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#13 on the 7x7 List: soup dumplings
Shanghai House has a few different menus that they drop on your table, so make sure to consult with your fellow tablemates.
I didn't see "soup dumplings" on the list but that'sXLB's (xiao long bao / siu long baos) for the non-Chinese.
-Tasty? So juicy that my friend, who was a first-timer, bit right in the middle and caused an explosion of soup. I teared up at the casualty...precious soup!!
-Service: Even with my broken high-school Mandarin and somehow broken English, the waitress understood and gave us good, friendly service. We sat around a half hour after closing and she didn't ask us to leave
-Ambiance: Tiny place. Our table of 5 was considered the big table
-Worth the trip/try? The bill was $12 a head after all our food (see below). One more reason to love Chinese food.
I can do 2 orders of XLB's all by myself and so can J. We love XLBs.
The Geen Onion Pancake was a crowd pleaser. Not greasy, thick enough, and had a good crunch and chew.
The Salt and Pepper Pig Knuckle was a "happy happenstance." I had read the newspaper article posted at the restaurant's door and forgot about it as soon as I sat down, but when the waitress recommended it, I gave her the "gwai lo" test since we had two at the table . She told me in Mandarin that Caucasians love this stuff!
Pleasantly, it came out as a huge pork leg with tender shred-able meat and a highly crispy skin that you'd expect on roast pork (siu yook)
but it's one continuous crunchy piece! Awesome.
Skip the Shanghai Fried Rice Cake. Nothing special - just some glorified carbs with shreds of pork.
Chinese crepe with red bean - It was a good not-too-sweet finish to the meal but I think I have had better hong dau wor bang.
$12 per person for all that after a generous tip, everyone full to the gills...good times
Brusque and slow service combined with ordinary food, I don't think I'll be back here anytime soon.
You know I'm here for a reason and it's to check off an item on my Big Eat SF list:
#13 soup dumplings at Shanghai House.
10 pieces of hot Xiao Long Bao brought out in a bamboo steamer. The soft texture of the steamed wrapping paper, well-seasoned pork, and tasty soup in these one-bite dumplings make you thankful that these only cost $5.50. (which would cost you $10 at Yank Sing)
The other items we ordered were okay, a little too heavy on the oyster sauce on our stir-fry Buddha's Delight which has broccoli, fried tofu, bok choy and carrots. Our shrimp fried rice had a weird burnt taste although the shrimp itself was plump and tender. The walnut prawns? a skip.
This place is small but can probably accommodate around 30 people. Be prepared to wait if they get busy.
BTW, cash only.
I'm not understanding why this place is packed on the weekend and why the reviews are good. While there is nothing wrong with the restaurant physically, as it quite small, it is the food and service that will deter me from ever coming back again.
It's a cute, small place, so definitely not good for large crowds, and very clean, which is more than i can say for a lot of Chinese restaurants. The hostess, however, looked like she was angry the whole time and was probably thinking of off-ing herself after work. She never once smiled, and didn't make any effort to at least seem interested in her job, and I almost felt sorry for her. Almost.
My date and I ordered the Shanghai dumplings, Shanghai noodles, and crispy noodles. Let me just say the dumplings were fine. They were not as good as the Shanghai place just a few blocks down, but they weren't bad. However, everything else can be summed up in one word. SALTY. The food was way to salty. I could taste the river of soy sauce (I literally can smell the soy sauce) that was doused into the food in the absence of real any real flavor.
Both my date and I agreed we will not come back.
This place is pretty good. No real complaints. I've been here a few times and have always had fast service--but not the most friendly by any means. The Shanghai Dumplings are pretty good, although I've had much juicier ones. Their Dan Dan noodles, Meatsauce noodles and onion pancakes are pretty good as well.
My favorite Shanghainese restaurant in the city. My family and I have been going there at least once every three months, for the past two years. Everything is SO tasty and consistent. It is a family-run restaurant, the wife is in the front of the house and the husband is the chef. I think the prices are reasonable and they only accept cash. I honestly don't have anything bad to say about the food. You can also BYOB. LOVE IT.
I don't get it. Why is this restaurant on 7x7's list of 100 places to eat in the city? Kingdom of Dumpling is way better!! There is only one type of soup dumpling... And the dumplings are small! One high note, they do give you a good portion of the vinegar and ginger sauce. I love to see my dumplings swimming in the sauce!
