Red House Manager Quan Quan first joined the restaurant back in the early 1970s. He started out in the kitchen and eventually worked his way up to become one of just a handful of high-level Western food chefs certified by the former Ministry of Labor and the Chinese Cuisine Association. He said rallying customer loyalty by freshening up its menu to suit modern times is one of the restaurant's toughest challenges.

Red House on Huaihai Road once attracted many celebrities and state leaders with its superb French food.

"Most customers coming to the restaurant are looking for traditional signature dishes," said Quan. "They are the lifeline of the restaurant."

Another long-established Western restaurant on Nanjing Road, Deda, also suffers from the same problem. It serves up set business lunches to white-collar office workers in nearby buildings for a reasonable price (28-36 yuan). The upper second and third floors provide a la carte dishes in a more elegant setting. Old wooden stairs accented with mosaic floors, wall paintings and French windows give the place a more European feel.

Yet apart from these tangible modern touches, the restaurant has left most of its traditional menu items untouched or unchanged over the years, said Lao Jianrong, Deda's deputy general manager and head chef.

"Most of our customers are locals who are fond of traditional flavors," said Lao. "If you do away with these traditions, they won't identify with you."

Deda recently closed a sister eatery on Ruijin Road but opened a new one last month on Yunnan Road's food street, which is home to several longstanding restaurants, part of the government's move to revive Shanghai's culinary past.

That revival work has also been fraught with challenges.

According to culinary expert Hu Keting, there were some 150 Western restaurants in Shanghai in 1949, the year when the People's Republic of China was founded. That number dropped below 60 by 1956, when many foreigners fled the country. By 1979, only 28 remained.

Many renowned Western restaurants that disappeared during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76) were victims of ideological battles or poor management by state-owned enterprises. Many more closed up shop in the following two decades during Shanghai's massive urban transformation.