Shanghainese restaurants in China
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Crystal Jade
People were queuing for a table at this place long before it received a mention in the Michelin guide, and rightly so: the dishes here are mouth-watering, especially the noodles ($32 to $45). There are branches all over town.
reviewed
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Crystal Jade
People were queuing for a table at this place long before it received a mention in the Michelin guide, and rightly so: the dishes here are mouth-watering, especially the noodles ($32 to $45). There are branches all over town.
reviewed
-
Crystal Jade
People were queuing for a table at this place long before it received a mention in the Michelin guide, and rightly so: the dishes here are mouth-watering, especially the noodles ($32 to $45). There are branches all over town.
reviewed
-
A
Delicious Kitchen
The Shanghainese rice cooked with shredded Chinese cabbage is so good at this cha chaan teng that fashionistas are tripping over themselves to land a table here. It’s best with the honey-glazed pork chop (from $43 including rice).
reviewed
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Crystal Jade
People were queuing for a table at this place long before it received a mention in the Michelin guide, and rightly so: the dishes here are mouth-watering, especially the noodles ($32 to $45). There are branches all over town, including in Central, Causeway Bay and Wan Chai.
reviewed
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B
Ye Shanghai
Ye offers sophisticated, unchallenging (ie few internal organs are on the menu) Shanghainese cuisine in classy 1930s-style surroundings. The drunken chicken and smoked fish are an excellent overture to mouthwatering main dishes, such as the crispy duck with pancakes. Reserve a table.
reviewed
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C
Jishi Jiulou
For Shanghainese home cooking at its best, try out this jam-packed restaurant. Popular choices include crab dumplings, Grandma’s braised pork, and plenty of fish, drunken shrimp and eel. This is the original; branches around town go by the name Xinjishi ( 新吉士 ). Reserve.
reviewed
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D
Jíshì Jiǔlóu
Jíshì specialises in packing lots of people into tight spaces, so if you tend to gesture wildly when you talk, watch out with those chopsticks. This is Shanghainese home cooking at its best: crab dumplings, Grandma’s braised pork and plenty of fish (carp cream soup Y28), drunken shrimp (Y10) and eel.
reviewed
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Jíshì Jiǔlóu
Jíshì specialises in packing lots of people into tight spaces, so if you tend to gesture wildly when you talk, watch out with those chopsticks. This is Shanghainese home cooking at its best: crab dumplings, Grandma’s braised pork and plenty of fish (carp cream soup Y28), drunken shrimp (Y10) and eel.
reviewed
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E
Fu 1039
Set in a three-storey 1913 villa, Fu attains an old-fashioned charm uncommon in design-driven Shanghai. The succulent smoked fish starter and stewed pork in soy sauce are recommended, with the sweet-and-sour Mandarin fish coming in close behind. The entrance, down an alley and on the left, is unmarked. Little English is spoken.
reviewed
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F
Ye Olde Station Restaurant
You can’t miss this oddly named restaurant when sifting through Xujiahui’s Jesuit treasures. Formerly a convent, the lovely building, with its upstairs chapel intact, sits alongside other period gems (as well as two railway carriages parked out the back). The food here is not exactly pulse-raising, but the venue is unforgettable.
reviewed
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Lùlu Jiǔjiā
Lùlu is fancy Shanghainese without the overbearing attitude – it’s more popular with families and the ladies who lunch crowd than urban hipsters – and the prices are surprisingly reasonable. With over 20 aquariums on display, you’d be foolish not to try at least one of the braised seafood specialities, though steer clear of the fish heads. Reserve.
reviewed
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Lùlu Jiǔjiā
Lùlu is fancy Shanghainese without the overbearing attitude – it’s more popular with families and the ladies who lunch crowd than urban hipsters – and the prices are surprisingly reasonable. With over 20 aquariums on display, you’d be foolish not to try at least one of the braised seafood specialities, though steer clear of the fish heads. Reserve.
reviewed
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Lùlu Jiǔjiā
Lùlu is fancy Shanghainese without the overbearing attitude – it’s more popular with families and the ladies who lunch crowd than urban hipsters – and the prices are surprisingly reasonable. With over 20 aquariums on display, you’d be foolish not to try at least one of the braised seafood specialities, though steer clear of the fish heads. Reserve.
reviewed
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G
Tin Heung Lau
Filmmaker Stephen Chow and former chief executive Tung Chee Hwa are regulars at this tired-looking establishment considered by some to be the best Hangzhou restaurant in China. It’s famous for its crab dishes during hairy crab season (October to February), and the fragrance of its smoked yellow croaker (over $700) is the stuff of urban legend.
