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1221
No one has a bad thing to say about this smart expat favourite and rightly so, as it's never let its standards dip over the years. The roast duck is excellent, as are the drunken chicken and beef with dough strips. The pan-fried sticky rice and sweet bean paste (from the dim sum menu) makes a good dessert. It's also worth ordering the eight-fragrance tea just to watch it served out of 60cm-long spouts. You'll need to drive. English menu. Reserve.
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Afanti Restaurant
Discerning fans of hearty Uighur cuisine can make the trek to the northern boonies for some of the city's best Central Asian food in a friendly and authentic environment. The delicious dàpánjī , gosh gorma ( chǎo kǎoròu in Chinese - fried mutton) and cumin-rubbed lamb are all praiseworthy; don't forget to try the homemade suān nǎi (yogurt). The restaurant is in the basement of the Tianshan Hotel, next to the Silk Rd Hotel.
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Bai's Restaurant
Hidden down an alleyway, this cute family-style restaurant offers tasty, authentic Shanghainese food and an English menu. The hǔpí jiānjiāo (tiger skin chillies) are mild and sweet and there are plenty of affordable delicacies like the cháozhōu tóngbái xiè (baked crab, onion and green pepper). The suànxiāng bàngbànggú (fried pork ribs in garlic) are a house speciality, but slightly overpriced. There are only five tables so book ahead.
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Bǎoluó Jiǔlóu
Join the Shanghainese night owls who queue down the street well into the early hours outside of this amazingly busy venue. Bǎoluó is typically chaotic, cavernous and packed - a great place to get a feel for Shanghai's famous buzz. The English menu isn't much help here (the translations are gibberish) so follow your nose and see what other tables are ordering. Try the excellent baked eel, which isn't on the English menu.
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Bellagio Café
Despite the Italian name, Bellagio is a chain specialising in Taiwanese food and is popular with the twentysomething crowd, attracted to the reasonable prices and late-night hours. Some of the Taiwanese specialities on offer are three-cup chicken and pineapple fried rice, but the real draws are the superb shaved ice desserts: try the green tea on red bean. English menu.
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Dolar Shop
This top-notch chain is popular with the locals because of the quality ingredients and the range of sauces, essential to hotpot dining, which you can mix yourself at the sauce bar. You cook your choice of food in the hotpot at your table and add the sauce to your taste. The homemade pork and beef meatballs are great; there's seafood and veggies as well. There are another six branches, mostly in shopping malls, around the city. Picture menu.
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Element Fresh
Perennially popular, Element Fresh hits the spot with pasta dishes, healthy salads and hefty sandwiches. Its recently expanded dinner menu features such tasty options as sesame-crusted tuna steak and grilled red curry grouper, while vegetarians may well faint with excitement at the roasted eggplant on walnut bread with mozzarella and olives. There are imaginative smoothies, fresh juices, coffee and after-work cocktails. It's nonsmoking inside.
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Food Court Live
This basement food court serves the hordes headed up to Jinmao's top-floor viewing platform. Chinese fast-food stalls specialise in claypot dishes, Hainan chicken, Cantonese barbecue, wok and noodle dishes, as well as set meals.
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Grape Restaurant
One of the most enduring private Chinese restaurants from the 1980s, the reliable Grape still packs in the crowds at its bright premises beside the old Russian Orthodox church. Try the delicious yóutiáo chǎoniúròu (dough sticks with beef) or any of the crab dishes - you won't find them cheaper anywhere else. English menu.
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Green Wave Gallery
Tour groups flock to this traditional building, partly because of its location overlooking the Mid-Lake Pavilion Teahouse and partly because the décor and views fit the quintessential image of old China. The food's not bad, but it is overpriced.
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Green Willow Village Restaurant
This stalwart offers a wide range of Chuanyang cuisine - a mix of Sìchuān and Yángzhōu flavours - along with some 'medicinal' dishes (food designed to cure certain ailments, according to Chinese belief) at prices ranging from cheap to very expensive. Regulars recommend the crispy duck ( xiāngsū yā ). If you're feeling hungry there's always the whole pig head in brown sauce. There's an English menu but the translations are erratic.
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Indian Kitchen
One of Shanghai's growing number of Indian restaurants, this is a popular place, especially with expat Brits yearning for a taste of their national cuisine. All the classics are on the menu, from kormas to vindaloos, and they deliver, too. Nevertheless, true curry fiends will find it a little tame. The set lunch, which isn't available at weekends, is a good deal. There's another branch in Hóngqiáo (6261 0377; House 8, No 3911 Hongmei Rd).
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Itoya
Itoya is a popular chain offering solid lunch specials and other set meals - from grilled eel to sushi and sukiyaki - all served with salad, miso soup, pickles and snacks. Wherever there are Japanese offices, you can be sure there's an Itoya branch nearby, such as in the Kerry Centre and the Maxdo Centre.
