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Shanghai Noodles substitute

Best substitute

Fresh or frozen udon

Use One 7 oz / 200 g pack for every person

Best for Shanghai fried noodles

Close match

Fresh or frozen udon is the swap most sources miss and it is genuinely excellent, one 200 g pack per person, since it matches the thickness and the soft chew almost exactly. If you are working from a supermarket, use thick spaghetti, spaghettoni or bucatini at about 3.5 oz dry per person and boil it just past al dente rather than firm. Whichever you use, toss the drained noodles in a dry hot wok for thirty seconds before the sauce goes in, because Shanghai noodles rely on surface starch to make a dark soy sauce cling.

Other shanghai noodles substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

Substitutes for Shanghai Noodles with ratios

  1. 2Thick spaghetti, spaghettoni or bucatini

    Taste and texture differ

    Use 3.5 oz / 100 g dry for every person, boiled just past al dente

    The fattest round dried pasta available, cooked slightly softer than you would for an Italian sauce.

    What changes
    Best for
    supermarket-only cooking, Shanghai fried noodles, weeknight stir-fries

    Right shape, wrong firmness. Pasta stays taut where Shanghai noodles should yield, so cook it a minute past the packet time. Do not salt the water heavily, since dark and light soy will bring plenty. Save a quarter cup of the cooking water for the wok: without that starch the sauce beads up and pools instead of glazing the strands. Bucatini is the best of the three because the hollow centre traps sauce.

  2. 3Fresh thick ramen or Hong Kong style noodles

    Taste and texture differ

    Use the same amount by weight

    Refrigerated alkaline wheat noodles in a thicker cut, sold for ramen or Cantonese noodle dishes.

    What changes
    Best for
    stir-fried noodles, when a Japanese or Chinese grocery is nearby

    Very good, but knowingly different. The alkaline salts make these yellow and springy, so the dish snaps between the teeth rather than yielding softly, and there is a faint mineral tang that reads as ramen rather than as Shanghai noodles. Structurally excellent for stir-frying, because that same springiness means they hold up to hard tossing without breaking. Boil ninety seconds and rinse.

  3. 4Fresh kalguksu or jjajangmyeon noodles

    Close match

    Use the same amount by weight

    Korean fresh wheat noodles from the same soft non-alkaline dough family, flat or thick round respectively.

    What changes
    Best for
    Shanghai fried noodles, when the Korean aisle is better stocked than the Chinese one

    Effectively the same product under different labels, and both arrive dusted with loose flour like Shanghai noodles do, which means the sauce clings properly with no help. Jjajangmyeon noodles are the closer of the two, being thick and round. Kalguksu is flat, so it picks up more sauce per bite and the dish tastes saltier, which means cutting the soy back by about a fifth.

  4. 5Linguine or fettuccine

    Taste and texture differ

    Use 3 oz / 85 g dry for every person

    Flat dried Italian pasta, useful when nothing round and thick is available.

    What changes
    Best for
    pantry cooking, quick stir-fried noodles

    Perfectly edible, but the flat cross-section changes the balance noticeably. Flat strands carry far more sauce than round ones, so a soy mixture measured for thick round noodles will taste too salty and too dark against linguine. Cut the soy by roughly a fifth and add a splash of stock or water to make up the volume. Boil a minute past al dente so the noodles are soft enough to fold in the wok without snapping.

  5. 6Dried lo mein or Hong Kong egg noodles

    Taste and texture differ

    Use the same amount by dry weight

    Thin dried alkaline egg noodles, sold in nests or bundles.

    What changes
    Best for
    when only thin noodles are stocked, chow mein style dishes

    Reliable and available, but a real downgrade for this dish. They are much thinner and taste distinctly eggy, so you end up with something that eats like chow mein rather than like Shanghai fried noodles, where the whole appeal is a fat chewy strand carrying dark sauce. Use them if that is all there is, but do not expect the substitution to go unnoticed. Cook them a minute short so they survive the wok.

What is Shanghai Noodles?

Shanghai Noodles is Shanghai noodles are thick, round, pale fresh wheat noodles sold refrigerated or frozen as cu mian, meaning thick noodles, and made without alkaline salts so they are white and soft rather than yellow and springy.

Cooking tips

  • Fresh Shanghai noodles come packed with a lot of dusting flour. Boil them in plenty of water for only two to three minutes and rinse briefly, or that loose starch turns the wok into paste and the finished dish looks grey and claggy.
  • Toss the drained noodles with a teaspoon of neutral oil before they go anywhere near the wok. Thick fresh wheat noodles weld into a single block within about a minute of draining and no amount of stirring will separate them cleanly afterwards.
  • Get the wok genuinely hot and then let the noodles sit still for thirty to forty seconds at a time. A few charred strands is the point of the dish. Stirring constantly steams the noodles instead and you lose the smoky edge entirely.
  • This dish wants two soy sauces doing different jobs: dark soy for the mahogany colour and a faint molasses sweetness, light soy for the salt. Using only light soy gives a pale, flat-looking dish; using only dark soy gives colour but not enough seasoning.
  • Buy them frozen if you have the choice. Fresh thick wheat noodles turn sour within a couple of days in the fridge, and a sour noodle cannot be rescued by any amount of sauce.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use spaghetti for Shanghai noodles?

Yes, and it is the most practical supermarket swap. Choose the thickest round pasta you can find, ideally spaghettoni or bucatini, and boil it about a minute past al dente so it is soft and yielding rather than firm. Go light on salt in the water because the soy sauce carries plenty. Save a quarter cup of the starchy cooking water and add it to the wok with the sauce, otherwise the sauce will bead up and slide off the smooth strands instead of glazing them.

Are Shanghai noodles the same as lo mein noodles?

No, and the difference matters. Shanghai noodles are thick, round, white and made without alkaline salts, so they are soft and doughy. Lo mein noodles are thinner, yellow and alkaline, usually with egg, so they are springy and snappy. Both get stir-fried, but Shanghai fried noodles depend on a fat, chewy strand standing up to a heavy dark sauce, and lo mein noodles are too slight for that. If you use lo mein, you have made a good dish but a different one.

What is the difference between Shanghai noodles and udon?

Less than you might think, which is why udon is such a good substitute. Both are thick, round, white wheat noodles with no alkaline salts and a soft chew. Udon is Japanese, generally a touch thicker and smoother, and it is usually sold pre-washed or frozen, whereas Shanghai noodles are sold fresh under a coat of dusting flour. The practical consequence is only that udon needs a little help gripping sauce, which a thirty second dry-fry in a hot wok solves.

Can I use rice noodles for Shanghai fried noodles?

You can, but you get a different dish. Wide flat rice noodles are the closest option and give you the right bulk, but they are slippery and tender rather than chewy, and they tear under the hard tossing this dish needs. They also absorb dark soy very readily, so the colour goes muddy fast. If you need gluten-free, use the widest fresh rice noodles you can find, toss gently with tongs, and add the sauce at the very end of cooking.

Can I leave the noodles out and use something else entirely?

Shanghai fried noodles is a noodle dish, so the noodle is not optional, but the sauce and stir-fry are versatile. The same pork, cabbage and dark soy mixture is excellent over steamed rice, which is a genuinely good dinner and takes no extra work. What you should avoid is spiralised vegetables, which release water into a wok sauce built to be thick and glossy and turn the whole thing into a puddle.

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