Ba Ye 八爷 @ Shanghai

The restaurant offers a wide variety of dishes, mostly traditional and authentic Shanghainese cuisine, with a down-to-earth flavour. The portions were surprisingly generous, making it great value for money.

Ba Ye Shanghai Cuisine is as old school and as authentic as it gets when it comes to classic old Shanghainese cuisine. Even the decor is the 80s economic boom time, as if the time has stood still for the last 50 years. We came for a gathering of old colleagues and squeezed into a small makeshift cubicle.

Just like the advertising slogan of Ba Ye Shanghai Cuisine, it’s full of authentic Shanghai flavours. The owner is a 老克勒 (terms of endearment of an old Shanghai gentleman) and is very friendly and welcoming.

冬笋烧蚌肉 Braised Clams with Bamboo Shoots

Braised clam meat with winter bamboo shoots is a delicious seasonal dish. The winter bamboo shoots were crisp and fragrant, while the clam meat was fresh and flavourful. To prepare it, the clam meat is cleaned and blanched, and the sliced ​​winter bamboo shoots are blanched to remove any bitterness. The clam meat is then braised with ginger, garlic, cooking wine, light soy sauce, and chicken broth. I am just disappointed that it had so much broth.

上汤高山豆苗 Pea Sprouts in Broth

Stir-fried snow pea shoots is a popular vegetable dish often found in Shanghai restaurants. The dish, known as dòu miáo (豆苗) in Mandarin, consists of the tender leaves and stems of the snow pea plant. Pea shoots are a seasonal ingredient, usually most tender and abundant from November to March. It is typically prepared by quickly stir-frying the shoots with garlic in a hot wok to preserve their delicate flavour and crisp texture. In Shanghai it is finished with a generous pour Shaoxing wine.

傳統肺頭湯 Traditional Pig Lung Soup

I first tried pig’s lung soup at Mui Che in Hong Kong and fell in love with the spongy texture. And since then I will order it if it’s on the menu. I would rate this as one of the best I have tried. The signature pig’s lung soup, according to the introduction, is cleaned for 50 minutes and simmered for more than 8 hours. It does indeed have no strange smell, and the soup is milky white. With the addition of black pepper, a pot of it in winter is truly heartwarming and lung-warming.

八爷炒饭 Ba Ye Fried Rice

This is just how your mom would cook fried rice – canned luncheon meat chopped into fine cubes with Heinz frozen mixed vegetables with a dash of soy sauce. We finished this portion in no time.

老上海四層草頭圈子 Old Shanghai Four-Layer Clover and Pork Intestines

One classic dish on the Shanghainese menu is 酒香草头”Wine-infused Clover” which uses the tender top leaves of clover 草头 (Medicago). Because they are so tender, there are many things to consider when making the dish so that it is bright green and not wilted, and has a moist and fragrant taste. This involves careful selection of the pot, the timing of adding salt, and the treatment of the oil. Often paired with pork large intestines, which unfortunately is quite musky because of its function and requires proper cleaning. The pork intestines were very clean, and the clover was tender.

清蒸河鳗 Steamed River Eel

In November, the river eel (shan yu or swamp eel) in the Shanghai and Jiangnan region is considered to be at its peak season, often associated with the transition from autumn to winter. As we have ordered the braised pork belly, the owner (who took our order) suggested that we have our river eel steamed instead of the usual red sauce braised. The river eel was cut into pieces and steamed with ginger and Chinese ham. The slightly sweet soy sauce was so Shanghainese.

黑松露红烧肉 Braised Pork Belly with Black Truffle

Shanghai-style braised pork belly, a classic Chinese dish also known as Hong Shao Rou (红烧肉) is typically a bit sweeter and more savoury compared to other regional variations. The pork belly is typically slow-braised in a mixture of soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, and sugar. The dish gets its signature rich, glossy red-brown colour from a combination of dark soy sauce and caramelised rock sugar, melted in oil before the pork is added. And for this particular version, it has infused black truffle oil as well. The meat was so fork tender and the sauce was delicious, just needed a bowl of steamed white rice and it will be perfect.

红烧甲鱼 Braised Soft-Shell Turtle

And final dish for the evening is one of my favourite as well, but it is so expensive in Singapore (but reasonably priced in Shanghai). It was priced almost the same as a single portion of turtle soup in Singapore, but they actually stewed a whole turtle (around 1.2kg) in the casserole. Once again, I was impressed with the red sauce (which I chomped through a whole bowl of rice because of it).

The environment was subpar compared to a lot of new restaurants in Shanghai, but the food was on par with a lot of the best restaurants in the Michelin class. If you and your guests are not picky about the environment, this is a very good place to have a proper Shanghainese meal with friends and gourmands. If you have to entertain some business guests, I would suggest otherwise.

Ba Ye Shanghai Cuisine 八爷上海菜·招牌肺头汤
上海昭化路351號
Tel : +86 (021) 51180185

Visited Nov 2025