Lighter then northern
Chinese fare but richer than Cantonese, Shanghai cuisine
is made of sweet, rich, vinegary Chinese dishes,
pleasantly oily and simply prepared.
The bad news: Shanghai is
more than 6,000 miles away. The good news: San Francisco
offers an abundance of restaurants from which you can
sample authentic Shanghai-style fare.
If you appreciate atmosphere,
Shanghai 1930 will delight you. Owner George Chen (the
man behind Betelnut and the East Bay's late, great
Xanadu, among others) has taken great pains to ensure
that his 1930s-style supper club is as gorgeous as the
food it serves.
Elegantly dim lighting
enhances red-velvet-and-black-lacquer banquettes, where
graciously obsequious waiters with Old-World manners
gently suggest a pleasant sauvignon blanc to accompany
your meal.
This no presentation-only
restaurant offering Westernized dishes to placate the
anesthetized palate. At Shanghai 1930, you'll find
traditional fare lovingly prepared with fresh, quality
ingredients and a bit of panache.
The Yiubao prawns ($9) aren't
just stylishly arranged on a platter with a bit of
garnish, but wok-hot and savory, coated with ginger,
scallions and xiaoxing rice wine. The Peking duck ($34),
a perennial Shanghai favorite, is served tableside,
crispy-skinned and juicy with plum hoisin and lotus buns
(remember, Shanghai food is served family-style, so
you'll be sharing this dish -- and the price tag).
You'll also want to try Cindy's Claypot Chicken ($12), a
stew of incredibly tender chicken slow-cooked in an
earthen clay pot with shitake mushrooms, ginger and
onions.
If traditional dining at
dirt-cheap prices is more your thing, try one of the
excellent, family-owned Shanghai restaurants in the
Richmond district. You won't find red velvet, black
lacquer or fawning waiters, but you will experience
authentic Shanghai cuisine in a true-to-life setting.
Home cooking
At Dragon House, you may
experience a moment of confusion: Didn't you go out to
eat? Then why is mom serving you dinner? She may not be
your mother, but the sweet lady bringing you your Saucy
Duck ($4.50), a cold fowl appetizer marinated in spicy
rice wine, is as concerned with your dining experience
as the woman who birthed you.
"Don't get that," our server
warned, as we were about to order claypot chicken along
with our duck. "Too many bones. You like eggplant?"
After taking her advice, we were happy we listened: The
Claypot Spicy Eggplant ($5.50), perfectly tender and
rich with chunks of ginger and mellow onion, rounded out
nicely our meal of Lobster With Scallions and Ginger
($17), a plate filled with chunks of braised crustacean
with a rich white sauce and lengths of crunchy green
onion.
While you'll definitely fare
better if you can speak to mom -- or any of the other
good-natured waitresses -- in her native language, she
won't hold it against you if you only speak English.
Yes, the menu and specials are in Chinese, with dubious
English translations given as an afterthought, but the
staff at the Dragon House -- and the nearby and similar
Sun Wu Kong -- are more than happy to help out.
The real thing
To our "what's good
today?" our waiter at Sun Wu Kong replied, "Everything."
When we prodded, he confessed that the carp was very
fresh, and he would recommend we eat it fried with red
sauce ($8.50).
Although we longed to sample
something from the extensive menu displayed on the wall
-- in Chinese only, of course -- we were happy with our
carp, adding to it only a bowl of Hot and Sour Soup
($5), which wasn't as sour as we would have liked, but
satisfied, nonetheless.
For a slightly different
experience, stop by Shanghai Restaurant, where you'll
forgive the hungover college students serving you
breakfast because the food is just so good.
The Drunken Chicken ($6.50),
a Shanghai specialty of cold, boiled chicken marinated
in xiaoxing rice wine, is strange to the Western palate,
but oddly addictive, as are the Fried Baby Dumplings
($5), steamed buns stuffed with pork and chives, and
then lightly fried.
We also loved the Vegetarian
Goose ($5.50), designed to resemble slices of fried
fowl. As carnivores, we weren't disappointed in this
meatless dish: The crispy tofu skin, sautÈed shitake
mushrooms and rich, creamy sauce may not have tasted
like goose, but they were damned tasty, making us wish
we'd ordered two of this surprising dish.
Although the service at
Shanghai Restaurant is a far cry from that at the
upscale Shanghai 1930 or the family-oriented Dragon
House and Sun Wu Kong, it's still authentic. Dinner
patrons will be treated to an altogether different
ambience, as the storefront cafe, shabby in daylight, is
transformed into a pleasant eatery, replete with carp
pond, waterfall and ingratiating waiters.
Shanghai in The City
Shanghai 1930
133 Steuart St.
(415) 896-5600
Open for lunch 11 a.m.-2 p.m.
Mondays-Fridays; dinner 5:30-10 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays,
5:30-11 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, 5:30-9:30 p.m. Sundays.
Average entree: $13
Dragon House
5344 Geary Blvd.
(415) 751-6545
Open 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and
4-9:30 p.m. daily.
Average entree: $5
Sun Wu Kong
5423 Geary Blvd.
(415) 876-2828
Open 11 a.m.-10:30 p.m.
daily.
Average entree: $6
Shanghai Restaurant
420 Judah St.
(415) 661-7755
Open 11 a.m.-10 p.m.
Mondays-Fridays, 10:30 a.m.-10:00 p.m.
Saturdays-Sundays.
Average entree:
$7
