The Local Eating Guide We've Been Waiting For

By Ned Kelly, April 5, 2025

A few months back, we interviewed Christopher St. Cavish about his 'Shanghai Wet Market Index.'

Well, it is our sorry duty to inform you that he has not gone all weird again—no new mad scientist shenanigans to report, sadly.

However, that disappointment is more than made up for by what is on offer. For, after two decades worth of research—first as a chef, then as a food writer—he has finally released 'The saintcavish Guide to Eating in Shanghai.'

It is no exaggeration to say that there is inside knowledge, and then there is Christopher St. Cavish knowledge.

He's a self-confessed obsessive, and now—for the price of a coffee—he is sharing his finest finds with you.

We caught up with him once again...

Christopher St. Cavish in his element. Image courtesy of saintcavish

It’s the guide we’ve all been waiting for. For quite some time. So, why now?
I feel like 20 years is a good amount of time to make people wait. Build the anticipation…

But seriously, I thought I was just making a list of 10 places for friends and people I meet, and instead ended up with a 70-page manifesto covering more than 50 restaurants. Some in tremendous detail, some just as a glance.

I, uh, am a little extreme.

Image courtesy of saintcavish

What kind of places does the guide cover?
It’s only Chinese food, and not the fanciest stuff. Not because the other categories or levels are not worth it, but it’s a big city with a lot of restaurants and I had to narrow it down.

Ultimately, I feel like there could / should be more information out there in English about Chinese food in China.

This, and my videos on all the Chinese sites and YouTube, are a start.

Enter the matrix. Image by Graeme Kennedy

It wouldn’t be a saintcavish project without a formula. Please explain the one used in The saintcavish Guide to Eating in Shanghai.
I think this one is more of an algorithm that I’ve been interacting with for the last two decades.

I eat somewhere, I assign it a position in my matrix, and after quite literally thousands of meals in China, this is what comes out when I query 'favorites 2025.'

Image courtesy of saintcavish

Who is the guide for? Do you need a few years of China eating under your belt, or can newbies dive straight in?
It’s got all of that. Some things are deep cuts, like the high-end Anhui restaurant in a villa deep in a lane. Or the flavors of Three Hundred Cups, which are stinky and delicious.

Others are Day 1 type places: soup dumplings, shengjian, potstickers, jiaozi.

Image by Graeme Kennedy

I also want to point out, it’s a little bit hardcore.

There’s no fancy color photos (it’s all in black-and-white), there’s no map in it (though every listing is linked to Dianping—and there’s actually a Google map for people who request it), it’s just irredeemably biased and incomplete and opinionated. There’s a screed on snobbery.

I’ve been doing this too long to write like Lonely Planet.

But I do promise that it's all road-tested, based on my 20 years here as a chef first and then a food writer, and these are really the places I’ve been eating in the last couple of years.

A glistening pork cube. Image courtesy of saintcavish

It’s a wide ranging list of eateries. If someone was to challenge themselves to tick every one of them off their list, how long would you estimate it would take?
A good six months to a year of casual exploring.

Conversely, if someone is in town for just the weekend and only had time to try three of the places in the guide, which three would you recommend?
Lai Lai Xiaolong if it’s crab season (September-March, and then again in June for the 'June yellows') for hairy crab dumplings.

Crab season at Lai Lai Xiaolong. Image courtesy of saintcavish

Yue Xuan / The Dining Room at the Park Hyatt to see the high-end side of this region’s cuisine, and the view of Shanghai from the 87th floor.

A steaming soup dumpling. Image by Graeme Kennedy

One of the regional places to get an idea of how stark the differences are. My friends at Chinese Cooking Demystified recently made a map arguing there are more than 60 distinct, regional cuisines in China—and that’s surely an undercount.

Maybe Cila, a cool northwestern restaurant done in a very Shanghai way—I don’t think there are many (any?) restaurants like this even in the northwest.

Cila interior. Image courtesy of saintcavish

You also have somewhat of a love affair with Suzhou. Please give us your 'why you should eat in Suzhou' elevator pitch.
How big is this elevator? They have the best noodles; their cuisine is still highly seasonal in a way that’s less and less common in Shanghai; they are rich and build some beautiful restaurants.

There is no way to stop people sharing the PDF, so all you can do is appeal to people’s moral conscience. Always tough in this world, but give it a go…
Yeah, I’m a realist. I can’t say “Sure, share it for free,” but I know people will. And I made it cheap enough (less than the price of a coffee) that it’s not going to make me rich even if people pay for it. But that’s not the point.

I consider the guide a kind of public service. The price is just a token of appreciation for my time.

With that sentiment fresh in the memory, how can people get the guide?
It’s on Taobao for RMB29 as a PDF. You pay and the system will automatically send you a Baidu download link to get it

https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=899869090946

https://e.tb.cn/h.6W8HUIqwKzv08Ho

If that’s a hassle, it’s also on Gumroad for $5 as a PDF. Gumroad is an international site and takes international credit cards and everything, and it sends you the PDF by email and gives the Google Map link.

https://stcavish.gumroad.com/l/yllgxi

You also do food tours. Please tell us about how those work.
Yeah, I started these about a year ago at the suggestion of a friend.

They are all private groups and, to be honest, they are expensive. There are other companies out there who do mass-market tours, and that’s great.

Mine are the expert tours, and they use the restaurants and food as the jumping-off point to tell stories about Chinese / Shanghainese history, culture, development, economics, etc. etc.

Image courtesy of saintcavish

My restaurants are neither secret nor expensive. They are all in the guide, actually. But the stories I tell about them are all from my own research, from interviews and my long-standing relationships with their owners, combined with the little bit of knowledge I’ve gleaned from 20 years of living, writing and learning about China.

You can’t Google this stuff. That’s where my value is.

Christopher St. Cavish on food tour duty. Image by Graeme Kennedy

I’m also branching out a little—I’ve been developing a tour in Jiaxing, an area between Shanghai and Hangzhou that I’ve overlooked in the past. But there are some fantastic restaurants and old-school teahouses out there.

And I’m putting together a stupidly expensive but stupidly good tour through Shanxi, Shaanxi and Gansu based around noodles and the incredible cultural and religious sites in those provinces. I’ll probably have just eight spots on that one but it will be me and a couple Chinese history experts.

My prices and stuff are on my website: saintcavishfoodtours.com

An old-school teahouse. Image courtesy of saintcavish

Behind the scenes at the teahouse. Image courtesy of saintcavish

Two plugs down, one to go. You mentioned a YouTube channel...
Yup, 2025 is all about the YouTube channel, which [saintcavish collaborator] Graeme Kennedy and I are throwing our full weight behind.

Search youtube.com/@saintcavish or scan the QR code below: