Cheng Long Hang Xie Wang Fu, Shanghai, China

One of the happiest memories of my last visit to Shanghai 11 years prior was sitting around a large communal table eating pots of Shanghai hairy crab.   The hairy crab, which are in season only from October to December each year, are a very prized delicacy that can fetch very high prices (close to $100 USD per small crab!!).  Supposedly the crabs from Yangcheng Lake near Shanghai are supposed to be the best and can be outrageously expensive -- there are many scams around where people will take crabs from other areas, dunk them in Yangcheng Lake for a short while, and then sell them as "Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs".

I asked my friend who lived in Shanghai to take us to a good restaurant specializing in hairy crab.  She asked around her office, did some research online, and in the end suggested Cheng Long Hang Xie Wang Fu, better known as just Xie Wang Fu, just off Nanjing East Road in the midst of Shanghai's popular shopping area.    She warned us that it would be outrageously expensive but my husband said if it's the best, that's where we'll go. 

From Pudong we took the subway to Puxi and walked a few blocks to the restaurant.   After a short wait, we were shown to our table, which was a large round one shared with three other groups. It was a bit crazy to me that here I was, at a restaurant in China where we would easily spend over $100 USD per person, and still needed to share a table! But so it goes at in-demand restaurants.



Picking live hairy crab

Once seated we were asked to follow the waiter to a side room to choose our live crabs. Crabs are priced by size and gender, with larger crabs as well as female crabs (due to their having roe) being more expensive. As a note, when we visited it was 6.8 RMB per US dollar, so when we chose a 388 RMB crab, that was definitely $50 each! As another side note, the next day we went to Zhujiajiao, a water town about 30 minutes outside of Shanghai, where they had many hairy crabs from the local lake. Live hairy crabs there were just 10 RMB each (about $1.50) and cooked ones at a restaurant were 40 RMB (about $6) -- a bit difference from the Yangcheng hairy crab offered here!

Back at our table, we picked a bottle of Chinese rice wine, which I greatly enjoyed from our dinner a couple days prior at a Shanghainese restaurant, as well as a bunch of Shanghaiese dishes.   Here is a quick rundown of what we ordered.

Chinese rice wine

While on this trip I developed a taste for Chinese rice wine -- especially when drunk with the dried plums -- but somehow this bottle was not as good as we had two days prior, although it was the same brand and same type of wine (the only difference was the previous one was "export quality"). Seems quality control isn't so great for this company.

Pork in Aspic

Aspic jelly meats and seafood seemed to be popular in Shanghai, so we gave this a try. The aspic had a slight taste of ginger, but otherwise the dish was good but not special.

Lotus Root with Sticky Rice

This was another famous Shanghaiese dish, and again proved the Shanghai penchant for sweetness:   sticky rice was stuffed inside a lotus root, which was then braised in a sweet vinegar-based liquid that seemed to contain rice wine, and then sliced.   It was tasty but a bit too sweet.



Braised Tofu

Nothing special, I don't remember if there was crab in the tofu or not.



Super tasty Crab in Wine Sauce

These were smaller crab offered dead for only 58 RMB each, and they were the star of our dinner! Small hairy crab were marinated raw in rice wine (another popular Shanghaiese preparation) and served -- the sweetness of the rice wine complemented the crab so well, I could have eaten a lot more of these.



Crab with Asparagus

Despite the plethora of crab, this was one of the more disappointing dishes of the menu.   The asparagus didn't taste that fresh, and though crab and asparagus are a classic combination, for some reason this didn't work well.   Perhaps hairy crab is too delicate to pair nicely with asparagus.

Fried Rice with Braised Crab Sauce

Despite our doubts, this dish came highly recommended and was another pleasant surprise.   The braised crab sauce was poured on top of the fried rice and mixed together, which really created a lovely textural and delicious combination. 



Red Cooked Pork Belly

Another Shanghainese specialty.  I love pork belly and make a similar dish at home, and while solid, this rendition wasn't a favorite of mine.



Baked Crab

Crab was mixed with bread crumbs and other ingredients, stuffed back into the shell, and baked.  I expected this to be a creamy delicious mess of crab, and while good, it didn't quite live up the expectations.



Sauteed Spinach

Nothing special.



Another bottle of Chinese rice wine, not as good as the first bottle

The four of us speedily finished our first bottle of rice wine and decided to order a different one.  Sadly, while the bottle here is much prettier and the price more expensive, we did not like it as much.



Freaking expensive Shanghai Hairy Crab

 Finally the main event, the hairy crabs, were brought out!   We ordered one male and one female per person -- supposedly the males have slightly sweeter meat, and the females have the much-coveted eggs. 

Female crab with the dipping sauce

The crabs were served with a light vinegar sauce.  I opened my female one first and had the luscious eggs, then carefully picked out the meat.   While sweet and very good, it was in my opinion, not worth $50 for this crab that was not much larger than the palm of my hand.





De-assembled crabs

For no extra charge, the restaurant will de-assemble the crab for you for eating convenience.   My friend and I did this with our male crabs, and it came out like the photos above.   For the money you're paying, I *highly* recommend this service -- you can actuallly focus on enjoying the sweetness of the crab (via larger bites) rather than slowly picking out the pieces of meat.  I don't know if the de-assemblage played a part on it, but my friend and I both agreed that the male crab did taste sweeter than the female -- it wasn't a large difference, but noticeable.

Happy stomachs but sad wallets

Overall we had a good experience at Xie Wang Fu except when the bill came.   I would come back to this restaurant again, but not to order the expensive live hairy crabs -- instead I would get the crab marinated in wine sauce, the fried rice with crab, and a few other dishes, and call it a day with a very reasonable tab.  As mentioned before, the next day we had hairy crab for 1/10 the cost at Zhujiajiao -- while the crab  here were better than the ones we had the next day, they weren't 10x better (perhaps just 2x), so for my money I would just get no-name hairy crab.

 Cheng Long Hang Xie Wang Fu

No.216 Jiujiang Road, Huangpu District

Shanghai, China

Phone:  021-63212010

Reservations Recommended