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Taste of Shanghai – A Guide to Shanghai’s Best Food
Posted on January 27th, 2010 55 comments
From delicious local dumplings to international fine-dining fare, the restaurant scene in Shanghai has never been better as the largest city in China gears up for the World Expo 2010 starting May 1.
Fast-paced and forward-looking, Shanghai is China’s most energetic city, and nowhere is its dynamism and spirit of adventure more apparent than in its restaurant scene. In the last decade, dining in Shanghai has changed out of all recognition. True, you can still buy bowls of noodles on street corners – thankfully – but in restaurants, trendy youngsters are likely to be munching on French fries while Shanghai’s nouveau riche splurge on fine-dining restaurants serving dishes from around the world, and fashionistas knock back lurid cocktails to a backdrop of neon-lit views. Big, brash and better than ever, dining in Shanghai is now the equal of that in any modern western metropolis.
By all means, start at street level: cheap and informal eats are everywhere. At stalls and corner restaurants across the city, you need only spend a few dollars to get popular snacks such as pork dumplings, egg pancakes, lamb skewers – grilled to order by Muslim immigrants from northwest China – and leek pies. You can get memorably good bowls of noodles and delicacies such as frogs’ legs in ginger or slices of roast duck on rice. But nothing beats xiao longbao, a Shanghai dumpling filled with a delicious broth that explodes into your mouth (or, if you aren’t careful, over your clothes) as you bite into it.
Elegant dumplings from Ai Mei Chinese Restaurant at Le Royal Méridien
Local snacks are wonderful, but you’ll have to head to a restaurant to try Shanghai cuisine at its best. Little-known in Australia, Shanghai food is really a branch of eastern-style cuisine, and features braised and stewed dishes rather than stir-fries as well as cold ‘drunken’ dishes marinated in wine, of which drunken chicken is the best known. The emphasis is on the freshness of the main ingredients rather than on heavy sauces and marinades. Freshwater fish is prominent, though expensive, and the much-loved local delicacy is hairy crab – known locally as duza ha, or in Mandarin, dazha xie, meaning crabs from the “big dam”. Duza ha is usually steamed and dipped in soy sauce and black rice vinegar with ginger. The Shanghainese like to wash down their meal with a sweetish, yellow rice wine known as huangjiu.
It isn’t hard to find superlative restaurants in Shanghai: the Chinese bring relatives and business partners to the city’s restaurants to impress them with lavish feasts. Many restaurants cover several floors, each floor offering menus at different price points. Foreigners are invariably directed to more expensive floors in the belief that they’re used to luxury, but there’s nothing to stop you joining locals on the cheaper (usually lower) floors, where you can expect a raucous din of happy diners.
If you’re after the best local flavors, head to Shanghai Uncle in the basement of the Bund Centre. Shanghai Uncle goes for modern versions of old Shanghai classics and inspired east-west fusion dishes, and is certainly some of the best Chinese food you’ll eat in town. Try the superlative crispy pork, traditional smoked fish and handmade noodles and, if you can afford the astronomical prices, a fresh lobster dish.
Executive chef Jeremy Leung from the Whampoa Club
For excellent Chinese comfort food in less formal surrounds, look no further than the queues outside Crystal Jade Restaurant in Xintiandi. Locals flock here for steamed dumplings, roast pork buns and spicy Sichuan noodles. The restaurant is reckoned to serve the best xiao longbao in Shanghai – in other words, in the known universe.
Villa du Lac, housed in an old colonial building, is also one of the city’s top restaurants for Shanghainese cuisine, as well as palace cuisine from the nearby city of Yangzhou, its light, clean flavours once reserved for royalty and court officials. Signature dishes include hand-cut tofu and drunken chicken; European-influenced desserts include egg tarts served with Longjing tea and snow-skin peach dumplings in champagne. The chef here, Justin Quek, hails from Singapore, and has an international reputation.
