[New Eats] Le Zink Is What A Wine Bar Should Be

Copy Editor's Note: We're pleased to introduce Cindy Kuan as one of our newest contributors. A writer whose work spans travel, culture and editorial projects for major brands, Cindy has been based across Taipei, Medellín, Guadalajara and Shanghai. What she brings to these pages is something harder to teach than craft: instinct. Her writing is precise but warm, punchy but earned, with a restraint that trusts the reader to keep up. We think you'll notice. Welcome, Cindy.

What Is It?

Shanghai has many wine bars that also serve bistro food. So very many. There are plenty to look chic in, some engineered precisely for first dates, and some that do a sincerely good job at catering to both wine obsessives and casual drinkers.

Newcomer Le Zink is an old-school wine bar in the best sense of the term: owners on the floor, conversation encouraged, prices that make you pause (not because they're high, but because they're unexpectedly sane). It's a place that remembers what hospitality looks like, and still practices it.

The Space

In the center of Le Zink is a wrap-around counter that anchors the room. The inspiration comes from a traditional French bar format centered around a zinc counter – "le zinc" became French slang for the bar itself – that acts as a social engine: morning coffee, lunchtime wine and a quick bite, post-work apéro. People lean in, talk, and often stay longer than planned. That logic has been transplanted here with surprising fidelity.

The room seats around 35, intimate without feeling cramped. Music plays louder than you'd expect – Frank Ocean, Biggie, '90s indie rock – lending the place a relaxed, slightly irreverent energy that says: no jazz, no lo-fi, no performative Frenchness here.

The Concept

Le Zink is run by Arnaud Daviet and Laurent Minassian, two Frenchmen who've spent years managing some of Shanghai's better-known French restaurants. Most nights at Le Zink, Arnaud's heading the kitchen while Laurent handles front of house.

They say that their idea for Le Zink was simple: do things the way they believe they should be done – with the owners present, the basics done very well, without unnecessary theater. They're there every day, prep all day, and close the place themselves at 2am. It's resolutely old-school, and deliberately so.

Laurent is the son, and grandson, of restaurant owners. He grew up, as he puts it, "watching them be generous with their customers." Arnaud's been working in Shanghai F&B for 19 years; between them, they've clocked enough time in this city's kitchens and dining rooms to know what works and what doesn't.

Every customer who orders wine, by the glass or bottle, is greeted with a little welcome plate. Call it charcuterie adjacent, with a sliver of Comté, an olive, a bite of pear. It's a small, thoughtfully plated gesture that signals their approach to running things.

The Wine

Le Zink lists 30 wines by the glass. This is not normal.

And this is where Le Zink separates itself from the pack. Maintaining 30 BTG (managing oxidation, freshness, spoilage risk) every night is one thing, but the selection itself leans serious, especially on the whites: Charles Le Bel Champagne (130 yuan/US$18.8), a Jura white (75 yuan), Aligoté from Burgundy (80 yuan). These are wines many bars wouldn't risk offering by the glass.

The list stretches well beyond France, with pours from Portugal, Argentina, Australia, Italy, China's Ningxia, Austria and Spain. Prices run from 65 to 115 yuan, with most glasses sitting in the 70-80-yuan range – a bracket that now feels almost nostalgic in Shanghai, where many diners have grown used to paying 88-100 yuan for wines that are, at best, fine. The 115-yuan pour is a Joseph Cattin Grand Cru from Alsace.

Chinese wine drinkers, Laurent notes, are sharp. They check apps, producers, regions, vintages. They know when pricing doesn't add up.

"We take care to be fair to our customers," Laurent says. Everything on the list is tasted by the team. Margins are kept tight. If something costs more, it's because it genuinely costs more – not because the market will tolerate it.

There's no QR code bottle list. If you want a bottle, you're invited into the cellar and talked through it – grape, region, style – in conversation. "If they want to know anything, we want them to ask us," Laurent says. "We don't want people sitting there scrolling through their phone."

Roughly 80 percent of the list is conventional, and about 15 percent natural. There are also a few non-alcoholic wines, made traditionally with the alcohol later extracted – expensive to make and source, but thoughtfully included.

The cocktails (all 80 yuan) don't cut corners either: Negronis made with Hendrick's, gin fizzes made with Botanist – not bottom-shelf filler.

The Food

The cooking is unapologetically French at its core, with Asian ingredients woven in where they make sense: Cambodian black pepper, Korean gochujang, Shaoxing vinegar. The old-school approach applies here, too: stocks made from scratch, everything prepped by hand (salmon smoked on-site), sauces built patiently, step by step.

The menu is bistro food meant for sharing, so there are a lot of small plates designed to be eaten slowly, with wine: homemade foie gras with Shaoxing-inflected apple chutney (128 yuan), chorizo cooked with Ningxia wine (75 yuan), French fries with mayo (39 yuan) and, naturally, cheese and charcuterie platters (125-145 yuan, respectively). For something more substantial: slow-cooked lamb shoulder finished with lamb jus (155 yuan) and bavette aux poivres, steak in smoky Kompot black pepper sauce (368 yuan).

One of the appetizers is a potato mille-feuille with Australian wagyu beef tartare (76 yuan), one of those things that anyone with functioning taste buds would enjoy – full of umami and texture, simultaneously crisp and creamy, the beef tartare and its potato base executed beautifully, with small pearls of cured egg yolk on top. Delightful.

There's also the "Le Zink egg" (60 yuan) – a loose riff on œufs mayonnaise: softly set eggs in a velvety sauce, the yolks subtly sharpened with diced pickles and herbs. Finished with crisped onions, a bit of lemon zest, and paired with caramelized onion on whole-wheat bread.

Seared baby squid with AOC Espelette chili (77 yuan) – expertly char-blistered, with that perfect edge of caramelization. The Espelette, smoky and faintly fruity, adds a wonderful depth, and that Espelette-spiked oil pooling on the plate goes great with the potatoes.

Some dishes also carry personal history. The riz au lait (rice pudding with caramel, 59 yuan) is inspired by the version Arnaud's grandmother made. The pistou soup comes straight from Laurent's mother in Provence; she wrote the recipe by hand and sent him a photo. It appears on the menu as "Carmen's pistou soup" (55 yuan).

It's clear they don't rush it: It's a bowl of clean, balanced broth, beans with bite, and vegetables that still taste like themselves. The pistou comes separately, and once stirred in, brings the whole bowl together with garlic, basil and umami weight.

The menu will evolve as Arnaud, Laurent and their kitchen team, two chefs from Dalian, experiment with new ideas and ingredients.

The Crowd

Le Zink stays open until 2am, within the Green Station (集社) compound on Changle Road. It sits on a quieter stretch of Xuhui edging into Jing'an – central, but not foot-traffic-driven. So, the people coming here are coming on purpose: an apéro stop before dinner, or for a more low-key evening.

The clientele is a mix of locals, foreigners and a noticeable number of F&B industry regulars. Phones tend to stay off the table, which is what Arnaud and Laurent were aiming for. They make it a point to chat with customers, and encourage conversation between guests. That's the whole point of that central counter, Laurent says.

Good For

In the end, you go for the wine. The list is thoughtful, the pricing is fair. But what keeps people lingering is something rarer in Shanghai: owners who still believe hospitality is a craft practiced face-to-face.

If You Go

Address: Rm 101, West Bldg, 462 Changle Rd

长乐路462号西楼101室