Shanghai Food & Restaruants

Shanghai is china’s biggest port city. Since the Qing dynasty, it was thronged by traders from all over the world and was densely populated with both Chinese and foreigners. It is an all-embracing city. Different cultures can find their places or even blend with each other in Shanghai. Restaurants featuring the various kinds of dishes, like Beijing food, Yangzhou food, Sichuan food, Cantonese food, Suzhou food, Hangzhou food, Wuxi food, Ningbo food and Shanghai’s local dishes have emerged in Shanghai.

The Shanghai landers always say, “Satisfying eating is in Shanghai.” In Shanghai you can also find famous dishes from many countries, such as western cafes, American food, Japanese food, Italian food, Indian food, Korean food, Vietnamese food, Thai food etc. Famous chefs around the world come to Shanghai to start their own business and also bring different cooking techniques to Shanghai. Boiling, steaming, stewing, stir, braising, sautéing, deep- frying, stir-frying, curing with smoke, roasting, marinating, all these cooking techniques are used to create delicious food for people from all over the world. Whatever you want, you can find in Shanghai.

Shanghai Snacks and Snacks Street

Suzhou food and Hangzhou food

List of Suzhou food and Hangzhou food restaurants

List of Sichuan food restaurants

Shanghai Snacks and Snacks Street

Crab-brown Flaky Pastry

The flaky pastry is crispy, delicious, aromatic and as brown as the color of a cooked crab. The fillings include green onions, pork, crab meat, shrimp, sugar, mashed beans, and jujube paste.

Mashed Date Flaky Pastry

It is a kind of fried food cooked with pastry cover and black mashed dates inside. It is very popular among the tourists from Hong Kong, Macao and Japan for its golden color, cute figure, crispy pastry and delicious stuffing.

Fried Mantou (a kind of fried paste with stuffing inside)

In Shanghai, people usually call Baozi (bread) to be Mantou, so fried Mantou , in fact, is fried Baozi. The semi-fermented paste is fried on the saucepan with spraying water several times during cooking. You’d better taste it in hot because at that time, the bottom is golden-colored and crispy, while the rest part is white and soft. The wonderful stuffing mixing fresh meat with sesame or scallion is especially wonderful.

Cold Noodle with Sauce

For the summer in Shanghai, cold noodle is usually one of the most popular foods. The making procedure is: boil the noodle after steaming, then make it cool, at last add some sauces.

Yangchun Noodle (plain noodle)

There is a custom for the local people that the October in lunar calendar is another spring; hence the number of ten refers to spring. In the old days, the noodle was just worth ten Wen (the money unit in ancient times), that’s why the noodle was called Yangchun noodle-“Chun” means spring in Chinese.

Flour Ball with Fruits Stuffing

It is a kind of sticky rice ball with fruits stuffing which is cooked by sweet fermented-rice. It is very special and delicious.

Leisha Dumpling

It is the glutinous-rice Dumpling covering ground adzuki bean. It is said that at the end of Qing dynasty, an old lady called Lei made a living by the glutinous-rice dumpling stall in Shanghai. In order to make the dumpling convenient to store and carry for attracting more customers, she tried so many ways. And finally she found covering ground adzuki bean is an effective way.

Sponge Cake Made by Lard and Fruits

It is steamed by the mixed powder of glutinous-rice and rice with adzuki bean and fruits. The cake is so soft and sweet and has various tastes with different fruits. Thus it is the popular food for welcoming the New Year.

Fried Chop Rice Cake

The chop, with a piece of rice cake, is fried and cooked. There are two makings in Shanghai for this snack; the representatives are Shuguang restaurant and Xian Laide cake store which have been famous for their chop rice cakes since 1930s; although the making procedures are different.

Fresh Meat Flour Dough

The typical flour dough has the ingredients of diced chicken and meat, mixing with the delicious soup. Because of the ear-like figure, it got the name “mao’er” meaning the ears of cat. But here I’d like to recommend a unique one in Qiao Jiashan restaurant of Shanghai. The special things are the hand-made flour piece and the meat or bean paste stuffing.

Escargots Pickled with Distillers' Grains or in Wine

The median size escargots are boiled with the distillers' grains or in wine. The escargot is fresh, the seasoning is appetizing. Once you have a taste, you will never forget it.

