Old Shanghai on a Plate: The City's Heritage Food Rooms
Shanghai keeps a set of dining rooms that have fed the same neighbourhoods for the better part of a century. They are unglamorous, dependable and the clearest way to taste what the city ate before it became modern.
By Shanghai Welcome ·
Rooms that outlasted the century
Shanghai has a category of restaurant with no exact equivalent elsewhere: rooms that have fed the same neighbourhood since the 1920s or 30s, through every change the city has been through. They are not fashionable and they are not trying to be. They serve the food the city grew up on.
What they offer is continuity. The menu is often short and largely fixed; the room is plain; the service is brisk. In a city that has rebuilt itself several times over, eating in one of these rooms is the closest thing to touching the Shanghai that existed before the towers.
- •Rooms feeding the same neighbourhoods since the 1920s and 30s
- •Short, largely fixed menus
- •Plain rooms, brisk service, no attempt at fashion
- •Continuity in a city that has rebuilt itself repeatedly
What to order
The canonical Shanghai dishes are simple and specific: soup dumplings with a thin skin and a clear broth; pan-fried pork buns with a crisp base; red-braised pork belly, dark and sweet; drunken shrimp or chicken in yellow wine; and a bowl of noodles with a scallion oil that is more than the sum of its parts.
Order by texture as much as taste. Shanghai cooking values the contrast between a crisp base and a soft top, a thin skin and a hot broth. Eat them where they are made to order, and eat them freshly — most of these dishes lose most of their point within minutes.
- •Soup dumplings, pan-fried buns, red-braised pork
- •Drunken shrimp or chicken in yellow wine
- •Scallion oil noodles
- •Order for texture; eat the moment it arrives
Follow the same food south to its source: your private guide takes you to Jiaxing for hand-wrapped zongzi, old-town canals and a lakeside lunch. All-inclusive private vehicle, guide, admissions and bottled water.
Explore Jiaxing History & Zongzi Culture →Finding the good ones
The difficulty is that the famous names have the longest queues and, in some cases, the most diluted cooking. The rooms worth eating in are often the neighbourhood ones a few streets off the main road, where the clientele is local and the menu has not been translated.
This is where local knowledge is worth more than any list. A guide who eats in these rooms will take you to the right one at the right hour, order in the right quantities, and explain what is in front of you. Without that you may queue for an hour and still miss the point.
- •Famous names often mean the longest queues
- •Neighbourhood rooms a few streets off are usually better
- •Local clientele and untranslated menus are good signs
- •A guide orders in the right quantities and explains
Frequently asked questions
Are Shanghai's old restaurants worth the queue?
Some are, several are not. The neighbourhood rooms a few streets off the main roads often cook better and queue less.
What should I order on a first visit?
Soup dumplings, pan-fried pork buns, red-braised pork belly and scallion oil noodles — the canonical set, eaten fresh.
Do I need a guide for this?
It helps considerably. Knowing which room is worth it at which hour, and what to order, is most of the difference.
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