Restaurants

In its heyday, the building now housing Shanghai was an eel and pie shop. Yet it’s amazing how the original fixtures, of green and blue tiles and wrought-metal framed mirrors, have all the feel of 20th-century chinoiserie, along with the worn glamour of a Wong Kar-Wai film – we half expected the waitresses to be wearing cheongsams. After you’ve settled into one of the handsome dark wooden booths, a glance at the menu will reveal ‘modern Shanghainese’ dishes (though the offerings include crunchy lotus root sandwiches from Shunde in Guangzhou). A traditional dish of ‘lion heads’ (minced pork balls with baby pak choi and beancurd sheets) was a joy to find, but the meatballs were too dense and salty. ‘Shanghai Lady’, an interesting name for a rice dish mixed with diced vegetables, was unlike anything we’ve ever tried from that city, but was enjoyable in itself with plenty of crunchy greens in the soy-flavoured rice. If you’re looking for Chinese food that is slightly different from the more commonly found Cantonese cooking, Shanghai is worth a try.

Time Out Eating & Drinking Guide 2009