Many a world-class chef has been lured by Shanghai’s bright lights, and the Shanghainese love of trends and fashions. It all started along The Bund, where Art Deco and Neoclassical facades recall Shanghai’s heyday as a great trading port and international settlement in the early 20th century. The municipal government launched an enlightened program of restoration in the 1990s that has seen The Bund return to its former grandeur and bustle.
Poppyseed galettes from M on the Bund
M on the Bund was the first international restaurant to open here, in 1999 and, for some time, was the place to be seen in Shanghai. Its star has faded somewhat as newer competitors steal the limelight, but the Art-Deco elegance and wonderful views from the seventh floor are hard to beat, and the food can still reach superlative heights. Signature dishes are the slow-baked leg of lamb and pavlova – no surprise, really, as chef-owner Michelle Garnaut hails from Melbourne.
Next door, Three on the Bund is a seven-storey pleasure palace housing art galleries, luxury boutiques, a jazz club, a day spa and several restaurants of top international quality. These include French fare at Jean Georges, bistro fare at New Heights, and classic-meets-contemporary Shanghai cuisine at the Whampoa Club – try the tasting menu, and talk to the tea sommelier about choosing a matching tea. Another Australian chef, David Laris, is at the helm at Laris, with its emphasis on New World seafood dishes.
Foie gras terrine with hibiscus gelee from Laris
Given the high prices at Three on the Bund, you might expect serving sizes to be a bit more generous and service more suave. Nevertheless, dining at one of these trendy restaurants on The Bund is a quintessential Shanghai experience. If you really want to splash out, you can reserve the cupola on top of the building as a private dining room, and order from any of the restaurants on the floors below.
House smoked salmon from M on the Bund
Xintiandi is another trendy locale and the evening destination of choice for hip locals and expats alike. This upmarket area of little alleys and courtyards is an appealing blend of modernistic and faux old Chinese architecture, crammed with eateries and bars of all sorts, from hugely busy, German-style Biergartens to Tuscan pizzerias and chic post-modern venues serving the likes of green-pea cappuccino.
At Lan Na Thai, in a lovely old colonial mansion known as Face Building, delightful deep-fried soft-shell crab and divine papaya salads are served up to a mostly foreign clientele; on another floor, svelte guests recline on ‘opium beds’ in an Asian-style cocktail lounge. At Di Shui Dong, try the outstanding spicy regional Hunan cuisine: everything from chicken chilli hotpot to cumin pork spare-ribs is wonderful, even if it needs to be washed down with copious amounts of cold beer.
The wide, tree-lined avenue known as Hengshan Road, just a totter west, is another trendy spot lined with 1920s mansions, now converted into teahouses and restaurants. It’s also home to one of the city’s favoured music venues, O’Malleys. With an outdoor courtyard and cosy, Irish-pub style, O’Malleys serves up a good beer and Irish, British and American favourites – just the place to head for if you have a hankering for bangers and mash.
A delicate prawn dish from Jean Georges
In the old days, this area was part of the French Concession. There’s still a nod to the glamor of these times at 1931 Bar & Restaurant, where waitresses are dressed in traditional qipao, or high-collared, tight-fitting silk dresses with side slits. This is the place for a drink and nibbles – fried dumplings, duck pancakes and noodles. Also worth a visit is the Art Salon, where Montmarte meets Shanghai: the walls are covered with local artworks; rickety tables and traditional Chinese-style chairs crowd every inch of floorspace. Sit elbow-to-elbow for some terrific homemade specialties – and feel free to purchase any of the artwork or furniture that catches your eye.
During the days of the settlements, the Chinese lived crammed into the old city; now, Shanghai’s historic heart has been redeveloped into an unabashed tourist theme town, jammed with souvenir shops and antiques markets. At its centre lies the fabulous Yu Garden and iconic Bridge of Nine Turnings, a zigzag bridge over a carp pool always packed with photo-snapping visitors. Stop by the venerable Huxinting Teahouse in the middle of the pond for a pastry or quail’s eggs with excellent green tea as you watch the passing hubbub.
