9 Shanghai places worth a detour, from benbang food to rice cakes
Nine Shanghai addresses covering the whole range of local eating — proper benbang cooking, crab, xiaolongbao, shengjian, and the rice-cake counters that older residents have been going to for decades.
外滩家宴·上海菜 (Waitan Family Reunion)
One visitor comes back every trip, largely because you can eat while watching the Oriental Pearl Tower from the table. The lane-style fried glutinous rice balls are springy and chewy, the osmanthus-sauce pork ribs are sweet and fragrant, and the braised pork belly is sweet without turning cloying.李百蟹·蟹黄面·临江餐厅 (Li Bai Crab)
The signature whole-crab feast is the draw, with plump, full-bodied crab meat. There is also a long list of chewy glutinous desserts, and one visitor rates every one of them. Ask for a window table — you get a front-row river view.鲜得来排骨年糕 (Xiande Lai)
Pork chop fried crisp outside and tender inside, paired with rice cakes that are soft but still have bite. The Worcestershire-style spicy soy sauce poured over the top is what does it: sweet and sharp at once.莱莱小笼 (Lai Lai Xiaolongbao)
Small, neat dumplings with evenly pleated tops. Bite in and the pork filling is firm and juicy, with the meat flavour carrying through.大壶春生煎 (Da Hu Chun)
A long-standing Shanghai shop. The shengjian have crisp bottoms, fragrant pork and a full mouthful of soup — order the curry beef soup alongside.沈大成 (Shen Da Cheng)
The red-bean qingtuan has a fine, smooth filling, and the sweet-savoury pork floss one balances both sides. The tiaotou gao is about as chewy as rice cake gets, and the shuangniang tuan splits half red bean, half black sesame, rolled in shredded coconut. Old Shanghai flavour, plainly.白玉兰食品 (Baiyulan Food)
Ask any older Shanghai resident. The big pork buns and the old-fashioned pastries are the ones people buy over and over.凯司令 (Kai Si Ling)
The whipped-cream chestnut cake is the order. Chestnut is soft and starchy, there is only a thin layer of sponge at the base, and the rest is dense chestnut filling.虹口糕团食品厂 (Hongkou Rice Cake and Pastry Factory)
A cheap, traditional rice-cake shop. The rice-cake rolls are made to order — soft glutinous cake wrapped around fried dough stick, pickled greens, pork floss and black sesame paste, savoury and sweet in the same bite.
Most of these sit in Huangpu, near the Bund and Nanjing Road, so a hotel in that band puts the whole list within reach on foot or a short ride.
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