Shanghai Restaurant (Shanghai Xiao Chi, in Chinese) In Oakland's Chinatown, has long been one of my favorite places to be when I pine for Shanghai. It has the most uncompromisingly Shanghainese menu, top to bottom, I've seen in the US and on the many occasions when the air is filled with energetic banter in the musical Shanghainese dialect it's easy to imagine oneself in a small family-run restaurant in Hongkou or what used to be Nanshi. Specials posted on the wall (on fish-shaped pieces of paper) often promise the vegetable delicacy jiaobai, beloved by Shanghainese, but not to be found anywhere else in the US that I can recall.
Unfortunately, authenticity is no guarantee of excellence, and when six of us descended on it on Boxing day and ordered up a storrm, it became evident that the cooking at Shanghai Xiao Chi had seen better days. The xiaolong bao, the cold appetizers and the red-cooked pork joint were decent, but the other dishes reflected a desultory preparation and lack of flavor. My Shanghainese wife could have done better on about half ot the dishes and for once I wasn't dissembling when I agreed with her on that score.
I'll probably still hit Shanghai Xiao Chi at lunchtime once in a while for the xiaolong bao and more than passable salty soy milk soup. But return for dinner, and experience an authentic mediocre Shanghainese family-style restaurant dining experience? The yearning may never reach that level.
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