You’ll also find fine fare at the Shanghai Classic Restaurant, which serves such local dishes as eight-treasure duck, stuffed with sticky rice, and deep-fried shrimps. The restaurant claims to have been around since 1875, though in its current guise, it is located on the second-floor atrium of a modern mid-range hotel.
Inside Laris at Three on the Bund
Occasionally, someone in this relentlessly advancing city actually looks to the past. If you’re after a coffee, avoid the ubiquitous Starbucks and head instead to Old China Hand Reading Room, with its Qing Dynasty furniture, old books, manual typewriters and beautiful photography, or to Old Film Café, where you can watch 1920s movies from China and Russia as you down your brew. Just the caffeine shot you’ll need before launching yourself into the frenzy of Shanghai once more.
A beautifully presented dish from The Whampoa Club
Where to eat
- 1931 Bar and Restaurant, Maoming Nan Lu 112 (Luwan District), phone +86 21 6472 5264.
- Art Salon, Nanchang Lu 164 (Luwan District), phone +86 21 5306 5462.
- Crystal Jade Restaurant (Feicuì Jiujia), 2nd floor, 12A & B, Nanli 6-7 (Luwan District), phone +86 21 6385 8752.
- Di Shui Dong, Maoming Nan Lu 56 (Luwan District), phone +86 21 6253 2689.
- Huxinting Teahouse (Huxinting Chashi), Yuyuan Lu 257 (Nanshi District), phone +86 21 6373 6950.
- Lan Na Thai, Ruijin Er Lu 118 (Luwan District), phone +86 21 6466 4328.
- M on the Bund, Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu 5 (Huangpu District) +86 21 6350 9988 or visit www.m-restaurantgroup.com
- Old China Hand Reading Room (Hanyuan Shuwu), Shaoxing Lu 27 (Xuhui District), phone +86 21 6473 2526.
- Old Film Café, Duolun Lu 123 (Hongkou District), phone +86 21 5696 4763.
- O’Malley’s, Taojiang Lu 42 (Xuhui District), phone +86 21 6437 0667.
- Shanghai Classic Restaurant (Shanghai Lao Fandian ), Fuyou Lu 242 (Nanshi District), phone +86 21 6355 2275.
- Shanghai Uncle (Haishang Ashu), Yan’an Dong Lu 200-222 (Huangpu District), phone +86 21 6339 1977.
- Three on the Bund, Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu 3 (Huangpu District), phone +86 21 6323 3355 or visit www.threeonthebund.com
- Villa du Lac (Hu Ting), 383 Huangpi Nan Lu (Luwan District), phone +86 21 6387 6387 or visit www.justinquek.com
Where to stay
- Le Royal Méridien Shanghai, phone +86 21 3318 9999 or visit www.lemeridien.com
- Pudi Boutique Hotel, contact Small Luxury Hotels of the World on 1800 251 958 or visit www.slh.com
- St Regis Shanghai, phone +86 21 5050 4567 or visit www.stregis.com
- Westin Bund Centre, phone +86 21 6335 1888 or visit www.westin.com
Related Article:
Best of Shanghai in a nutshell – Top Ten Shanghai Attractions
Attractions 景点, Feature, Food and Drink 美食与美酒, Guide 指南, Travel 旅游 Jean Georges, Laris, M on the Bund, Shanghai, Whampoa Club, Xintiandi53 responses to “Taste of Shanghai – A Guide to Shanghai’s Best Food”
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Christmas Dinner in Shanghai
Mr & Mrs Bund
If Paul Pairet was to roast chestnuts over an open fire, they would be chestnuts stuffed with chestnut gelee coated in some fabulous chestnut-based caramel. Maybe served with a shot of chestnut sorbet. From December 24 to 31, Mr & Mrs Bund deploys four holiday menus from RMB 650 to RMB 1,250 per person. Some appetizers and all mains are shared, but each guest picks their own dessert and side dish.To start, choose from homemade foie gras with herb salad or house-smoked salmon. Then, a real treat: six beautous Gillardeau oysters from France. All for you, not to share (this is important). For mains, choose either steamed sea bass in Champagne sauce or pan-roasted veal with porcini mushrooms. You get a side dish and a slice of yule log or another dessert as well.
