Nina’s Sichuan House

Nina’s is as authentic as they come, with lines out the door and few foreigners in on the secret. It also has the best English menu in Shànghǎi: the entire text appears to have been penned by the Google translation machine. The salt-fried meat (Y22) and fiery water-cooked beef (Y29) are pretty much what they claim to be (and excellent at that), but what about the ‘fish joss-stick dish dragon Jia’ (Y17) ? That’s apparently a fancy way of saying fish-flavoured eggplant. The ‘almond in the United States fry cow’ (Y88) is another winning description, but for those who can take the heat, we recommend a giant bowl of spicy black river fish (Y78).