As you will recall from the last column, assuming you have done your homework properly, I am seeking to share with you the joys of dining, not for the food but for the architecture. Once you have grasped this concept, I think you will have a grand time, both in the restaurants I shared with you last time and in these three new ones.

THE MARSHALL HOUSE (Chinese name, TAIYUAN GUEST HOUSE), 160 Taiyuan Lu, T: 6471-6688

Americans call this lovely old villa the Marshall House because General George Marshall stayed there from 1946 to 1949 when he was trying to negotiate a peace settlement between the KMT and the Communists (needless to say he did not succeed). His bedroom and office are still there on the second floor and most of the furniture is the original, although there have been modifications, most especially in the state-of-the-art bathroom. This may well have been done for Mme. Mao who sometimes stayed there. And of course because she did you will find an air-raid shelter on the grounds, in this case under the bamboo pavilion by the side entrance.

The mansion is of brick and in the typical mansard-roofed style that can be found all over France. Even the white wrought-iron stanchions which held up the awnings feature the fleur de lis, as do the hasps that hold the original shutters open. It was built in the early part of the century by a wealthy Frenchman, Monsieur du Pac de Marsoulies, who was in the government of the French Concession, and later lived in by Baron Guillaume of the Belgian Consulate.

Certainly they had money; the villa is a monument, not just to gracious but to luxurious living. The entry foyer is paved in carrera marble and the paneling throughout the ground floor is teak, with an elaborate teak railing at ceiling level, presumably for hanging the Gobelin tapestries. There is a coat of arms (duPdeM's?) on the cast iron fire screen in the gigantic fireplace in the front hallway.

You will dine in the original dining room, also with fireplace of course, and with the added feature of a sliding door formed from an antique Coromandel screen. On the other side is the drawing room, where you can lounge after dining. Or walk up the curving staircase, where if you are lucky they will let you see General Marshall's bedroom. This is a guest house so his suite can be rented (for about US$300 a night, as I recall), as can others on that floor. The more modest ones, up a separate staircase to the left of the curving one, can be rented for considerably less.

A walk around the outside of the house reveals its many marvelous architectural details, or you may be drawn to the original coal-fired furnace in the back building. It looks like the boiler-room of the S.S. Queen Mary and appears to still call for stokers. Most notable, and regrettable, is the ugly square brick addition next to the round turret on the back of the mansion. This houses the shaft for an elevator, I assume installed when Mme. Mao stayed there.

Other than that unlovely addition, the house remains remarkably unchanged and is a lovely place to dine or, better yet, to hold a garden party on the front lawn. As I one night attended such a party, sipping champagne by the light of a full moon which illuminated the mansion's lovely facade, I thought of all the many Westerners who had been doing the same for seventy years in the same spot. As David Selznick would have said, it was deja vu all over again.

YUE YOU RESTAURANT, 150 Fenyang Lu.

Situated inside the compound housing the popular Paulaners Brauhaus is another stately old French villa. That's the good news. The bad news is that this "Municipally Protected Building" has been hideously defaced -- and I cannot believe it as I write it -- by a bright blue smoked glass and fake chrome sign attached to the once- lovely porte cochere. ("Protection" apparently does not mean anything other than keeping the building standing.)

But try to ignore that and go inside and you will find that -- the interior has been equally defaced. What can we say? Well, the high ceilings with their crown moldings are still there, as are the embossed plaster walls, the French windows, the parquet floors, the curving staircase, the semi-circular orangerie (now housing a chrome bar). It has all been pretty badly tarted up with bizarre additions and modifications that I will not even attempt to describe, but all said it is still a wonderful old French house. (But then, I never met an old house I didn't like.)

You simply cannot destroy the lovely lines, the elegance and style that once made these old mansions the showcases of Frenchtown; but you do have to search out the remnants. Try the back terrace, which in any other country would be the showpiece of the restaurant, overlooking as it does a shaded garden. Here the marble floor is stacked with beer cases and the usual restaurant debris. Peer through the trees and you can see the old oval swimming pool, now empty and forlorn. And look over there where a mop is resting in a basin: That is the original fluted marble wash basin from the mansion's bathroom, now so ingloriously sitting on concrete blocks and reduced to being the washer of mops. Sic transit gloria mundi.

THE TANGBAI RESTAURANT AND PIANO BAR, 128 Shanxi Bei Lu, T: 6267-3309

Remember the old mansion just south of Nanjing Lu near the Shanghai Centre? It sat semi-derelict for years, became a restaurant which folded, and is now again a restaurant, or at least half the building is. As I want to surprise you, I will not go into the decor of the entrance lobby, but after your gasps of amazement look at the floor with the original tiles with the Star of David. We can find no evidence that the original owner was Jewish, but it is certainly a rather strange choice of motif if he was not. Anyway, it's a great floor.

Even better is the ceramic surround of the fireplace, this in the Art Nouveau style with sensuous flowers and vines trailing down from the mantle. We were a little puzzled by the configuration of the house, as this did not appear to be the main entrance and certainly was not the service one; we think it would have been a glass-fronted terrace room overlooking the garden (now a parking lot for cars, alas).

The real star of the show, however, is to be found when you climb the stairs: The big restaurant is located in what was the old ballroom. There it is in all its glory, with its superb (and gigantic!) stained glass ceiling, its embossed plaster work, its marquetry dadoes of light wood, its parquet dance floor, still smooth as silk. True, the musician's platform at the far end has been converted into a serving counter, but it would still be a spectacular setting for a ball (and I note they do have a good sound system as well as a piano).

For the present you may content yourself with just dining there and gazing around you while you plot which of your hundred friends deserve to be invited to the sumptuous ball you intend to hold in this perfect setting. (Just be sure to invite me; I plan to come and do my Scarlett-at-the-Ball number...)