Where do you go for the best local Shanghai style food? In our Best of Shanghai feature, this is one area we wanted to investigate. There are lots of good choices. So many in fact,q that just to cover this question in several posts in this section. So dig a deeper and see what there is to see and Taste!

For the regular sit down dining with a waiter we have tried quite a few. There have been some good ones and some losers. Here are our picks for the Best Shanghai Style Restaurants. I fear it's a tie. Margaret's favorite is Shanghai Renjia. It is located on Yunnan Middle Rd near Yan'an Rd (the north side). She's local so she knows.

There is always a line to get in here and most times we had to make reservations at busy meal times. It is pretty good. We took Margaret's father there for the recent holiday. We some really tasty garlic shrimp, a great eggplant dish, (and I do not usually like eggplant), soup, deep fried garlic pork ribs, asparagus tips which were cooked just right in a tasty sauce, sweet stuffed lotus root, and more. They do have some English on the menu, so you know what you are ordering if you do not read Chinese. As with most good restaurants that were local, it was packed, the noise level was high, and smoking was permitted. Even with those, I will go a back again.

My favorite is the 1221 Restaurant on 1221 Yan'an Rd. Just a couple blocks down the road from us, it is very easy to find once you have been there. I could go there for the cold dishes alone. Again, it is a popular place. You are liable to see a few more expats here and there is probably going to be wait at meal time if you do not have reservations. They have English on the menu. All their dishes were very tasty and well prepared. I liked the shredded chicken in sesame sauce and the sweet and sour cucumbers to start. Margaret always gets her sweet lotus root. From there, many choices for shrimp, fish, pork and chicken. I have never been disappointed. The last time the chef sent out a dessert - a sweet rice pancake with banana and raisins. We ordered another round after tasting the first. Very reasonable prices with no dish we saw more than 40 RMB and most in the 10-20 RMB range.

Close was the Ding Shan Huaiyuen on Huashan Rd near Fuxing Rd. They get the high marks for the wonderful gardens they have. The food was tasty and well prepared and they had a HUGE menu with pictures. It made us want to order way too much. Whenever we went there it was pretty crowded and you can expect a wait. It is a popular place for large parties - like weddings and family gatherings. Another good one is the Huashan Hotel Restaurant on Nanjing Rd near Yan'an Rd. We had a delicious feast there recently to celebrate one of our friends going to do an MBA in the UK. I loved the fish.