Asia Sentinel

Hong Kong
Wanchai
Shanghai 369 Restaurant
30-34 O'Brien St., Wanchai
(Beneath the overpass to Revenue Tower; next to Deli France and across from California Fitness)

This is a durable, down-market place that serves solid, Shanghai-style dishes. It has the classic, encyclopedic Hong Kong restaurant menu - printed in red ink on stiff white pages, with pen marks used by the waiters to pinpoint each diner's desire. (You can tell the popular dishes by the number of markings.) There are no fewer than tk dishes on the menu, and not all are to be recommended. 369's version of the famous Shanghainese Xiao Long Bao dumpling, for example, is overly heavy. (Hong Kong's best Xiao Long Bao these days can be found at the Crystal Jade branches in Taikoo Shing and Times Square.) But here's an excellent meal for two: for a main course, choose shredded pork with Chinese pickle or green pepper; also excellent are two shredded chicken dishes, one with bamboo, the other with green pepper. For a vegetable dish, order another Shanghai specialty, sautéed bak choy with Yunan ham, which comes to the table in a velvety sauce of scalding hot oil and corn starch that can only be achieved in a restaurant kitchen with a blazingly hot stove. Round the meal off with a perfectly executed fried rice with shrimp. (Chili sauce is available to spice up the rice.) The beer is cold too. - By Anthony Spaeth

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