Ranked by TableJourney editorial score.
Shanghai fried pork chop is a breaded, deep fried chop served with a squeeze of la jiangyou, the city's own tangy, faintly spiced Worcestershire style sauce, a Haipai classic eaten with borscht and potato salad.
The dish grew out of Haipai cuisine, the Shanghai adaptation of Western cooking that took shape after the city's treaty port opened, alongside the local versions of Russian borscht and potato salad that together became known as the old three classics. Cooks pound the pork chop thin with the back of a knife to break down the fibres, marinate it in ginger and scallion water, then coat it in breadcrumbs before frying to a crisp golden crust. A related dish, pork chop rice cakes, swaps the breadcrumb crust for a thin batter served over sticky rice cakes, and returned to wider attention after the television drama Blossoms Shanghai in 2023.
2 editor picks for Shanghai fried pork chop (zha zhu pai) in Shanghai, ranked by editorial score. All Shanghai signature dishes · Shanghai fried pork chop (zha zhu pai) across every city.
Deda Western Restaurant on West Nanjing Road in Shanghai opened in 1897 in Hongkou and here in 2007, serving the Haipai pork chop, borscht and potato salad.
OrderFried pork chop with Worcestershire-style sauce, borscht, and potato salad, Deda's old three.
TipMost diners are Shanghainese regulars there for nostalgia; the room by the Nanjing Road window doubles as a coffee house with a cake shop.
Er Guang Wonton on Huangjiaque Road in Shanghai serves pork wontons in clear broth or dry with sesame sauce, plus a crisp pork chop, from 07:00 until 02:00.
OrderPork and vegetable wontons in broth and the deep-fried pork chop.
TipThe dry wontons dressed in sesame paste or chili oil are worth ordering alongside the soup version.
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