Fine Shanghainese Cuisine in Shanghai

We splurged on our last day in China at what is reputed to be one of the finest Shanghainese restaurants in Shanghai.

This was the morning when we traveled from Suzhou back to Shanghai to complete our 17-day full circle, with only 7 hours left until our flight out of Pudong Airport. That’s barely enough time to stash our luggage at the train station and take our leftover Yuans for one final meal -- and one of our most memorable meals in China.

Food Review: Fu 1088 (Shanghai)
Address: 375 Zhenning Road, Jing’an District, Shanghai
Hours: 11:00-14:00, 17:30-23:00
Reservation: 021-52397878. Reservations highly recommended. Working English spoken.
Website/Map: From Google Map
Directions: Take the Metro to Jiangsu Road Station. Take the Yuyuan Road Exit (No.2) and walk east along Yuyuan Road. Turn left at Zhenning Road, and the restaurant is about 100m ahead on the left side. Note that there is no signage -- you need to keep an eye out for No.375.



This place is widely accepted as one of the best, if not THE best, restaurants for Shanghainese dishes anywhere in China, at least according to local reviewers at the Chinese language Dianping.com. Housed in a 1930’s European style mansion in the former French Concession, Fu 1088 is a throwback to the glorious heydays of Old Shanghai, serving representative Shanghainese classics with a modern and sometimes experimental twist (which may or may not work well). There’s no signage out front -- you simply have to be in the know.



While dining in China is still relatively cheap if you’re from Europe or North America, I must point out that this restaurant is no bargain by local standards -- the minimum charge is RMB 300 (CAD$48) per person before drinks. Originally we wanted to book its sister restaurant Fu 1038 where the minimum charge was RMB 200, but it was unfortunately closed for a wedding reception on the day of our visit. To put this into perspective, our previous THREE meals in Shanghai TOTALLED less than RMB 150 per person, and those were already some of the best eateries for their respective genres. See the next article for Shanghai’s cheaper eats, if you’re looking more for authentic peasant food.



This is the extravagance that has attracted Shanghai’s affluent upper-middle class -- university-educated waitresses, antique Turn-of-20th-Century furniture and spotless pressed white linen, set in our own private room behind closed doors with a window facing the suburban Zhenning Road ... right across from a blue-collar eatery advertising RMB 10 lunch boxes. And here we were having a RMB 600 feast alongside the rich and famous of 21st Century capitalist China. It’s all very Shanghai in an unfortunate way.

But ambience means little to these two traveling foodies -- we’re here to see if the upscale prices and raving reviews from Chinese gourmands are justified by the quality of food served. To gain a full appreciation for the restaurant’s repertoire, and to satisfy the RMB 600 minimum charge, we ordered 9 representative Eastern Chinese dishes. That’s 9 dishes for just my wife and myself. For lunch.



The dishes we ordered were mostly Shanghainese classics; the interpretation of the dishes however wasn’t so apparently classical, starting with our first course of Drunken Chicken with Huadiao Wine (Huadiao Zuiji), one of the most popular Shanghainese dishes. In my experience this dish is typically served in one of two ways -- either with the slow-marinated chicken still bathing inside a small urn of seasoned yellow wine, or having the chicken drained of its marinade and plated dry. This was neither.

In a surprising twist referencing the restaurant’s past life in the French Concession of the 1930’s, our familiar Shanghainese fare was given a westernized presentation, stacked into a small tower topped with frozen crystals of Huadiao wine. The deboned chicken fillets were flavorfully free-range, tenderly simmered and infused with the complex fragrance of the wine marinade. While the melting crystals of Huadiao on the tongue was a crowning bonus, the chicken alone was good enough to rank among the best Drunken Chicken I’ve ever had anywhere.



Cold dishes would dominate the start of the meal, as one would expect at any formal Eastern Chinese restaurant. Our second course was another modern twist of a Shanghainese classic in which a traditional Cold Smoked Egg was served with a little scoop of caviar. I thought the caviar was entirely overshadowed by the deep aroma of smoked tea leaves infused into the egg, and was inserted for the sole purpose of inflating its price (RMB 18 for half an egg). I still loved the delicate flavors in the eggwhite and the silkiness of the yolk, and to be fair this was still the best Smoked Egg I’ve ever had, minus the caviar.