If you’re looking for the more avant-garde stuff, don’t worry, Paul Pairet’s greatest hits are scattered all across these menus and you can always order a la carte.
Mr & Mrs Bund, 6/F, Bund 18, 18 Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu, near Nanjing Dong Lu 中山东一路18号6楼, 近南京东路, +86 21 6323 9898
Purple Onion
Laris’s restaurant Purple Onion is serving up a four-course turkey dinner for the holidays. For RMB 368, you get artichoke soup with truffle and chestnuts, followed by turkey ballontine — a turkey breast stuffed with herbaceous goodies, rolled up and baked.The thick slice of turkey is served with roasted winter vegetables and cranberry sauce.Course there is an indulgent Christmas pudding with brandied cream. For dessert, chef Lex Hauser is doing homemade mince pies with coffee and tea to sidestep the food coma. Purple Onion’s also throwing an all-day brunch for Christmas Day and Boxing day to perpetuate the deliciousness. Can’t make it on Christmas? The holiday menu is available all December as a party menu with 48 hours’ advance notice.
Purple Onion, No 16, Lane 351 Huashan Lu, near Changshu Lu 华山路351弄16号, 近常熟路, +86 21 6248 8747
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Your post was amazing!!! I will check back often. Post new content soon!
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Marco D September 18th, 2011 at 08:42
Best Shanghainese restaurants in Shanghai
Fu 1088 means great food and charming 1930s ambiance to boot.
Fu 1088 is the hardest restaurant in Shanghai to get a reservation, but the environment is very good. It’s a little fusion, but doesn’t go overboard. The food at Fu 1088 ranges from modern to very authentic, but is accepted by both Chinese and foreigners. On a menu of tweaked Shanghainese specialties, you’ll find everything from traditional hongshao rou to creamy, huangyu noodle soup served in a mug. Modern dishes include goose liver poached in sake.Located on an unassuming corner of Zhenning Lu and Yuyuan Lu, Fu 1088 is housed in a 1930s colonial villa. Instead of a dining room, guests dine in private rooms furnished with antiques.
Not to Miss: The crab with egg white (a delicately creamy dish brought to the table in an actual eggshell); Fu’s drunken chicken (crowned in a strong rice wine granita and sprinkled with goji berries); the lacquered xun yu (served hot in a plump, meaty stack).
Fu 1088, 375 Zhenning Lu, near Yuyuan Lu 镇宁路375号, 近愚园路, +86 21 5239 7878, 11 a.m.-2 p.m., 5:30-11 p.m.
As we are heading towards the dazha crab (aka hairy crab) season, September and October are the best months to try Jesse’s classic crab roe potato soup.
Jesse (吉士酒家)With its curmudgeonly waiters and tiny, crowded dining room, the original Jesse location on Tianping Lu is not just a meal, it’s an experience.
Crammed in with the Shanghainese regulars here, you’ll find tourists speaking Cantonese, Taiwanese or English at a mile per minute and snapping photos at the same speed.
Not To Miss: the creamy crab roe potato soup and Shaoxing-wine-marinated crab
For an appetizer (or dessert), try the xin tai ruan, a sweet dish of red jujubes stuffed with soft, glutinous rice cake.
Two of Jesse’s signature dishes, the eight treasure duck and green onion fish head, require 24 hours’ notice.
Jesse, 41 Tianping Lu, near Huaihai Zhong Lu 天平路41号, 近淮海中路, +86 21 6282 9260, http://www.xinjishi.com, 11 a.m.-4 p.m., 5:30 p.m.-midnight
Hong Rui Xing’s first floor is loaded with iconic Shanghainese snacks.
