6 of Shanghai's Favorite Places to Eat Xiaolongxia
By Betty Richardson
Have you walked past street-side restaurants filled with locals chowing down on vast platters of crimson-hued crayfish and thought, 'How can I get me some of that?'
Wonder no longer! Here's our guide to getting the best catch of Shanghai's favorite summertime seafood, at both food streets like Shouning Lu, and standalone crayfish restaurants.
1. Shouning Lu（寿宁路）
One of Shanghai's most popular (and last) great street food destinations, Shouning Lu is famous for its crayfish (or xiaolongxia [小龙虾] 'small lobster' as they are known in Mandarin) and is our number one place to feast on them.
There are tons of different restaurants on the street serving the little red crustaceans, but according to Jamie Barys of Untour Shanghai and Culinary Backstreets, the shop at number 48 (Ah Jun Shaokao Longxia, 阿军烧烤龙虾) is the best. [Editor's note: if you want more Shouning Lu picks, we can personally vouch for the Untour night eats tour – a must for discovering this area's hidden gems.]
Notes on ordering:
Choose whether you want your xiaolongxia mild, medium or very spicy, and pair with beer. Don't forget to don a pair of the complimentary plastic gloves!
Crayfish are sold in measurements of jin (斤) – roughly 500 grams including shells. You'll also find dining packages from RMB156-250 that feed two to four people.
Ah Jun Shaokao Longxia, 48 Shouning Lu, by Xizang Lu 寿宁路48号，近西藏路
2. Hei Xian Ai Shang Suancai Yu (嗨虾爱上酸菜鱼)
This dedicated longxia restaurant is a step up in terms of ambiance, with a menu that offers different varieties of shrimp alongside the requisite xiaolongxia. People also come here for the restaurant's specialty, an enormous, segmented wheel filled with different shrimp varieties and xiaolongxia flavors (大拼盘, dapinpan).
Better still, the restaurant is located on Dagu Lu, so if you're not content with Tsingtao you can pop over to The Hop Project, Caxton or Café de Stagiaires just across the road for a pint afterwards. This place is also open late night until 3am, and has menus in English with dish pictures.
What to order:
Salt and pepper mantis shrimp (椒盐虾菇, jiaoyan xiagu)
'Supreme' crayfish stir-fried with ginger and green peppers (至尊黄金龙虾, zhizun huangjin longxia)
Boiled crayfish with vinegar dip (白灼龙虾, baizhuo longxia)
Baked oysters with garlic and chilli (烤生蚝, kao shengmao)
Hei Xian Ai Shang Suancai Yu, 395 Dagu Lu, by Chengdu Bei Lu 大沽路395号，近成都北路
3. Duan's Lobster (段氏龙虾)
Beloved xiaolongxia eatery Duan's has spawned several spin-off sister restaurants, but the presiding favorite is arguably the Zhoushan Lu branch. The vibe here is an old school, no frills, dirty hands affair, with authentic dishes that eschew the dry ice and garnishes for spices and flavor, served in canteen-style metal trays. You're coming here to eat, not to pose.
What to order:
The most popular dish here is the '13 flavor shrimp' (十三香龙虾, shisan xiang longxia, a recipe that cooks the tasty little buggers in a mix of 13 different spices.
Salt and pepper flavor xiaolongxia or xiagu (mantis shrimp) also have the shout (椒盐龙虾, jiaoyan longxia/xiagu),
Garlic flavor xiaolongxia (蒜泥龙虾, suanni longxia), RMB40.
Barbecued skewers（烧烤）of meat, seafood and mantou (馒头) buns
Duan's Lobster, 670 Zhoushan Lu, by Yuezhou Lu 舟山路670号，近岳州路
4. FOMO (复茂小龙虾)
A behemoth chain with six different branches around town, you'll be guaranteed FOMO if you don't order a few trays of crayfish here. The place has menus with photos on, so with the help of some Chinglish-y yet serviceable descriptions, you should be able to order fairly easily.