Small establishment. Clean and bright. Decent service but not the most enthusiastic or lively hostess/waitress. I didn't have trouble getting a seat but I hear that it can get busy... Cash only too!
Sorry, but you should go to Kingdom of Dumpling if you want the best soup dumplings in the city.
At first I was going to give this place 3 stars, but then I decided that it was a solid 3.5 stars. Since Yelp doesn't give half stars, this place is good enough and satisfied my Chinese food craving to the extent that I felt like rounding up.
I went there at 12:30 on a Friday afternoon for lunch, and it was not crowded at all. There were only two or three other tables taken throughout the few hours we were there (mostly chatting), so I'm not sure when the "peak" hours are. The one staff was also completely apathetic towards us, so we sat there for about three hours, and not once did she come by to ask how we were doing or if we needed anything else. But then, this IS one of those hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant, so bad service is expected. That's the half star off.
The other star off is for my dirty napkin; upon sitting down at my place, I tried to pick up my napkin (it was resting on my plate) and found that it was attached to my plate. I tried to pull it off, and it left a little glue/adhesive/bodily fluid mark on the plate, along with a thin layer of the napkin itself. When I flipped the napkin over to look at it, there was a light yellow stain where it had been stuck. Lovely. But again, small Chinese restaurant, expect something wrong.
The food is amazing. We ordered the Shanghai dumplings (yum!), the green onion pancake, and the stir-fried rice cake. The dumplings were AWESOME, the green onion pancake lacked flavor but was made better with a drizzling of soy sauce, and the rice cakes were sauteed with slivers of pork and cabbage in a soy sauce base. Plus tip, $20 for the two of us.
Overall, cheap good food. Worth the drive for me, especially since I a) try to stay away from Chinatown, and b) live NOWHERE close to authentic Chinese food.
Disappointing for ppl looking for Shanghai cuisine. The line was too long at Shanghai Dumpling House so I walked down 3 blocks to try this one.
Place is clean, small and not crowded on Saturday night. I ordered 3 classics: XLB, bean curd puff and Shanghai thick fried noodle. XLB is 90% certain frozen ones from the supermarket. Pick one up and it stays in the same shape as opposed to been elongated by the soup inside. A measure of good XLB: you know not to put a whole one in your mouth. No worry here. 3 out of 10 had no soup and the rest had just warm soup. Bean curd puff was frozen and microwaved. Funny thing is I actually prefer it room temp so I tried to mix them. But they are too soggy anyway. The noodle has too much soy and had cabbage so the flavor and texture are completely off.
Since I was alone, I didn't get the more expensive dishes. But the tables of Asian frat boys and the Cantonese family seemed perfectly happy. So who knows.
Great Food!
This place is amazing! It's about as authentic as you can get. From talking to people, the 1 cook has worked extensively in Shanghai (trust me, it's worth the wait). For those who are new to this cuisine, it's definitely not your average "Chinese restaurant food" but it's absolutely delicious. Try the drunken chicken or salty pork/tofu-skin soup. They've had outstanding professional reviews as well.
On a side note, I never rate Asian restaurants on service b/c anywhere I go, it's pretty much get your food and flag down for a check.
Had lunch here.
I had the tan tan noodles. A lil watery than I've seen it, but the taste is good.
Dumplings: good. Short on the soup inside, but the pork is very good.
The comments about the waitress on the other review is very true. She is not pleasant and does not smile at all.
Walked by and skipped eating at this place many times (usually because it was either too crowded or closed when I passed by) for a LONG time after it opened and replaced the Hawaiian BBQ shop that occupied the same storefront before it. I finally ate there about a year ago. So, my comments are not timely, but from the recent reviews posted things haven't changed much.
Went there mainly for the xao lung bao, which I thought were pretty good. The rest of the food we had (forget exactly what) was ok -- not memorable as being very good or bad. The service was so-so, but the food was served reasonably promptly. The space is small and the tables are crowded pretty close together. So, you won't get any privacy here, but the food is decent and reasonably priced. However, I haven't eaten here again since, which pretty much tells you what I think of it.
