A Bite of Shanghai: Local Classics, Hidden Gems and Global Flavors

By October, Shanghai slows into autumn. Summer cools, osmanthus blooms, and the city's food scene changes.

Steaming baskets of xiaolongbao arrive at breakfast tables, pan-fried shengjian crackle on neighborhood griddles, and, as the month progresses, hairy crab starts making its much-anticipated appearance on restaurant menus.

Food is one of the best ways to get beyond Shanghai's postcard landmarks and into the city's rhythm for National Day visitors. From time-honored local specialties to a dining scene that draws flavors and ideas from around the world, Shanghai is a city best understood one bite at a time.

Go local: small restaurants that capture Shanghai on a plate

For visitors who want to taste the city beyond the usual tourist circuit, some of Shanghai's most memorable meals can be found in small, unassuming restaurants.

These are the places where the menu may be short, the tables close together, and the cooking deeply rooted in local habits – the kind of places that have been feeding neighborhood residents for years.

Hidden on Jinxian Road, Chun Restaurant (春餐厅) has only a handful of tables and has been serving local-style food for years. There is no sprawling menu to work through.

Instead, dishes change with the season, with ingredients selected by the owner from the local market. The restaurant feels more like an invitation into someone's kitchen than a conventional dining experience.

Among the dishes associated with Chun are stuffed river snails, hairy crabs with rice cakes, oil-blasted shrimps, braised duck and salted pork, and bamboo shoot soup. Because there are so few tables, the restaurant can be busy during the holiday week. Reservations and punctuality are advised.

Just a two-minute walk away is the famous xiaolongbao spot on Maoming Road S. – Wu You Xian 屋有鲜. It's a specialist xiaolongbao restaurant, known for its crab-filled soup dumplings. It received one Michelin star in the 2025 Shanghai Michelin Guide, becoming the first xiaolongbao restaurant in Shanghai to receive a star.

The place puts a creative spin on the city's beloved soup-filled buns. The menu goes well beyond the classic pork xiaolongbao, with a wide variety that includes pure crab roe dumplings, crab paste soup dumplings, and crab meat soup dumplings. The crab dumplings are worth trying when they are in season, combining delicate skins with a rich, intensely savory filling of crab meat and roe.

There is also a ritual to the experience. Staff demonstrate how to handle and eat them – an important lesson when a thin-skinned xiaolongbao is filled with hot, flavorful broth. For visitors new to Shanghai's beloved soup dumplings, Wu You Xian offers a chance to see how a familiar local classic can be taken in a more inventive direction.

For a taste of one of Shanghai's most understated noodle traditions, Yi Gui He 逸桂和 is the place bringing together familiar local flavors and a nostalgic setting. It's known for its Shanghai-style Yangchun noodles, 阳春面.

Simple in appearance but surprisingly nuanced, this classic Shanghai noodle dish is built around a clear, savory broth, springy noodles, fragrant scallion oil, and a touch of pork lard.

The bowl's quality comes from the noodles, scallions, and broth, not from fancy toppings.

The noodle house attracts diners looking for the nostalgic flavor of old Shanghai. A well-made noodle reveals just how much craft can go into something so seemingly modest.

This makes it an ideal choice for a quick breakfast or a simple meal while exploring the city's neighborhoods.

Shanghai's global food scene

Shanghai's food scene has long reflected the city's outward-looking character. Today, that spirit is more visible than ever, with restaurants, cafés and bars representing flavors from across the world – from Italian and French to Mexican, Middle Eastern, Southeast Asian and Latin American cuisines.

In the tree-lined Xuhui District, visitors can move from a traditional noodle shop to a contemporary Italian restaurant, a Mexican taqueria or a Japanese izakaya within just a few blocks. Many establishments are run by international residents, bringing not only their cuisines but also their own food traditions, design sensibilities and ideas about hospitality.

The first week of October is ideal to sit outside on a leafy terrace, so Shanghai's best-kept secret is probably Ginger on Xingguo Road.

Its modern Asian menu moves comfortably across Southeast Asian and broader regional influences, with dishes such as laksa, satay, and Vietnamese-inspired flavors alongside more unexpected combinations.

The setting is just as appealing: a multi-level villa with a terrace overlooking a park, making Ginger a natural stop after a walk through the historic neighborhood.

Not far, on Yongfu Road, Nono's represents one of the more playful directions in the city's contemporary dining scene. Created by the team behind Yaya's, Nono's takes Italian cooking as its starting point and folds in Chinese flavors and ideas, resulting in dishes that can pair pasta with xuecai, seafood with XO sauce, or pizza with distinctly Chinese references. It's less about reproducing Italian food exactly and more about showing what happens when Italian and Chinese culinary languages are allowed to overlap.

For a more intimate, upscale dining experience, head to Sushi Oyama. It's one of the city's veteran names in high-end Japanese dining and has been associated with the development of the local omakase scene. Chef Takeo Oyama, a Hiroshima-born sushi chef, first opened Sushi Oyama on Donghu Road in 2009 and ran it until 2018, where its intimate omakase counter quickly became a destination for sushi enthusiasts. After the original place closed in 2018, Oyama returned to Shanghai with a new Sushi Oyama at Xintiandi Galleria in 2025.

The new place retains the essence of Oyama's approach: omakase as a conversation between chef and diner, with the menu shaped around seasonal ingredients and the chef's judgement. Traditional Japanese techniques remain at the core, but he also introduces other influences, creating a style that feels contemporary and without abandoning its Japanese foundation.

Shanghai, a city that has long embraced international culinary traditions, finds this combination particularly fitting for its local tastes and sensibilities.

If you go

Chun Restaurant

Address: 124 Jinxian Rd

Tel: 6256-0301

Wu You Xian

Address: Unit 103, 7 Maoming Rd S.

Tel: 1580-9722-498

Yi Gui He

Address: 107B, 686 Xizang Rd S.

Tel: 6333-8938

Ginger

Address: 91 Xingguo Rd

Tel: 3406-0599

Nono's

Address: 2/F, 47 Yongfu Rd

Tel: 1352-4794-793

Sushi Oyama

Address: L361 Bldg E, 111 Ji'an Rd

Tel: 1801-7563-295