Gaoqiao Cake

The ingredients used for this shortcake are wheat flour, lard, sugar, red beans and osmanthus. It is a rich and easily crumbled pastry, and has become one of the four renowned pastries from the Gaoqiao bakery. All the products from this bakery can be bought at its retail department at the corner of Huaihai Zhong Road and Ruijin Road.

Solidified Pear Syrup of Town God's Temple

The history of solidified pear syrup can date back to 1300 years ago. There were stores sailing solidified pear syrup in Shanghai’s town god’s temple more than 100 years ago. And the fame of it was spread all over the world from then on.
The solidified pear syrup can be divided into one for healing effect and one for taste. The first one can relieve cough and asthma, as well as stimulate the appetite by so many medicinal herbs, such as almond, the root of balloon flower, tuckahoe, tuber pinellas etc. While the one for taste is boiled with sugar plus herbs, for example amomum villosum, hawthorn, clove and so on.
Tips: now it is the monopoly of Shanghai solidified pear syrup shop in Yuyuan Garden Commerce City.

Cream Spiced Beans

Cream spiced beans are made by the local green broad beans with the ingredients such as fennel, cinnamon bark, salt, sugar, cream etc. It tastes slight sweet and delicate flavor, which is good for stimulating the appetite.

Suzhou food and Hangzhou food

Shanghai Old Restaurant
Shanghai Old Restaurant is a famous restaurant in the local Shanghai culinary style. It dates back to Qing dynasty, more than 100 years ago and was also called Rongshun restaurant or old Rongshun restaurant in history. In 1964, the name was changed to the present one, Shanghai Old Restaurant. It is the first local food restaurant in Shanghai. In cooking, it pays attention to the control of flames, rich flavor, original gravy and original taste; the dishes are mellow and delicious, thick in gravy and bright in color. Through long time study and practice it adopts different ways of cooking and creates many new flavors. Its specialties are eight-jeweled duck, braised meat preserved in fermented rice in casserole, red-cooked hilsa herring and kousansi (the mixture of three kinds of shredded vegetables).
Address: no. 242, Fuyou road
Bus route: bus no. 932
Opening time: 11:30 am- 2:30 pm, 3:00 pm- 8:30 pm
Tel: 63111777
Tips: the average costs for each person here is from RMB 50 to RMB 100.

Dexingguan Restaurant

Located at Shiliupu emporia, southern part of the Bund, Dexingguan Restaurant was set up in 1883, more than 100 years ago. The restaurant is good at preparing traditional Shanghai style dishes, desserts, and can also give a top grade banquet. Its specialties are fish fin, fresh pork and salted pork cooked with bamboo shoot, and fish lip with shrimps. It was redecorated in1993. Now this old-brand restaurant is famous for its Shanghai-style dishes, graceful atmosphere, and good services. You can enjoy the Shanghai traditional snacks on the first floor. On the second floor there is a magnificent hall for dance and banquet. On the third floor there are rooms with KTV and other recreational facilities for hire by the hour.
Address: no. 29, Dongmen road
Bus route: bus no. 55, 65, 22, 64, 126
Opening time: all day
Tel: 63743772

Xiaoshaoxing restaurant

Xiaoshaoxing restaurant, developed from Xiaoshaoxing chicken porridge bar, is famous for its tender boiled chicken. The founder of Xiaoshaoxing restaurant was Zhang Runniu. When he was 16 years old, Mr. Zhang came to Shanghai from Shaoxing, a small water town near Shanghai. At first he made a living by selling some snacks. Gradually, his tender boiled chicken became more and more popular. Finally it became the most famous food in his snack bar and was called “a top in China”. With half a century of experience, the restaurant now offers high-quality dishes. The raw materials used are specially-fed yellow-feathered chickens from Nanhui County, and the dish fully preserves the original nutrition and taste of the chicken meat. The careful selection of raw material and skillful cooking turns out a chicken, crispy in skin, tender in meat, delicious in flavor and beautiful in shape. The chicken porridge is simmered with superior rice and original chicken broth.
Address: No. 118, Yunan Road
Bus Route: Bus No. 18, 42 17, 23
Tel: 63732890
Opening Time: 6:30-2:30

List of Suzhou food and Hangzhou food restaurants

Sichuan Food

List of Sichuan food restaurants