unlike a lot of other people, i actually like shanghainese food. the sticky sweet vinegar . . . and over-abudance of oil, if its not an every-night-of-the-week thing, i really don’t mind.
last night i was with a couple of friends at KABB in xintiandi, when the subject of dinner came up. we all agreed that we wanted chinese and sitting a mere 50 feet away was one of my favorites, xinjishi, but honestly we had all been there quite a few times – especially me in the last month with all the visitors i had.
one of us suggested an alternative : dian shi zhai restaurant, located at 320 yongjia road.
a much quieter place than xin jishi (or jishi, obviously), dian shi zhai was set in a traditional shanghai shikumen house. while we didn’t get to go upstairs, the downstairs portion was laid out like a 1930s art deco well-to-do residence.
the food was equally good as the surroundings: stand-out dishes include the xiefundofu (crab with tofu) and red cooked pork with it’s glistening fat and sweet and vinegary mix of sauce. The only miss was them not having the world famous Shanghainese xiaolongbao, but the atmosphere and food made up for it (they had sold out that night)
dian shi zhai shanghainese restuarant
320 yongjia lu near xiangyang lu in xuhui district
403 RMB for 3 people, including beer and tea ? sorry no photos. was eating.