Shanghai, Dalston

Shanghai

41 Kingsland High Street
London E8 2JS
020 7254 2878

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

foodbymark said
a hidden but cheap diamond in the east
I lived in Dalston for 8 months over three years ago and had walked briskly by this Chinese restaurant opposite McDonalds many times. I had perhaps passed it over as another chinese takeaway/local type place not giving it a second glance. I recently read about the restaurant in several guides to Dim Sum in London and was beyond shocked to see a restaurant in Dalston, of all places, cropping up on almost every list.

The restaurant's unassuming, but heavily stickered, shop frontage and entrance dining hall has kept it's history of previously being a traditional east end pie and eel shop that opened in Victorian times. It has kept it's original floor, oak booths, tiled walls and eel-motifed mirrors. However, the rear of the restaurant, where we were seated, is a newly-built modern dining room painted red symbolizing luck and happiness with dome skylights made from stained glass. The atmosphere is warm and comfortable as you are almost whisked away from Dalston.

Whilst Shanghai is a restaurant which claims to be modern Shanghaiese, it turns out that the cuisine is not strictly Shanghainese, as they serve some of the typical Cantonese and westernised dishes. We came for Dim Sum (also known as Yum Char) and ordered our standard dishes for comparison purposes which included bamboo steamers of Har Gau, Siu Mai, Har Cheung Fun, Lor Mei Gai, Char Sui Bao, Fung jau and fried dishes Gee Bau Har and Woo Gok. The success story of Yum Char was the enormous and tasty Siu Mai, small steamed dumplings with pork inside a Wonton pastry topped with a crab roe, so large they were bulging out of spoons and almost beyond a mouthful. Only the Woo Kok, mashed taro, stuffed with diced shiitake mushrooms, shrimp and pork, deep-fried in crispy batter, were slightly too salty for our tastes and the Fung Jau, chicken feet, deep fried, boiled, marinated in a black bean sauce and then steamed, were in a sauce a little too thick.

The result was a thoroughly enjoyable Yum Char to which I will give my strong recommendation. The bill was just under £24 for 8 dishes and chinese tea for two including tip. Bargain! The downside is that it is not easy to get to by unless you prepared to either drive or take buses/overland trains.