Shanghai Bay

The Good Food Guide — Good

On Southampton’s main pedestrianised shopping street, Shanghai Bay is nevertheless as inconspicuous as can be. Look for the tiny frontage next to a Wendy’s hamburger joint and clamber up a flight of stairs. The capacious first-floor restaurant will immediately take you back to Chinatowns of old: red lanterns everywhere, a large dragon mural in relief, round tables for parties (full of Chinese families on our visit), and stackable red-upholstered metal-framed chairs. Service also induces a feeling of nostalgia – it's buzzy but brusque, although the waiters warm to anyone ordering ‘proper’ Chinese food from the vast menu. Dim sum is served all day, although evening orders are likely to yield lunchtime dishes kept warm for too long, such as our sticky rice with wind-dried meats. Best were the freshly cooked specialities from the main menu: a high-class rendition of ‘pig kidney seafood with seasonal veg in broth’, which highlighted the humble egg (served poached, salted and in a gelatinous 1000-year version), matched with an admirable seafood broth, nuggets of kidney and plenty of gai lan. A dozen deep-fried oysters were also crisp and succulent in all the right places. Dim sum dishes that didn’t need to be served à point were also enjoyable – from tender ‘mixed beef tripe’ (mostly honeycomb) to sweet, doughy salted-egg custard buns. Good, too, were the freshly fried mixed meat croquettes with their crisp exteriors, chewy rice pastry and flavourful fillings. Drinks prices are invigoratingly low: just £1 per person for a big pot of fermented pu-erh tea, and £4.95 for full glasses of the basic house wine.

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