I like because everyone else hates it. Two things keep me coming back: spite and the gongbao jiding.
The Grape was one of the first "expat friendly" Chinese restaurants from back in the day, and today the restaurant is something of a symbol of "inauthentic" Chinese food -- the variety that is slopped in front of ignorant foreigners who are too fresh-off-the-plane to order in Chinese or even know what to order in the first place. It's a picture-pointer's paradise. When you tell naturalized, long-time China expats that you like The Grape, they tend to look at you like you're taking a flame thrower to all that is good and pure about "the real China".
Here are my thoughts on the matter: fuck authenticity. I like my ignorance. It makes everything easier. Every day I aspire to unlearn something new. In all aspects of life, I cultivate my ignorance like a fine banzai tree. Also, I hate culture. And tradition. And history. And truth. These are welcome casualties when cultures clash. I'm all about decimation and scorched earth. Especially when it comes to Chinese food.
Well, actually, The Grape is just one of my favorite restaurants in Shanghai because the people who run it are very nice, and appear to be very justifiably proud of their longevity and success in Shanghai. Some of my favorite and comforting meals have been the one plate of gongbao jiding (25rmb), the garlic broccoli (18rmb), and two-four Tsingtaos (don't remember). It's called The Grape's "crazy white man special" and it's delish.
The Grape is right on the corner of Xinle Lu and Xiangyang Lu. You want to talk about inauthentic, that whole fucking neighborhood looks like it got hit with a nuclear missile packed full of mesh hats. But The Grape there on that corner has been chugging along for over 20 years now -- before the invention of the internet, mind you -- and serves Chinese food culled from all genres of Chinese cuisine. If you read about it in a guidebook as a "must try" item, they can make it for you.
My theory is that the restaurant became something of a word-of-mouth success to early expats in Shanghai, and over the decades the restaurant management decided to respond positively to this demographic that kept appearing in their restaurant. Over the years they've tried to make themselves accessible to foreigners both in terms of taste and in service, and because they started doing it well before anyone else did, they're ahead of the curve when it comes to dealing with foreigners who are completely lost when confronted with a Chinese menu. They deal with them daily and they're nice and not condescending about it.
Today about half the staff speaks the King's English, the menu is as grammatically correct as is possible, and all the wait-staff is dressed in fake Commes de Garcon casual wear. At the same time, their clientele is mostly Chinese -- there are always more Chinese people in there than foreigners on a given night - and the result is a neighborhood Chinese restaurant that makes a lot of different people happy. Perfect.
As a side note, it also tends to make a lot of waxy-looking German people happy. I think The Grape is listed as the number one restaurant in Shanghai in the Lufthansa guidebook. But this is good too, because who am I looking to should a sudden emergency arise? Cool, calm, collected German people. Their presence soothes me.
In my ignorance, I like all the typical stuff: gongbao jiding, tieban niurou, gulao rou. Beer. I lost the piece of paper on which I wrote down the prices. It's all pretty cheap.
For this Revisited article, we ordered the restaurant specialty, solely out of a sense of duty -- we despise trying new things. It was a deep-fried mandarin fish, de-boned and drenched in sweet and sour sauce and symbolism. Thumbs up.
The Grape, 55 Xinle Lu, near Xiangyang Lu. More info and a map .
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