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The vast menu at Evergreen Shanghai includes the usual Chinese restaurant suspects as well as the now-common Chinese restaurant appendage: The sushi bar. All those options at this big, bustling restaurant are probably there to satisfy the crowds of office workers from the garment district, who come for lunch or an early dinner. But a closer look at that menu reveals that this is no ordinary Chinese restaurant. In fact, what you get is authentic and enticing Shanghai cuisine. The assortment of Shanghai style dim sum and appetizers is dizzying. The cold appetizer of mock duck is plated in strips, like real duck, but these strips are made of bean curd and stuffed with mushrooms in an addictively sweet and vinegary sauce. The steamed Shanghai sticky brown rice stuffed with bits of roast pork is a rich, hearty treat. If you have room for entrees, both the braised pond carp tail, the lower quarter of a huge carp with tail intact, braised tenderly and served in a dark, salty brown sauce, or the spicy, braised beef stew in a muddy chili sauce, are more than enough for two. If your waiter tries to steer you away from an item on the menu, like the preserved mustard greens in a soy bean paste, because "only Chinese people eat," order it immediately. — Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld

Shanghai style sticky rice, $3.95; mock duck $6.95; braised beef stew in spicy brown sauce, $13.95; braised pond buffalo carp tail, $18.95