This Chinese restaurant has been around for more than 40 years and is always packed. With its big round tables and familiar Cantonese dishes, the shophouse offers a typical heavy-on-the-red Chinese vibe. Why, then, is it so popular? Well, if you were asked for places that do good peking duck in Bangkok, Great Shanghai would be one of the first on the list. The star of the place (B1,500 for a whole duck) is totally worth the visit. As you’d expect, it’s all very well prepared, with a delicious, crispy skin that gives you that satisfying cracking sound when you bite into it. The side sauce mixes things up a bit with more obvious hints of tao cheow (soy bean paste) than found elsewhere. Even though we could name a few places that do decent peking duck at much lower prices, the B1,500 you shell out here does get you a big luscious bowl of soup made with duck bones and a dish of duck meat. The refreshing soup comes with marinated cabbage and always has us licking our bowl clean. Though a bit chewy,the ped tord krob (fried duck meat) is also pretty much right—nice and garlicky. Just be warned, though, the duck tends to run out very fast. On our last visit, many customers arrived at 7:30pm, only to be told the duck was all gone. Thankfully, there’s more to the place than its signature dish. We’re very impressed with their pad puay leng (stir-fried Chinese spinach, B190/B350). The simple dish is light and refreshing and perfectly cooked. The gai chae lao (chicken in Chinese liquor, B260/B500) is very tasty, too, coming in a juicy, well-balanced sauce with a nice touch of cilantro. The one big letdown is the khao pad pla kem (stir-fried rice with salted fish, B200), which comes with a sad and soggy excuse for salted fish. On our last visit, there was also an off-putting burnt smell we can only assume derived from the pan it was cooked in. Overall, though, despite the strong competition around town, we still consider this a good family dining spot for peking duck and a few other select dishes. No corkage charge.
