The 10 Best Restaurants in Jing'an District

If Co. Cheese isn’t one of the first restaurants you hear about in Shanghai, you’re doing it wrong. This beloved little restaurant makes the best grilled cheese sandwich you’ll ever have. Choose from fillings such as Mac and Cheese, turkey and mashed potatoes, duck and brie, or Chinese style braised meat. A small sandwich is just RMB50 ($7), and at lunch that comes with a free side of tomato soup. Just what the doctor ordered.

Burgers bigger than your head are the name of the game at Fat Cow, but the milkshakes are possibly even better. Culture Trip recommends the mint chocolate chip flavor, which will bring back memories of your childhood. If you’re trying to beat your homesickness, this is the place to go. Just make sure to wear expandable pants.

Located in the French Concession on a particularly expat-friendly section of Wulumuqi Middle Rd, is poke bowl favorite Little Catch. Poke is a classic Hawaiian dish made from seasoned, cubed fish and your choice of toppings. The cuisine has exploded in popularity worldwide in the last year, and Little Catch is the reason this trend entered Shanghai. Find its copycats spreading throughout the rest of the city.

It’s not fair to call Lost Heaven Silk Road just “Chinese” food. Its flavors are inspired by all major stopping points along the ancient Silk Road: Xi’an and Gansu, Yunnan and Kazakhstan, India and Pakistan. At this massive and popular restaurant, you can order anything from yak to naan to a whole roasted lamb.

The latest craze in Shanghai is pizza by the slice, and the latest iteration of that also happens to be the greatest. Homeslice is New York style pizza at its finest: big, oily slices served on paper plates (best consumed after a few drinks). There are six varieties available, and slices run from RMB20 ($2.90) to RMB30 ($4.35).

Indonesian cuisine favorite Bumbu imports most of its chefs and ingredients straight from the source. Expect big, intense flavors from their primarily meat, fish, vegetable, and curry-based dishes. An extensive dessert menu is available as well. If you can’t handle the heat, don’t worry, there are mild dishes too.

Upscale Turkish restaurant Black Pepper offers a prix fixe menu. There are 20 available dishes, from Turkish staples like gavurdagi salatasi to savory spreads like hummus topped with sliced beef sausage, and, of course, plenty of roasted lamb. Wines on offer skew Turkish as well.

Hainanese chicken rice is as simple a dish as it sounds, but what makes it so incredible is that the rice is cooked in the chicken stock, along with ginger and garlic. Although the dish originated in China’s southern island of Hainan, it is now more associated with Singaporean and Malaysian cuisines. Expect lines around lunchtime.

Cantonese cuisine is not all about dim sum. Although Jade Garden does have plenty on offer, there are full dishes as well, like double boiled fish maw, crispy braised brisket, and chicken legs stuffed with glutinous rice. Oh, yeah, and Jade Garden boasts a Michelin star. What more could you want?

It can often be a challenge to find good quality beef soups (containing a healthy portion of meat) in Shanghai. So if beef is what you’re looking for, Saigon Mama is for you. As the name suggests, this restaurant specializes in Vietnamese cuisine. Here you’ll find four types of pho noodle soups, including the pho combo of brisket, shank, tendons, and beef balls.