Shanghai's Best Food Streets
Where to Go — and What's Actually Still There

This is Shanghai's most talked-about food street right now, and it earned that status twice over — once in the 1990s as the city's original restaurant row, and again in 2024 when the hit TV series Blossoms Shanghai (繁花) used it as a primary setting and sent crowds flooding back looking for nostalgia.

The street runs a few hundred metres through Huangpu District and is lined on both sides with old-Shanghai canteen-style restaurants, sesame-oil shops, and vendors selling handmade dumplings from bamboo steamers. International Hotel Bakery (国际饭店西饼屋) bakes a limited daily batch of butterfly puff pastries — flaky, butter-rich, gone by noon. Xiao Yang Shengjian (小杨生煎) serves pan-fried buns with seared-gold bottoms and a squirt of hot soup when you bite in; arrive before 7 pm if you want a spot at a table. Jia Jia Tangbao (佳家汤包) wraps soup dumplings so thin you can see the broth inside before you've taken a bite.

Here's the honest picture: the original Wujiang Road snack street — the chaotic, crowded little lane that food blogs waxed lyrical about — was demolished and replaced with a clean, tree-lined pedestrian shopping street. The rebuilt version is pleasant and comfortable, with plenty of cafés, chain bubble-tea shops like Lelecha, and a smattering of sit-down restaurants. It is not a traditional street-food experience.

That said, it's one metro stop from West Nanjing Road, the main shopping artery, so if you've been walking all day and want to sit down somewhere decent without trekking across the city, it works well. The eastern stretch (east of Shimen 2nd Road) is calmer and retains more of a neighbourhood feel than the western section. Some halal-friendly and Hong Kong-style canteens operate along here too.

This is the one that earns its place on every list. Qibao is a genuine jiangnan water town — traditional wooden buildings over a canal, arched stone bridges, red paper lanterns strung between eaves — and practically every other stall is selling something delicious for under ¥15. Shanghainese families come here on weekends specifically to eat their way down South Street.

What to eat: Qibao fanggao (七宝方糕) — squares of steamed glutinous rice cake filled with red bean paste or jujube. This is the town's signature; buy from a dedicated shop rather than a souvenir counter and you'll taste why. Baiqie yangroui (白切羊肉) — poached lamb, sliced thin, dipped in a dark soy-and-ginger sauce. Surprisingly clean and mild. Crab-shell cakes (蟹壳黄) — sesame-coated pastry stuffed with spring onion and lard or minced meat, baked in a clay oven. Stinky tofu (臭豆腐) — the smell stops you at thirty paces, but the contrast of crispy crust and pillowy interior is worth the leap of faith.

This needs an honest caveat upfront. Yunnan South Road was once Shanghai's most venerable food street — a dense 250-metre strip that had been feeding the city since the 1940s, home to restaurants that had cooked the same dishes for three or four generations. Urban redevelopment has taken most of it. A visitor in June 2024 reported walking the street at 9 pm and finding it completely dark and empty.

A small number of century-old establishments reportedly survive. De Xing Guan (德兴馆), founded 1878, is one of the oldest Shanghainese restaurants still operating anywhere in the city — its braised yellow croaker in oil (红烧目鱼) and sliced eel sizzled in sesame oil are the dishes to order. Xiao Shaoxing (小绍兴), est. 1943, specialises in white-cut chicken the Zhejiang way: poached whole, sliced cold, eaten with a soy-ginger dipping sauce.

Yes, the Yu Garden Bazaar is packed with tourists, and yes, a lot of what's for sale in the ornate wooden stalls is overpriced souvenir tat. But it also contains Nanxiang Mantou Dian (南翔馒头店) — possibly the most argued-about xiaolongbao in Shanghai — and a handful of genuinely old restaurants that most travellers walk straight past.

The ground floor counter at Nanxiang does takeaway baskets for ¥25–55 (pork, pork-and-crab, truffle versions). Cash only. The queue runs 30–60 minutes on weekends; arrive before 9 am or after 2 pm to shorten it. Floors two and three offer table service at roughly twice the price with half the wait. Also worth finding: Da Hu Chun (大壶春) for thick-skinned, generously filled shengjian; Songyue Lou (松月楼) for vegetarian Shanghainese food since 1910; and the five-spice bean (五香豆) vendors scattered through the lanes — ¥8 a bag, addictive on a walk.

On a humid Shanghai night in July, Shouning Road at its best was one of the great experiences of the city: a narrow street with restaurant tables spilling onto the pavement, cold beers sweating on plastic tablecloths, mountains of scarlet xiaolongxia (小龙虾, Chinese freshwater crayfish) in woks of garlic oil or spiced broth, and the collective sound of a few hundred people cracking shells with methodical satisfaction.

Crayfish season runs June through September, when the crustaceans are fattest. The classic preparations are garlic-butter (蒜泥小龙虾), spicy Sichuan-style (麻辣小龙虾), and plain steamed. At ¥60–120 per jin (500g), a two-person feast with beer runs around ¥200.

Shanghai is genuinely hot and humid from May through September, with afternoon thunderstorms that arrive without warning. The city's food hall culture is not a tourist consolation prize — it's how Shanghainese actually eat on the nights when the streets are unbearable.

IAPM Mall (Line 1, South Huangpi Road): floors 5 and 6 have an excellent mix of Shanghainese restaurants, quality ramen, and Din Tai Fung — book the latter ahead, even here. Raffles City Shanghai (Lines 1/2/8, People's Square): the sixth-floor food court is described by regulars as the most authentically Chinese food court in central Shanghai, with Sichuan, Cantonese, Hunan, and Shanghainese options. The newer Raffles City North Bund has a basement concept called City Mart — a designed recreation of old-Shanghai street food vendors, nostalgia-laden and fun, with prices around ¥30–80. K11 Art Mall (Line 9, Xujiahui): food options lean creative and independent.