What to order:
Dry stir fried xiaolongxia (干煸龙虾, ganbian xiaolongxia)
Stir-fried cockles (手抓卤香螺, shouzhua luxiang luo)
Rice cakes in miso sauce (酱香年糕, jiangxiang niangao)
Spicy bullfrog stew (馋嘴牛蛙, chanzui niuwa)
FOMO, 32 Jiaozhou Lu, by Yuyuan Lu 胶州路32号，近愚园路
5. Xia Man Tang (虾满堂)
Xia Man Tang has an advantage over its more traditional counterparts, xiaolongxia cooked in beer (啤酒龙虾, pijiu longxia). See also their super spicy flavor, (香辣龙虾, xiangla longxia) and popular grilled eggplant with minced garlic (烤茄子, kao jiezi).
Notes on ordering: menus are in Chinese only, but do have dish images.
Xia Man Tang, 796 Dingxi Lu, by Yan'an Xi Lu 定西路796号, 延安西路
6. Xiang Man Tang (香满堂)
This popular seafood restaurant is a personal favorite in the That's office. The interiors are comfortable and a little less bright than some of the others on this list, making it ideal for 3am night owl diners. The dishes served here are pretty much the same as others we've mentioned, we say an order of the 13 spice crayfish and one of the classic steamed platters are the way to go.
Service is friendly, and the restaurant provides gloves aprons, towelettes to protect your mitts. Open until 4am.
Notes on ordering:
Minimum order is two jin (1KG).
Menus are in Chinese only, but have pictures.
Xiang Man Tang, 1438 Xietu Lu, by Damuqiao Lu 斜土路1438号，近大木桥路
Uninitiated in the ways of the cray? Here's our handy how-to guide:
1. Ditch the gloves
There is no way around it: Cracking open a crustacean is messy business. Don't bother with the disposable gloves they give you; all you're doing is postponing the inevitable. Your fingers will get messy, regardless. Are you afraid of having shellfish residue on your hands the rest of the night? Well, that's what soap and water are for, folks. If the restaurant doesn't supply that in the restroom, you're in the wrong place. That probably means the cooks don't have anywhere to wash their hands either.
2. Pick the right ones to eat
There is a serious grapple factor with this food. So, naturally, the bigger ones are better. And the make the hassle more rewarding.
As the weather gets warmer, these critters get bigger. So, by the end of the month, we'll be in peak season. Eat only the crayfish whose tails have curled up under their bodies. A straight tail usually inidicates it was dead before it ever reached the pot. Another indicator is mushy tail meat. Eat only tail meat that is firm and springy, like lobster.
3. Remove the shell
Shelling xialongxia is a seemingly simple process, but how often people get it wrong!
First, flex the tail a few times. This attenuates the connective material in the shell segments and makes the tail easier to peel.
Then, holding the tail in your good hand and the carapace in the other, remove the tail with a gentle twisting motion. Veterans at this point will usually de-vein the crustacean by gently wiggling the tail flaps and pulling it out the back.
It’s a procedure that takes a certain amount of finesse to perfect, so we recommend you start snapping the shell segments off the tail and then removing the vein.
Dip it in the provided sauce for extra flavor.
4. Suck the head... or don't
Why would anyone suck out the yellowish brown goop from inside the carapace? Because it’s delicious! It’s rich in fat and absorbs all the flavor from the broth the crayfish is boiled in. It’s like eating xiaolongxia concentrate.
But tomalley, as the goop is often called, sometimes contains potent neurotoxins that cause a host of unpleasant symptoms like tingly digits, slurred speech, blurred vision and, in severe cases, death. It’s nothing inherent in the crustacean itself; it’s just a question of microbe populations in the water.
We couldn’t find any local regulatory body to advise us on this issue, nor would we trust one if we could. Officially, we advise you to not suck the head. Unofficially, we’ve sucked many a crayfish head and without incident.
5. Drink
What do you drink with xiaolongxia? Beer! Ice-cold beer! What’s the matter with you?
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