Shanghai Dining
Plan your Shanghai tour? What kind of food do you like? French, Italian, Japanese or Chinese? Shanghai, Cantonese or vegetarian? Below we present some of the best places and categories of restaurants to enjoy in lovely Shanghai.You can find them all here.
Shanghai Cuisine & Specialty
Shanghai cuisine is epitomized by the use of alcohol. Fish, eel, crab, and chicken are "drunken" with spirits and are briskly cooked/steamed or served raw. Salted meats and preserved vegetables are also commonly used to spice up the dish. The use of sugar is common in Shanghainese cuisine and, especially when used in combination with soy sauce, effuses foods and sauces with a taste that is not so much sweet but rather savory. Non-natives tend to have difficulty identifying this usage of sugar and are often surprised when told of the "secret ingredient." The most notable dish of this type of cooking is "sweet and sour spare ribs" ("tangcu xiaopai" in Shanghainese).
Shanghai people are known to eat in delicate portions (which makes them a target of mockery from other Chinese), and hence the servings are usually quite small. For example, famous buns from Shanghai such as the xiaolong mantou (known as xiaolongbao in Mandarin) and the shengjian mantou are usually about four centimetres in diameter, much smaller than the typical baozi or mantou elsewhere.The lion's head meatball and Shanghai-style nian gao are also uniquely Shanghainese, as are Shanghai fried noodles, a regional variant of chow mein that is made with Shanghai-style thick noodle. Lime-and-ginger-flavoured thousand-year eggs and stinky tofu are other popular Shanghainese food items...Red More: Shanghai Specialty
Famous Restaurants in Shanghai
Shanghai Old Restaurant
Shanghai Old Restaurant is one of the city’s most infamous. It specializes in local and traditional Shanghai food and maintains the purest essences of Shanghai cooking styles. The restaurant dates back to the Qing Dynasty; in the past its name was Rongshun Restaurant or Old Rongshun Restaurant. It wasn’t until 1964 that the restaurant adopted its current name, Shanghai Old Restaurant.
Shanghai Old Restaurant is one of the city’s most infamous. It specializes in local and traditional Shanghai food and maintains the purest essences of Shanghai cooking styles. The restaurant dates back to the Qing Dynasty; in the past its name was Rongshun Restaurant or Old Rongshun Restaurant. It wasn’t until 1964 that the restaurant adopted its current name, Shanghai Old Restaurant.Address: No.242, Fuyou road,Shanghai
Opening Time: 11:30 am- 2:30 pm, 3:00 pm- 8:30 pm
Tel: 021-63111777
Price: The average per person cost of a meal is 50 Yuan to 100 Yuan.
Opening Time: All day
Tel: 021-63743772
Dexingguan Restaurant
Found at Shiliupu Emporia in the southern part of The Bund, Dexingguan Restaurant was founded in 1883 making it one of the oldest existing restaurants in Shanghai; its inner décor was most recently updated in 1993. Its traditional Shanghai dishes such as fish fins, fresh pork and salted pork cooked with bamboo shoots, and fish lips with shrimps, and desserts found on the first floor yield grand banquets. Dexingguan Restaurant’s most famous dish is the black ginseng braised shrimp, regarded as the best ginseng recipe in the world.
Address: No. 29, Dongmen roadFound at Shiliupu Emporia in the southern part of The Bund, Dexingguan Restaurant was founded in 1883 making it one of the oldest existing restaurants in Shanghai; its inner décor was most recently updated in 1993. Its traditional Shanghai dishes such as fish fins, fresh pork and salted pork cooked with bamboo shoots, and fish lips with shrimps, and desserts found on the first floor yield grand banquets. Dexingguan Restaurant’s most famous dish is the black ginseng braised shrimp, regarded as the best ginseng recipe in the world.Opening Time: All day
Tel: 021-63743772
Godly Vegetarian Restaurant (上海功德林素食)
Established in Shanghai in 1922, it has been the most famous Chinese vegetarian eatery at home and abroad. The restaurant building is in three levels of mixing traditional and modern architectural styles, consisting of a takeaway section, grand dining hall and several luxury balconies for VIP customers. Godly Vegetarian Diet has produced various sorts of vegetarian specialties, Dim Sum snacks, festive food (rice dumplings and moon cakes) and Western style cakes. Many Shanghai people like to buy several buns with vegetarian stuffing enjoying at their home and sharing with their families. 
Ask Questions ?