The first floor of Hong Rui Xing (鸿瑞兴) is a raucous cafeteria serving snacks. We like the eight-treasure rice, the sesame-covered meat-filled pancakes , the saucy, pliant Suzhou tofu and the bowls of hand-pulled noodles.The second and third floors (all private dining rooms) are quieter. Instead of a menu, diners go to the open kitchen cum showroom to order from an island-like display of samples, which are plastic replicas of dishes, some eerily well-made.
Good for lighter palates as Hong Rui Xing’s menu is Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Suzhou influenced, meaning less sweet, less oil.
We also like the extra touch of creativity in many dishes such as the signature xiaolongbao served in with a light teapot soup, mini glutinous dumpling with sesame inside every pellet-sized dumpling and yellow croaker casserole.
Hong Rui Xing, 1500 Zhongshan Nan Er Lu, inside Shanghai Stadium 中山南二路1500号东亚体育宾馆1-3楼, 上海体育场运动员之家内, +86 21 6427 5177, +86 21 6428 0079, 6 a.m.-9 p.m.
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MarionK1291 July 3rd, 2010 at 03:05
I have been twice to Fu 1088 recently and have not been disappointed. This gem of a restaurant in a refurbished 1920s Spanish-style villa offers some of the best Shanghainese cuisine in town.
The food lives up to the thrill of the atmosphere. The kitchen, led by local chef Tony Lu, offers a selection of traditional dishes from Shanghai and its surrounding region, beautifully executed, with some more modern concoctions (such as pork ribs in cocoa sauce). Start with the chilled drunken chicken with rice wine shaved ice, and the most delicious xun yu (smoked fish) you’ll ever taste, especially because it’s served warm. For mains, dig into the glorious braised pork with soy and rock sugar, and the deep-fried prawn with wasabi mayonnaise. Two local dishes you’re unlikely to find back home that are also worth trying include huaiyang dazhu gansi (bean curd sheet with garden greens and shrimp in thick soup), and the sauteed water bamboo in soy sauce. Service is very courteous and highly efficient. There is a ¥300 ($43/£22) minimum charge per person, but for spot-on Shanghainese cuisine that is neither too sweet nor too oily, Fu 1088 is well worth the splurge.
There is only one irritating thing about Fu 1088, and that is the minimum CNY300 ($43/£22) spend on food per person at the evening sitting, but for spot-on Shanghainese cuisine that is neither too sweet nor too oily, Fu 1088 is well worth the splurge. Another older branch in the same district, Fu 1039, has no minimum spend, shared dining spaces as well as private rooms and similarly atmospheric surroundings, but the food doesn’t quite have the finesse of Fu 1088.
Fu 1088, 375 Zhenning Lu, Changning District, Shanghai; 021 5239 7878;
Fu 1039, 1039 Yuyuan Road, Changning District, Shanghai; 0 21 5237 1878
福1088 与 福1039- 洋房里的奢华美味
福1088
非常精致的上海菜，入内一副“老上海公馆”的模样，底楼客厅就是大堂，“有老先生在弹钢琴”，桌椅“摆放宽松”，“不觉得拥挤”；楼上的“独立”包房“非 常私密”。做“典型 ”的上海菜，餐具“精致”，摆盘“巧妙”；熏鱼“十分甜美”，红烧肉“皮糯肉嫩”，芥末芝麻虾“很有创意”，口感“层次丰富”。服务也蛮周到。餐厅最大的特色是把张爱玲的元素融入到自家的文化中，曾经推出一套“张爱玲 宴”，小食、前菜、热菜、汤、点心和甜品，一共20道，名字全部取自张爱玲的小说、随笔、友人通信，如果你是真正的“张迷”，怎能错过福1088呢？ 不过买单时 要做好心理准备，价格“辣手”的哦！
