Shanghai Ren Jia
The Chinese like their restaurants
rènào (hot and noisy), and this is a good example, a huge, bustling chain restaurant with a cheap and cheery atmosphere and interesting twists on standard Shanghainese fare. It’s best to come in a large group so you can order and share multiple dishes.
What to order Try the drunken shrimps if you’re brave enough. These critters come to the table live and soaked in booze – you pull off their heads and eat them while they twitch. Roasted pig’s trotter is another house speciality.
141 Yunnan Nan Lu
Wang Baohe
Billing itself the “king of crabs and ancestor of wine”, this local staple has been around for over two hundred years. It’s famous for its crab dishes, particularly the local speciality, hairy crabs (known as mitten crabs in the west), a grey freshwater crustacean harvested in in its breeding season from October to December.
What to order Hairy crabs: prise the shell off and you’ll find delicious white meat inside, and, if it’s a female, maybe the highly prized orange roe.
603 Fuzhou Lu
Xiao Shaoxing
Old-fashioned Chinese-style dining – bright and noisy and with big tables; the waitresses expect you to call for their attention, so hardly suitable for a date, but it’s fun for a group. Adventurous diners might wish to sample the blood soup or chicken feet.
What to orderXiao Shaoxing is famous in Shanghai for its “drunken chicken” (the meat is steeped in rice wine).
118 Yunnan Nan Lu
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