tea moments earlier were now playing instruments, singing, dancing, and doing acrobatics. The transformation was immediate and impressive.

And they were good. Like, genuinely talented. Traditional Korean folk songs on electric guitar and accordion. Drum numbers that required real skill. A dance routine that was tightly choreographed. One woman sang a Chinese pop song from the 1970s with perfect pronunciation. Another did an acrobatic routine that had the whole room watching.

The show is roughly a half-hour, and they never stop moving. Every performer keeps a smile on their face the entire time.

(Here’s the thing about the smile. It’s compulsory. You can’t unsee it once you notice.)

The interactive parts were unexpected. They came around to tables, invited people up to the stage for photos, taught a simple dance move one person at a time. A few Chinese businessmen got pulled up and posed for pictures with exaggerated seriousness. It was fun. The room was into it. People were laughing and clapping and genuinely enjoying themselves.

At one point we noticed a separate room off to the side, more private. Later we saw the same show happening in there for a different group, a smaller, more intimate version. The same girls, doing the same routines, in a different room. They work hard.

When ready to pay, I was pleasantly surprised that Alipay worked fine. I’d been worried, honestly. I’d read conflicting reports about whether these restaurants accept foreign cards or only cash. Ours went through without a hitch. Visa card linked to Alipay, scanned the QR code, done.

Ethical Considerations: Is It Moral to Eat at a North Korean State Restaurant?

Navigating North Korean restaurant ethics is tricky: before stepping through the doors, travelers must weigh supporting state-controlled enterprises against gaining rare cultural insight.

There are roughly 130 (at its peak) state-owned North Korean restaurants across 12 countries, mostly in China. The staff are selected from elite families in Pyongyang. They’re university graduates. They speak multiple languages. And they work here on rotations that typically last two to four years.

What you don’t know (what nobody outside those walls know) is how much of their wages they actually keep. Whether they’re free to leave the hotel. Whether they’ve seen anything of Shanghai beyond the Tong Mao Hotel’s lobby and the second-floor dining room.

(The answer to the second question is almost certainly no. Hotel and back. That’s the rotation.)

There’s also the question of where the money goes. These are state-owned restaurants. The revenue runs through state channels. There are people who will tell you that eating here means your money supports an administration that’s actively involved in the war in Ukraine. I can’t verify that directly. But it’s a reasonable concern and it deserves to be stated.

We sat with that for a while after the meal. Enjoyed the show. Felt the tension of enjoying it. Left with the feeling that we’d experienced something real and strange.

North Korean vs. South Korean Dining in Shanghai

Feature	Pyongyang Koryo (North Korean)	Standard Korean BBQ (South Korean)
Flavor Profile	Mild, subtle, less sweet, minimal spice	Bold, sweet, heavily marinated, spicy
Signature Item	Taedonggang Beer, Pyongyang Naengmyeon	Samgyeopsal, Korean Fried Chicken
Atmosphere	Formal, retro-80s banquet hall, quiet	Lively, loud, modern grillhouse
Entertainment	Live traditional dance, songs, acrobatics	K-Pop music videos, background music
Photography	Restricted (Allowed mainly during show)	Unrestricted

Pyongyang Koryo Restaurant Shanghai: Location, Hours & Prices

Location: Tong Mao Hotel, 357 Song Lin Road, Pudong. 2nd floor. There’s no English signage from the street. Look for the hotel, go inside, take the elevator up, follow the corridor.

Metro: Shuicheng Road Station on Line 10 for the Changning location. For the Pudong location, take Metro Line 2 or 4 to Century Avenue Station, followed by a 5-minute Didi ride. Show the driver this address in Chinese: 浦东新区松林路357号通茂大酒店2楼.

Hours: Dinner service only. Show starts at 7:00 PM. Two seatings per evening.

Price: Roughly ¥100 per person without alcohol. Taedonggang beer runs about ¥70 a bottle.

Payment: Alipay and WeChat Pay work.

Phones: Discouraged during the meal. Staff will let you know when it’s okay to take photos – typically during the interactive part of the show. Otherwise, keep it put away. They are, however, happy to take photos of you.

Is the Shanghai North Korean Restaurant Worth Visiting?

The food is average. The show is impressive. The ethical questions are real and you have to answer them for yourself. I can tell you what we experienced and I can tell you that we’re still thinking about it weeks later. Whether that’s worth a visit is your call.

FAQs About the North Korean Restaurant in Shanghai

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