Lanting

A word of caution: When you go to eat at Lanting, do not go hungry. The wait for a table starts at 10:30 am for lunch and 4:30 pm for dinner, and can easily leave you faint.

Unless you are so vengeful that you want to sit inside for as long as you stand outside waiting, the best option may be to ask for a bowl of steamed rice and a plate of chicken bone in soy sauce first. It's the fastest order and will come in 30 minutes.

But the real attraction here is a sweet one. Their toffee apple is the best in town according to foodies familiar with the menu. You can eat it all up when it comes to the table or hold back a little for the candy to reach its "hard-crack" stage. Either way, it is the most recommended item here.

107, Songshan Lu (Road), near Taicang Lu (Road), Shanghai.

021-5306-9650

Recommended: Chicken Bone in Soy Sauce, Toffee Apples.

Haijinzi

This is the most spacious eatery among the four listed here. It boasts more than 20 seats and a handful of large tables and another rare luxury－a window that overlooks the street.

The other thing that is huge here is its scallion-braised pork chop, once popular on campus canteens and family tables. In an era when food was scarce, a portion of scallion pork chops was about as decadent as a wardrobe full of Hermes bags.

And then in an age of excesses, people started to shun this piece of meat even while they were prepared to spend hundreds at city steak houses. At Haijinzi, they brand this item on the menu as "a glorious fight back against the steak". Part of the winning strategy is the scallions, which may have you reaching for yet another bowl of rice on its own merit.

240, Jinxian Lu (Road), near Shaanxi Nanlu (South Road), Shanghai.

021-6255-0371.

Recommended: Broiled Pork Chop with Scallions, Sweet and Sour Egg with Crab Roe.