Day-by-day eating plans for Shanghai. weekend classics, family routes, vegan plans, on-a-budget editions.

Day-by-day plans

Shanghai weekend: dumplings to the Bund, done right ★ 4.6

First-time visitor, weekend2 days

A weekend built around the dumplings Shanghai is known for, the old city's banquet cooking, and a Bund-adjacent Shanghainese dinner. Both days keep the walking short and the eating dense: xiaolongbao before 9am, a lunch built around one signature dish, and a sit-down dinner to close.

  1. Day 1: Saturday: Yuyuan Garden dumplings, eight-treasure duck, hairy crab dinner

    Morning
    Nanxiang Steamed Bun opens at 07:30 inside the Yuyuan Garden Malls. Order the pork or crab-and-pork xiaolongbao and, if it is on, the supersized version served with a straw.
    Afternoon
    Lunch at Lu Bo Lang from around 12:30 for the eight-treasure duck and a plate of the restaurant's own butterfly crackers, then wander the covered lanes and food stalls of Yuyuan Bazaar next door.
    Evening
    Dinner at Wang Bao He on Fuzhou Road, seated by 18:00. In hairy crab season order the whole steamed crab with warm Shaoxing wine; year round, the wine-soaked crab and crab roe xiaolongbao carry the table.

  2. Day 2: Sunday: People's Square breakfast, Bund pork buns, Shanghainese finale

    Morning
    Jia Jia Tang Bao on Huanghe Road opens at 07:30. Order the pork xiaolongbao or the crab and crab roe version, made to order rather than pre-frozen.
    Afternoon
    Walk down to the Bund and stop at Da Hu Chun on Middle Sichuan Road for a plate of qingshui-style shengjian mantou with a side of curry beef vermicelli soup, the shop's customary pairing.
    Evening
    Dinner at Fu 1015 on Yuyuan Road, seated by 18:30. The sauteed river shrimp with crabmeat and crab roe leads into the truffle and abalone version of red-braised pork rice.

Shanghai street food and breakfast day, on a budget ★ 4.4

Street food and breakfast, one day, on a budget1 day

One day of Shanghai's cheapest food, from potstickers at dawn to shengjian after dark, at counters and small noodle and wonton shops where most bills stay under ¥50 a head.

  1. Day 1: Saturday: potstickers at dawn, noodles and wontons, shengjian after dark

    Morning
    Auntie Huang Guotie on Wanhangdu Road opens at 05:00 for pan-fried potstickers with a crisp, porky bite. Walk on to A Da Scallion Pancakes near the Starbucks Reserve Roastery for a handmade cong you bing.
    Afternoon
    An early lunch at Huxi Laolongtang Noodle Shop in Changning, before 11:00 to beat the weekend queue, for scallion oil noodles loaded with dried shrimp, then an afternoon stop at Er Guang Wonton in the old city for pork and vegetable wontons in broth and the fried pork chop.
    Evening
    Dinner at Yang's Fry-Dumpling on Huanghe Road, open past 20:00 for unleavened, broth-filled shengjian, then a last wander through Huanghe Road Food Street while the stalls are still trading.

Old Shanghai and the Bund in a day ★ 4.5

Old Shanghai and the Bund, one day1 day

A single day tracing the two poles of old Shanghai food, the treaty-port Bund and the walled old city around Yuyuan Garden, from a 1932 pan-fried bun shop to a Fujianese dinner on the Bund after dark.

  1. Day 1: Sunday: Bund breakfast, Yuyuan Garden lunch, Fujianese dinner on the Bund

    Morning
    Breakfast on the Bund at Da Hu Chun on Middle Sichuan Road, open from 07:00. Its qingshui-style shengjian, nicknamed the naked beauty with pleats facing the sky because they skip the added soup, have been its signature since 1932.
    Afternoon
    Cross into the old city for lunch at Nanxiang Steamed Bun in the Yuyuan Garden Malls, open to 21:00 on Sundays, then walk the covered lanes and food stalls of Yuyuan Bazaar next door.
    Evening
    Back on the Bund for dinner at Meet the Bund in the Bund Finance Centre from 17:30. Order the duck essence, a whole duck steamed for hours with the juices collected and no water added, and the house Xiamen steamed glutinous rice with mud crab.

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