Why you should experience Shangri-la in Milan, Italy.
Shangri-la is an enduring Chinese restaurant where Porta Venezia's cosmopolitan character, the historical footprint of Milan's Lazzaretto, handmade dumpling craft and a broad Chinese-Thai repertoire converge inside an ornate dining room active on Via Lazzaretto for well over a decade.
Set along Via Lazzaretto near Viale Vittorio Veneto and just steps from the former perimeter of Milan's vast plague enclosure, the restaurant occupies a street whose name preserves one of Porta Venezia's deepest historical layers. Shangri-la has long paired its cooking with elaborate Chinese decoration, and its dining rooms had already undergone a visible interior renewal by 2014 as earlier red-and-gold walls gave way to extensive woodwork. Handmade dumplings remain a major part of the kitchen, spanning pork, shrimp and vegetable fillings alongside more elaborate versions built around sea bass, scallops, red prawns and lobster. The result is a Porta Venezia restaurant where long continuity, ornate interiors and an unusually deep dumpling repertoire give a familiar Chinese dining format considerable specificity.
What you should know about Shangri-la.
Shangri-la is best known for maintaining a Chinese restaurant on Via Lazzaretto since 2012, with an established kitchen, multiple dining rooms and an extensive Asian repertoire already operating during those early years. The restaurant entered its next phase through a redesign visible by 2014. Red-and-gold wall treatments from the earlier interior disappeared beneath wood finishes, yet the Chinese decorative character remained central to the rooms. Three distinct dining areas were in use by the end of that year, and traditional staff dress extended the visual program into service. The kitchen had developed Chinese and Thai cooking side by side during the same period, reaching from duck and wok dishes into Thai rice and coconut-based preparations. Handmade dumplings subsequently became one of Shangri-la's deepest areas of specialization. Pork appears in grilled Peking dumplings and ginger-scented Shanghai dumplings, then shrimp takes over through ha-kau and shiu mai filled with shrimp, meat, carrot and peas. More elaborate fillings extend the craft into sea bass enclosed by squid-ink dough, duck, scallops, red prawns and lobster. The four-color dumpling adds a particularly intricate construction, dividing its upper layer among different fillings above a meat base to produce the multicolored finish named in the dish. Shangri-la has preserved that hand-shaped dumpling program alongside dishes that were already part of its Chinese-Thai repertoire more than a decade ago, giving the Via Lazzaretto kitchen a clear line of continuity between its earlier dining rooms and its present menu.
Shanghai dumplings begin with pork and ginger inside steamed dough, keeping the wrapper soft as the aromatic filling releases its juices. Peking dumplings change the surface through grilling, setting a browned base beneath the pork center. Ha-kau brings shrimp into a more delicate steamed wrapper, followed by shiu mai whose open top exposes a mixture of shrimp, meat, carrot and peas. The sea-bass dumpling introduces one of the kitchen's sharper visual contrasts through black squid-ink dough wrapped around the fish. Scallop and red-prawn versions carry shellfish into richer fillings, then lobster pushes the same handmade format toward the most substantial seafood preparation in the group. Anatra alla Pechinese leaves the steamer for roast duck, bringing crisp skin and deeper roasted flavor after the softer dumplings. Tom yam with shrimp completes the meal through coconut milk, red curry and chile, shifting from the richness of duck into the fragrant heat of the restaurant's Thai cooking. Shangri-la gives its broad menu coherence through these changes in technique, moving from steamed and grilled dough through shellfish, roast duck and a hot coconut-based soup.
How to fold Shangri-la into your trip.
Shangri-la works as the meal anchor for an afternoon tracing Milan's plague history and the architectural transformation that followed the disappearance of the Lazzaretto around Porta Venezia.
Begin at Chiesa di San Carlo al Lazzaretto, whose octagonal form preserves the center point of the enormous quarantine enclosure that once filled the surrounding district. Carlo Borromeo commissioned Pellegrino Tibaldi to replace the earlier altar after the plague of 1576, and construction began in 1585 with open sides that allowed patients to follow Mass without leaving the cells lining the enclosure. The church survived after most of the Lazzaretto was demolished during the nineteenth-century redevelopment of the district, leaving Tibaldi's centralized plan embedded within the modern street grid. Continue to Casa Galimberti, where Giovanni Battista Bossi designed a residence for the Galimberti brothers between 1903 and 1905 on land previously occupied by the Società Anonima degli Omnibus. Electrification ended the horse-tram depot, releasing the site for construction as Porta Venezia entered a new architectural period. Roughly 170 square meters of polychrome ceramic decoration cover the facades, with Pio Pinzauti responsible for ornament and Ferdinando Brambilla for the figures as wrought iron from the Arcari workshop shapes the upper balconies. Conclude at Casa Guazzoni, built nearby by Bossi between 1904 and 1906 for master builder Giacomo Guazzoni, who also executed the work. The residence rose on another portion of the former horse-tram property and brought Alessandro Mazzucotelli's wrought iron into the balconies and carriage gate, with restored paintings attributed to Paolo Sala surviving inside. Its hexagonal staircase adds another layer to Bossi's treatment of the building, carrying cantilevered marble steps upward beside wrought-iron railings. The progression moves from Tibaldi's plague-era church through the disappearance of the horse-tram depot into Bossi's adjoining Liberty commissions, tracing the physical remaking of Porta Venezia across the streets surrounding Shangri-la.
Where your story begins.
Foresyte Travel reveals places that feel extraordinary long before you arrive.
Experience premium editorial crafted for luxury travelers.
