Shanghai Old Station Restaurant

Located in a 1921 French monastery, this restaurant easily boasts one of the most atmospheric and nostalgic colonial settings in town. A mosaic-tiled corridor, lined with traditional lamps, antique gramophones, old photos, and even a painting of Jesus Christ, leads to a main dining hall where you can find the real novelty of this restaurant: two traditional railway carriages (an 1899 German wagon once serving the Qing empress dowager Cixi Taihou, and a 1919 Russian carriage used by Song Qingling or Mme. Sun Yat-sen) running off the side of the building and providing additional seating. The food holds its own well enough, with traditional Shanghai dishes such as sauteed fresh shrimps, fried hairy crab (seasonal), special vegetarian duck, powdered crabmeat with tofu, and mushroom and vegetable buns making an impression. Don't expect the royal treatment in this Orient Express, as service is mostly perfunctory.

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