The Dynasty restaurant, at the Renaissance Yangtze Shanghai Hotel, serves the classics of Cantonese cuisine with unexpected twists of innovation and style. Tina Kanagaratnam samples the fare.

Chef Cheung’s dim sum mouthfuls.

Like a fusion dim sum delicacy, the Dynasty restaurant, at the Renaissance Yangtze Shanghai Hotel, is a classic wrapped in a contemporary skin. The classic, of course, is their popular Cantonese cuisine and dim sum, long a local favorite. The contemporary twist is the trendy setting, a modernist take on Chinese decor: a carpet, the color of the Yellow River, is swirled with stylized clouds in strong, clear shades of violet, maroon and green. The restaurant’s motif, an imperial lady floating in the clouds, is dressed in the same shades, and adorns the chinaware. Giant alabaster moons hang from the ceiling; brightly hued ceramics dot the room.
And while Chef Cheung Kan, a Hong Kong native, describes the cuisine as traditional Cantonese, it, too, is a blend of the classic and the modern. The new spring menu, for example, features prawn tempura with fruit salad, served in a nest of crispy, golden fried taro. The dish is a splendid medley of tastes and textures: lightly crisped prawns that give with a  light crunch when you bite, covered with a creamy, smooth sauce, and topped with a candied walnut, studded with sesame seeds.
A fruit salad, smothered in a cream sauce accompanies the dish.
The presentation of the braised shrimp with bean curd is nouveau, as well: the shrimp is wrapped in a thin skin, made of eggs, topped with orange caviar and tied into a bundle with a spring onion stalk. Bright green broccoli is served alongside, for a gorgeous palette of colors.
The stir-fried snow conch with asparagus in a taro nest is another medley of color, taste and texture, the meaty snow conch served with soft, yellow gingko nuts, spring green crunchy asparagus and crunchy red peppers.
Perhaps the ultimate Dynasty dish is not a new one, but a menu classic that, too, blends tradition with innovation. The crispy roasted chicken is an incredible dish, the soft flesh rich with the nutty taste of coconut, the result of being marinated in coconut milk for 8 hours. That, and the crispy skin, makes for dish that is almost decadent.
A meal at Dynasty is not complete without a sampling of their famous dim sum. Spring rolls are wrapped in a pockmarked skin, a Yunnan tradition, and generously stuffed with a mixture of pork and crispy vegetables. The har kau, or shrimp dumplings, feature plump shrimp enclosed in transparent rice-paper skins.
The Chef describes his dishes as light, a bow to both Cantonese tradition and the flavors of spring, and indeed, they all have a delicacy to them that requires that only the freshest ingredients be used. When flavoring is this subtle, there can be no hiding behind heavy sauces.
The meal concludes with an artistic presentation of fruits: kiwi, papaya, dragon fruit, watermelon, honeydew melon and oranges. Like all the dishes before it, it is as pleasing to the eye as it is to the palate.