reviewed
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H
Xiǎo Nán Guó
Even with the smart banquet halls and classy presentation, this is still one of Shànghǎi’s more affordable (and delicious) chains. First-rate dishes include pork trotters braised for six hours (Y48–88), the crab clay-pot with glass noodles, deep-fried snake and the usual run of Shanghainese dumplings and noodles (Y12–38). It’s a good place for group meals. It’s also known as Shanghai Spring.
reviewed
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I
Xiǎo Nán Guó
Even with the smart banquet halls and classy presentation, this is still one of Shànghǎi’s more affordable (and delicious) chains. First-rate dishes include pork trotters braised for six hours (Y48–88), the crab clay-pot with glass noodles, deep-fried snake and the usual run of Shanghainese dumplings and noodles (Y12–38). It’s a good place for group meals. It’s also known as Shanghai Spring.
reviewed
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Xiǎo Nán Guó
Even with the smart banquet halls and classy presentation, this is still one of Shànghǎi’s more affordable (and delicious) chains. First-rate dishes include pork trotters braised for six hours (Y48–88), the crab clay-pot with glass noodles, deep-fried snake and the usual run of Shanghainese dumplings and noodles (Y12–38). It’s a good place for group meals. It’s also known as Shanghai Spring.
reviewed
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J
Wing Lai Yuen
A household name for daam daam min (spicy Sichuanese noodles), Wing Lai Yuen was opened in 1947 in the squatter shacks of Diamond Hill where Nationalist soldiers from Chongqing used to live. According to rumour, it was martial-arts director Chang Che who gave Wing Lai Yuen its name. Now it has an English menu and a branch in Macau, but the excellent noodles ($18 per bowl) are still handmade.
reviewed
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K
Chinoise Story
A curvaceous beauty set in the Jinjiang Hotel complex, the Chinoise Story is a study in style, where art deco architecture meets Philippe Starck design. Shanghainese cuisine gets a reworking here and the dishes are every bit as stunning as the four dining areas: the wasabi smoked salmon is presented as rose petals (Y48) and even common fare like the lion’s head meatball (Y36) is given a touch of class.
reviewed
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L
Grape Restaurant
This long-standing expat fave from the 1980s has probably seen better days, but the Grape still serves up reliable and inexpensive Shanghainese in its bright premises beside the old Russian Orthodox church. Try the delicious yóutiáo chǎoniúròu ( 油条炒牛肉; dough sticks with beef; Y22), or any of the crab dishes – you won’t find them any cheaper than here.
reviewed
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M
Wat Yat
The only place left in Tsim Sha Tsui where you can have a traditional Shanghainese breakfast of savoury soy milk and stuffed glutinous rice rolls. There’s also a selection of northern-style pastries. Ask for an English menu (rice and noodles $20 to $33 per serving). Hau Fook St is a few blocks east of Nathan Rd in Tsim Sha Tsui. Walking north from the intersection of Carnarvon and Cameron Rds, it’s the first lane on your right.
reviewed
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Cheng Cheng’s Art Salon
Squeezed in alongside Donghu Road’s heavy hitters, Cheng Cheng distinguishes itself with a funky, colourful interior full of antique furnishings and large oil paintings (for sale). The food is mostly Shanghainese, with a few Sìchuān favourites thrown in to keep risk-averse lǎowài (foreigners) happy. There’s talk of Beijing-opera performances in the evenings, but they’ve yet to materialise. There’s a smaller, cafe-style branch on Nanchang Rd.
reviewed
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N
Whampoa Club
This nouveau Shanghainese joint has a ‘wow’ interior, replete with gilded chairs, pastel-tinted room dividers and a ceiling-to-floor crystal chandelier. But while no one argues over the decor, not everyone agrees on the food. It’s audacious – almond and cocoa fried ribs (Y88), chrysanthemum and duck soup (Y48), chocolate curry ice cream (Y28) – but the kitchen can be inconsistent for such a high-class restaurant. Book ahead.
reviewed
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O
Shanghai Uncle
This restaurant is what Shànghǎi is all about: brash, bustling and just a little tacky. The owner is the son of a New York Times food critic and the dishes mix Western and Asian influences with Shanghainese cooking to surprising and succulent effect. The seafood dishes are particularly good – a steamed Yangzi sole, a gingery-sweet smoked fish (Y36) – but the pine-seed pork ribs in a soy, Worcester and red wine sauce (Y88) and crispy duck with sticky-rice stuffing (Y108) are excellent too.
reviewed