Between cold dishes and hot entrees came a transitional dish of Old Shanghainese Smoked Fish (Laoshanghai Xunyu), one of the most recognizable dishes in Shanghainese cuisine and typically served cold. Here it was presented as a warm dish out of the deep-fryer, and stacked into a tower of filleted chunks instead of its conventional serving as a round steak with bones and skin attached. This was at the same time the crispiest, the juiciest, and the best flavored Smoked Fish I’ve ever had -- and note that this was the third straight dish reaching the best-ever category. If this continued for a few more dishes this would have easily become our best ever meal ... but it wasn’t to be. Close, but not quite.



Our entrees started with yet another Shanghainese favorite in this Stir-Fried Eels in Sauce (Qingchao Shanhu), also the most expensive dish of the day. Here we’re finally diving into the representative Shanghainese flavor known as Nongyou Chijiang, or “heavy on the use of oil and sauces.” The quality of these native yellow eels was simply excellent -- fresh, delectably rich in oil and chewy to the point of being “al dente” to the bite. The dark sauce however was much more average, and certainly nowhere as deep and delicious as the similar dish we had at Suzhou’s Wumenrenjia a couple days earlier, for about half the price.



By the 5th course we reached the classic of all classic Shanghainese dishes, and the local equivalence of hearty comfort food -- a humongous slab of Red-Braised Pork (Hongshao Rou) made from five-layered pork bellies. While the thick and gelatinous skin was wonderfully chewy to the bite, the bottom layers were a little too heavy especially with the syrupy sweet baste. I would have liked a more generous use of the region’s aged dark vinegar to balance out the oiliness, though that’s just a personal preference.



Just when we needed something lighter from all the excess oil, this plate of Baby Yunnan Green Peas with Diced Cured Ham (Huoding Yunnan Xiaowandou) arrived in time as a palate cleanser. Note that this was the only non-Shanghainese dish thus far, as the locally preferred palate cleansing dish would be the Indian Aster (Malantou). This turned out to be a pretty decent dish, though we would have stopped ordering long before this point if it wasn’t for the RMB 600 minimum charge.



November was crab caviar season in Shanghai, and even though this was only a day after our crab-caviar-tasting at Yangcheng Lake, we decided to order two more of these highly seasonal dishes before leaving China. Unfortunately I think we must have been spoiled by the luscious caviar of Yangcheng Lake Crabs, as we simply weren’t impressed by this elegantly presented Steamed Egg White with Crab Caviar ... especially at the price of RMB 38 per person. While the egg white was perfectly soft-steamed and velvety smooth, the taste of crab caviar was miserly and barely detectable. In retrospect we probably should have ordered something such as Tofu with Crab Caviar, where the quantity of caviar would be easily visible to the eye.



But there’s one more chance for this restaurant to redeem itself in terms of crab caviar dishes, with Shanghai’s most famous Dianxin (ie. Dim Sum) creation: the Steamed Soup Buns with Crab Caviar. This was two weeks after we had the absolute best Soup Buns of our lives at Jiajia Tangbao on Huanghe Road, so the bar had been set. And at the price of RMB 36 for 4 buns, I wanted to see at least a good effort, and the generous use of caviar, to justify paying 3 times the price compared to Jiajia.



Again we were disappointed. The signature bright yellow caviar-oil associated with the addition of crab caviar was nowhere to be found, and neither was a pronounced flavor of crab caviar in the filling or the soup. Perhaps I shouldn’t be overly critical, as the dough skin, the soup and the filling were all very good ... but please don’t attach "Crab Caviar" to the name!



Wrapping up our meal was a novel interpretation of the timeless Jiaozi, a.k.a. Gyoza in Japanese. It was interesting to see the ubiquitous pan-fried dumplings presented in this almost crepe-like form, held together by a delightfully crispy layer of deep-fried starch solution which went very well with the mildly spicy dipping sauce.

