In early June I was very lucky to be one of the first guests to experience Paul Pairet’s cooking skills at his new restaurant Ultraviolet. I wrote a blog post about the dinner in which I said that it was an incredible food experience for me. And it seems I am not the only one, because this week Ultraviolet was voted “Best New Restaurant in Shanghai” at the Shanghai Food and Drink Awards. Quite a feat considering that so far only about 650 people have been able to participate in this feast of the senses. Next to that Paul Pairet was voted “Best Chef” as well, and I fully agree with that.

I had been able to make reservations for my parents at Ultraviolet last Wednesday and I expected they would enjoy it as much as I did. My dad has had lunches and dinners in the best restaurants in the world during his career (my parents took me and my sister to top restaurants from a young age onward, for which I am very grateful), so I was looking forward to hearing his opinion. My parents thought it was amazing, they never had such a dinner before in their whole lives. I talked to them for at least half an hour after they came back (which was long after midnight!), they had a fantastic night and could not stop talking about it.

It was already hard to get seats at Ultraviolet, but now that the restaurant starts to get awards it will be impossible to make reservations. I just looked at their site, they open up reservations 90 days in advance, but there is only 1 seat available over the next 3 months. All other days are fully booked. That’s the downside: I would love to go back and experience the fantastic food once again, but it will be very hard to get seats. But I am very happy for Paul,Fabien and the rest of the team with this early success: Ultraviolet is a winner!