Adherents to a diet rich in whole grains struggle in Shanghai with white rice, dumplings and white pasta taking up the majority of the city’s menus. Thankfully, the large Japanese population makes life easier with soba (buckwheat) being one of their healthiest options. That’s not to say it isn’t delicious—it absolutely is, and Bankura’s cold sesame soba is one of the best in town.

On this trip, we lunched on a combination platter of shrimp and vegetable tempura served with rice and cold soba (RMB39). The soba is cooked on the tender side of al dente and the delicate wheat flavor survives the dip in the dashi, soy and mirin based sauce. It’s still tops, but even better is the soba noodle soup with simmered sliced duck and leek (RMB45). The nutty wholesomeness of the noodles stands up to the rich duck stock amazingly well. While the simmered duck on top is flavorful, the broth is the star of the bowl, with the grilled leeks adding a sweet pungency that enhances the rendered fat and marrow juice.

We’d heard amazing things about the chicken karaage (deep-fried wings, RMB39 on Mondays) and the flavor of the soy sauce and sake battered dark meat is excellent. However, it’s likely we were the first customers of the day to order deep-fried food, as both our chicken and tempura could have benefited from higher temperature cooking oil—both were a smidge greasy and soft.

We rounded things out with a pumpkin salad with wasabi dressing (RMB25) which uses the fall squash in an interesting way and has a mild horseradish kick. The fare here is solid and the soba is as good as ever, but it’s the duck soup that will have us coming back all through the long Shanghai winter.

DETAILS

What: Bankura Soba Kitchen

Where: 344 Changle Lu 长乐路344号

Tel: 6215-0373