I still don’t know how we managed to stuff all 9 courses into ourselves, as the Red-Braised Pork was the only dish we couldn’t finish. I guess that’s exactly the purpose of that RMB 300 per person minimum charge -- otherwise every middle-class family in Shanghai would come and order Red-Braised Pork, Smoked Fish and plain rice and walk off with a RMB 200 dinner for a family of three. Despite a couple of disappointing dishes the overall quality of food was still excellent, especially their modern interpretations of classical Shanghainese appetizers. Next time though I would still try to make a reservation at Fu 1038 for the cheaper per-person minimum, and I’ll remember to skip the crab caviar.

Bill for Two Persons

Drunken Chicken with Huadiao Wine	RMB 68
Cold Smoked Egg with Caviar x 2	RMB 36
Old Shanghainese Smoked Fish	RMB 58
Stir-Fried Eels in Sauce	RMB 138
Red-Braised Pork	RMB 108
Baby Yunnan Green Peas with Diced Cured Ham	RMB 68
Steamed Egg White with Crab Caviar x 2	RMB 76
Steamed Soup Buns with Crab Caviar	RMB 36
Pan-Fried Shrimp Jiaozi Dumplings	RMB 30
Fresh Squeezed Grape Juice	RMB 32
Fresh Squeezed Papaya Juice	RMB 38
TOTAL	RMB 688 (CAD$109)

A couple of friends have asked which hotel we chose in central Shanghai and whether it’s recommendable. Frankly I didn’t come across any exceptional deals when we planned our November trip, and selected our hotel based on our usual criteria such as:
- Direct transportation from Pudong Airport where we arrived
- Direct transportation to Hongqiao Train Station where we departed
- Walkable to a major Metro Station (East Nanjing Road Station)
- Walkable to the shoreline of the Bund
- Walkable to a good selection of restaurants
- A clean western-style room with private shower and toilet

The above criteria narrowed down our choices to a select few superiorly positioned hotels, typically 4-stars and above. We did however find a couple of reasonably priced 2- to 3-star hotels in the area, and settled at a little-known private hotel, just half-a-block from Shanghai’s most popular attraction.


Hotel Review: ZHENBEI HOTEL SHANGHAI
Address: 47 Jiujiang Road, Huangpu District, Shanghai
Price: RMB 288 (CAD$46) for a double room with private bathroom
Website: from Google Map here
How To Book: Book from CTrip
Directions: Take the Metro to the East Nanjing Road Station. Take Exit 7 and walk along East Nanjing Road towards the Bund. Immediately turn right at the next street (Jiangxi Zhonglu) and then left on Jiujiang Road. The hotel is about 300m ahead, half a block before the bright lights of the Bund.


If you’re looking for 5-star convenience at 2-star prices in the heart of Shanghai, this little private hotel is one of my two recommendations (the other being Manhattan Business Hotel at a slightly higher price). Here you’re a 1-minute walk to the glitzy shoreline of the Bund, and in fact one block from the venerable Peace Hotel and its extravagant RMB 3000 rooms. And on top of that, one metro trip on Line 2 takes you directly to Pudong Airport for international flights, or Hongqiao Airport for domestic flights, or Hongqiao Train Station for high-speed trains to Hangzhou if you wish. And if you need one more reason, some of the best cheap restaurants in town are within walking distance (see next article on Cheap Eats).



The downside is ... it is a budget hotel after all, as reflected in the drab wallpaper and rundown carpets. Our sheets however were very clean, and our room did come with the modern conveniences of air-conditioning, cable TV, fridge and hair-dryer. The front desk spoke minimal English, though that should be expected at anything less than 4-stars.



The bathroom was western-style and reasonably clean, which is always one of our bottom line requirements. No breakfast was served at this price, but why would we want to waste our stomach room on mediocre food while the best peasant fare of Shanghai was only one subway stop away on Huanghe Road off the People’s Square? That to me, was one of the major advantages of staying at this central location.



The best part was of course the iconic night scenery of Shanghai’s Bund, with the world’s best exhibition of Art Deco architecture on the near shore and the 21st Century skyscrapers of Pudong on the opposite shore, being barely 100m from the hotel’s front door. With views like this just 5 minute’s walk away to the north, you can see why we didn’t spend very much time inside our ugly hotel room. It was all about the location anyway.