I love bread in pretty much all shapes and sizes: a soft doughy white roll slathered with butter, a fresh baguette good for eating on it’s own, a dense wholegrain toasted and dripping with jam ... mmm. You get the picture.

But what I am about to say may cause some sharp intakes of breath: I don’t think much of the bread scene in Shanghai. I know we Brits don’t have the reputation of the French, or even the Germans, when it comes to dough. Our bakers are more famous for burning down the City of London than artisan workmanship. But I think the UK offers a fine selection of decent daily bread (of the non- denominational kind) and I miss it here in Shanghai.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the best bread in the city is to be found at House of Flour, Brian Tan’s Pudong bakery, and I concur–his loaves are pretty bloomin’ tasty. The sourdough round loaf (¥30) is soft with a perfectly chewy crust and it doesn’t suffer the fate of so many loaves in Shanghai of going stale before you even get it home.

His low-carb multigrain (¥30) is deliciously seedy with crunchy walnuts, and healthy to boot. You can’t get better than that. But a loaf must be eaten fresh, so what do you do if you don’t live out near his shop in Pudong? With no delivery service and only one outlet, times can get pretty tough for Puxi-dwelling bread lovers.

The good news is, I am nothing if not dogged when it comes to my yeast-erly yearnings and have managed to locate a couple of bakeries with promise.

New kid on the block Pâtisserie de France scores points both for quality and cost–you don’t need a bread allowance in your expat package to shop here. It was set up by three ex-PAUL bosses and their unique selling point is to offer PAUL-grade bread at half the price, so it’s gotta be good. My favorite is the bacon loaf (¥15)–just try to stop yourself tearing into it on the way home.

La Boulangerie on Julu Lu (part of the La Grange restaurant) is also worth the trip if you live nearby. They do a particularly tasty sesame baguette for ¥8. Careful, though: it must be eaten within hours of purchase, but is really only big enough for one sitting.

But as good as these spots are, a decent bakery is only any use if it is under 10 minutes by foot from home. Fresh bread is always the best bread, and most of us don’t have time to go much further than that anyway.

So please people, write in and give me your recommendations in and around Xujiahui. Either that or I’ll be moving house.

If you're looking to hear a little more from Brian Tan on how to keep your bread fresh, check out this blog post as well.