推荐菜式：红烧肉，熏鱼，芥末芝麻虾，烤鳕鱼，花雕醉鸡，油爆虾，黄鱼煨面，清酒鹅肝，糖藕，松茸炖竹荪，黄焖鲍翅，清炒蟹粉，蟹柳芦笋，金 必来浓汤，蟹粉炖蛋白，辽参
福1088 地址： 上海市静安区镇宁路375号(愚园路口) 电话： 021-52397878
福1039 地址： 上海市长宁区愚园路1039号(近江苏路) 电话： 021-52371878 -
JDM29191 November 8th, 2010 at 07:09
Restaurant Martin by Martin Berasategui
The Shanghai branch of the chain by three-star Michelin chef Martin Berasategui ups the ante for Spanish restaurants in town.Berasategui’s flagship restaurant in San Sebastian, Spain, has three Michelin stars. Restaurant Martin, Berasategui’s first outside of Spain, features his distinctive, contemporary Spanish food as executed by protege chefs Maxime Fanton and Yago Márquez in a charming 92 year old European style mansion that was once French-Japanese fusion restaurant La Villa Rouge (Xiao Hong Lou), and the EMI Recording Studios Which in its days was the biggest recording studio in the East.Food-wise, Martin runs on dual tracks. It was originally slated to be relatively simple Spanish cooking: tortilla, croquetas, gazpacho, suckling pig, that kind of stuff. But protege chefs Maxime Fanton and Yago Márquez that Martin sent over are graduates of Berasategui’s San Sebastian kitchen, they’ve added a second menu of the big guy’s signature, modern Spanish dishes — things like an oyster with watercress chlorophyll; an egg cooked at low temperature with a devastatingly rich potato emulsion; and red snapper with crystallized scales (RMB 580 for traditional set menu, RMB 780 for creative).
Address:811 Hengshan Lu, near Zhaojiabang Lu, in Xujiahui Park
Hours: Lunch 11:30am-2:30pm, Dinner 6:30-10:30pm, Bar 2pm-2am
Tel: +86 21 6431 6639, +86 21 6431 9马丁餐厅
马丁餐厅开张不足一年，却敢自称是“上海最好的西班牙餐厅”。位于“有故事”的“小红楼”中，“老洋房”腔调端得“足足的”，小资得“一塌糊涂”。Martin Berasategui，一个非常拗口的名字，却是世界厨坛上一个赫赫有名的宗师级名厨，他是如假包换的米其林三星厨师，在西班牙圣塞巴斯蒂安更是四大顶级名厨之一。在西班牙也有一家以Martin Berasategui 的名字命名的餐厅，那可是世界公认的50家梦想餐厅之一。所有的菜品都原汁原味，菜单由Martin Berasategui先生定期来上海亲自打理，更换频率和菜式保证与西班牙的餐厅同步，伴随其厨艺的日臻完美和好口碑的逐渐增强，地址:上海徐汇区衡山路811号徐家汇中心广场绿地内(近余庆路)
电话:021-64319811 64316639
营业时间:11.30am-3.30pm, 6.30-10.30pm
公交信息:15路 830路 93路 824路 徐川专线 572区间路El restaurante de Martín Berasategui en Shanghai
Martín Berasategui, uno de los cocineros más influyentes de la alta cocina española, abre su primer restaurante fuera de España,El Restaurante Martin en Shanghai está enclavado en el edificio ‘La Villa Rouge’ en su denominación francesa, un bello edificio de estilo colonial ubicado al final de la avenida Concesión Francesa, en pleno parque de Xujiahui, con lago incluido, que se convertirá en el primer restaurante gestionado por un cocinero tres estrellas de la Guía Michelín España en China. Martín Berasategui contará con el trabajo de dos de sus discípulos, Yago Márquez y Maxime Fanton.
El menú de degustación ha consistido en gazpacho de melocotón con pan “tumaca” y jamón ibérico de Jabugo; huevo con patata rota al aceite de oliva y emulsión ahumada; ensalada tibia de tuétanos y verdura con crema de lechuga y salsa yodada; solomillo de ternera joven con patatas arrugadas y mojo rojo; y de postre un soufflé de chocolate caliente con helado de caramelo y canela.
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Guilford Ciufo December 21st, 2010 at 03:40