Going Out
There are few cities that provoke the same reaction as the mere mention of Shanghai does. There are those that live here, the people who’ve visited, and the ones who are planning to. Shanghai is hot and the word is spreading. Yet this sprawling city, with all its Art Deco charm and disappearing back alley…
Eating Out
Wander down to the Bund, and you’ll get a whiff of the variety of restaurant choices on offer. In the streets just behind Shanghai’s colonial showcase, stalls sell cold noodles and bamboo baskets are stacked high with soup dumplings. Lamb sold by Muslim butchers swings on hooks and grimy Sichuan restaurants serve spicy, authentic south-western…
Delivery & Takeaways
Unlike cities in the West, where delivery is a cheap alternative to dining out, ordering in rarely saves you money in Shanghai. That said, it’s still a convenient practice, and there are several bilingual services that take the linguistic difficulty out of making the order. Sherpa’s (www.sherpa.com.cn) and Mealbay (www.mealbay.com.cn) deliver food from dozens of…
Hygiene
Your local street side eatery won’t win any awards for hygiene but fortunately most foods are cooked at very high temperatures minimizing the risk of food poisoning. Raw foods like fruit and cold dishes should be avoided if your gut tells you that you’re eating in a risky environment. Many small restaurant bathrooms also do…
Special Deals & Theme Nights
The Shanghainese love to mix it up and as such the city is full of different themed nights. The most common type is definitely ladies’ night and it is wholly possible for the fairer of the sexes to flutter between the various hotspots seven days a week and not part with a penny! Mint and…
Tax & Service Charges
There is no consumer tax on food and alcohol in Shanghai. However, if you want to claim expenses for your meal you will need to ask for an invoice, or fapiao. These are different to receipts (danzi) in that the restaurant must purchase them, which acts as a tax on the business – they are…
Vegetarian Food
Chinese cuisine might look veggie-friendly at first, but that’s before the eggplant and string beans arrive in a sauce enriched with pork fat! Here, meat often forms the backbone of sauces in dishes like mapo dofu, and are frequently not even listed in the description. That being said, most restaurants will accommodate vegetarians if told…
Street Food
Street Food Street food is slowly vanishing across Shanghai, as the last vestiges of the Old City make way for shiny high-rises and glittering restaurants. But there are still a few streets in town where you can sample a great deal of different snacks – from steamed xiaolongbao, Shanghai’s famous soup bun, to shallow-fried shengjianbao,…
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