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Jade On 36
Foie gras lollipops, strawberry-cola spaghetti, a lemon tart that's a hollowed-out lemon with a sorbet-like filling - the food here is as extraordinary as the ornate setting (courtesy of Adam Tihany, the world's leading restaurant designer) and views. Chef Paul Pairet specialises in a striking mix of Asian and European cuisine, with textures and tastes different from anything you'll have eaten before. Reserve.
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Jean Georges
Somewhere between Gotham City and new Shanghai is Jean-George Vongerichten's dimly lit, wood-floored, copper-appliquéd temple to gastronomy. The French-born Manhattan chef knows how to skim the cream off the city's expanding economy, no doubt about that, but you get the culinary adventures you pay for. Palate-pleasers include black cod with sesame seeds and citrus, a foie gras brule and an excellent soft shell crab.
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Jíshì Jiǔlóu
This is Shanghainese home cooking at its best: crab dumplings, Grandma's braised pork and plenty of fish, eel and jellyfish. Start with the wine-preserved shrimps or the carp cream soup. Main dishes range from the cheap (chicken and celery in black pepper), to the more expensive, like the yellow fish in brown sauce or the crab with ginger and onion. It's easy to miss this place; the sign outside says 'Jesse's', rather than Jíshì. English menu.
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Lost Heaven
On a quiet street in Shanghai's most desirable neighbourhood, Lost Heaven has maintained the title of most fashionable expat eatery longer than many restaurants before it. The food, a Western take on the cuisine of southwest China, is delicately flavoured and well-presented, although purists will argue some dishes, like the Dali chicken with green pepper and onion, aren't spicy enough. The Yunnan vegetable cakes make a fantastic starter. Reserve.
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Mesa
Mesa is a good spot for fine dining in a casual atmosphere. The former factory has been renovated just enough to be en vogue, but touches like exposed steel support beams remind you to leave the tie at home. The menu appears to have roots somewhere in France, but has since found a distinctive Australasian niche. The mega-popular weekend brunches (from around Y80 ) are kid-friendly too. Upstairs is the swish bar Manifesto. Reserve.
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Nepali Kitchen
Reminisce about that Himalayan trek over a plate of Tibetan momos (meat or vegetable dumplings) or a chicken choila amid prayer flags in this homey place. For a more laid-back meal, take your shoes off and recline on traditional cushions, surrounded by colourful thangkas and paper lamps. Prices are higher than the Annapurna Circuit, but then you're not just eating dhal bhat . Both the set lunch and dinner are a good bet.
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Ooedo
Ooedo is one of the nicest Japanese restaurants in Shanghai, with little touches like the kimono-clad wait staff and open sushi bar setting it apart from many competitors. There are sashimi sets for around Y150 , but nearly everyone opts for the Y200 all-you-can-eat sushi, tempura and sake buffet.
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Pamir Restaurant
Excellent lamb kebabs, nan bread and Central Asian noodles (try the suoman - fried noodle squares with tomatoes and green peppers) make for a refreshing change of tastes at this no-frills Uighur restaurant. Wash it down with a bottle of Xinjiang Black Beer or a pot of kok chai (green tea).
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Pǐnchuān
The telltale blend of chillies and peppercorns is best summed up in two words: là (spicy) and má (numbing). Experience the tongue tingling yourself in this multicoloured villa: try Chef Lu's chicken special, málà (chicken in red pepper) or stone-boiled beef, prepared by cooking strips of beef on stir-fried pebbles. The duck with sticky rice will soothe your tastebuds. English menu. Reserve.
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Punjabi
The set lunch/dinner deals are the main reason to search out the Punjabi. The set dinner (around Y85 ) with all-you-can-drink Tsingtao beer makes this a decent place to start the evening. The set lunch (around Y49 ), including two curries, dhal, raita and dessert, is also a good deal. Despite the pukka Hindi music, the large hall is better suited to groups than couples. There are other branches in Pudong and Gubei.
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Quánjùdé
This branch of the famous Peking duck restaurant chain offers more than 100 dishes made from every conceivable part of a duck's anatomy. The big draw, of course, is the juicy roasted duck served with pancakes, scallions and plum sauce. Half of one with the trimmings costs around Y69 . The deluxe is rounded off with a soup, essential for digestion if you've stuffed yourself. The brave should order fried scorpions with liver, another speciality.
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Shanghai Uncle
This is Shanghai in a nutshell: 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 Yangtze sole, a gingery-sweet smoked fish - as are the pine-seed pork ribs in a soy, Worcester and red wine sauce and crispy duck with sticky rice stuffing.