If you're in the mood for xao lung bao and can find a table there when they are open, give it a try, but otherwise you can get a meal as good or better at one of the many other restaurants located within a block of the Shanghai House.
AMAZING FOOD!
I'm from Shanghai, and the food is so amazing. it's like an orgasm in my mouth!!! not kidding!
i DONT understand how people here can give bad reviews, maybe the service isnt amazing but the food is great. maybe people should learn how to eat "Shanghainesee" food first before giving bad reviews. dumbasses.
Anyways, I ordered Shanghai pan fried thick noodles, soup dumplings, veggie goose, sweet soy milk, and the dry fried shrimp.
This place is not expensive at all and a whole LOT!!! cleaner than Shanghainess Dumpling kings.
This is the best Shanghainese restaurant in the Bay Area! hands down
I love this place! I've been here so many times since Shanghai Dumpling King failed me thrice in a row!
Every time I come here, the lady server/host looks really depressed and hella tired. I feel bad for her to have to be there all the time and dealing with the same crap everyday but she runs a great place!
It's a nice, small and clean ( for the most part) place to have a quiet meal. It really does seem like she's the ONLY person working there even though they've got like 5 people in the back. I love the shanghai dumplings and vegetarian goose (su arr) here! I noticed that the dumplings are better if you go at certain times. One time I went for a late lunch in the mid afternoon, and the dumplings were all deflated but every time we go for dinner, it's great!
The lady doesn't really tend to your every need at all times but you have to understand that she's the only one out there! So she's totally outnumbered. She isn't very friendly at first but if you go there enough, she'll warm up to you. I tried to brush up on my mandarin with her and practice ordering the three things I always get: 2 shanghai dumplings, 1 vegetarian goose, and 1 cucumber bean curd salad. Very reasonably priced. I'd recommend it! Just don't expect to be super pampered with exceptional service but expect to be satisfied with a great meal!
I came here on default when Shanghai Dumpling King down the street was closed. Again, I got the xioa long bao and the drunken chicken. I also got the veggie dumplings and the bean paste desert. The xiao long bao were great and I ordered a second basket. They too were devoured instantly. The drunken chicken was definitely drunk. I will come here again, for sure. The sacues here were good, but I am still wanting both this place and Shanghai Dumpling King to spice things up with a bit more hua jiao sauce.
Definitely as good as it gets!
Yay! I'm a fan!
I will never forgive Diedre whatshername for closing the Fountain Court Restaurant on Clement a few years back, leaving San Francisco with not very many good choices for Shanghai food. Up and closed the place and left some insipid sushi in it's space. That rude little cur.
So when we saw this tiny, tidy little cafe open up just across the street from the Balboa theater, we marched right in and continue to be quite, quite pleased. Good service, open before and after most films across the street for a quick dinner.
I am a whore for baked silver thread bread, and they make a very nice one here. The potstickers, wontons and other entrees and exquisite. They have great vegetarian options on the menu.
Note: While the restaurant is wheelchair accessible, the bathroom is not.
Im not sure when Shanghai House opened, but when I went there 2 weeks ago everything was super clean as if it were all brand new. Restaurant is pretty small and superly QUIET. The 4 of us ordered a bunch of food including XLB (has juice inside!), green onion pancakes, soy milk w/ chinese donut, a few cold dishes and a few other dishes that I dont quite remember. Anyway, the food here was pretty good and the service was excellent. I shall be back.
note* 100pts on score card
Pretty tasty. A bit slow.
5 stars for the shanghai "baby" soup dumplings. it's one of the few that are authentic like the ones at Shang Hai. I do wish the wrapping of the dumping to be a little be thinner....but it's really good. seriously.
originally, i did think this place is for those ABCs. i never ever thought this place has such great dumplings. but i was wrong. i can see why the baby soup dumplings at this place is listed in the 7x7 big eat listing @ SF.
the noodles are great too...esp the knife cut noodle soup! they were delicious. the noodles were perfect - they have the right bite to it :D
i don't mind about the dirty hole or the not-necessary-great-or-sometimes-even-poor service. but that's just me. if you are looking for a place with nice seating and personal service, this is a wrong place to be. but if you want to have some great dumplings, this is it!
i tried other dishes in the restaurant. they were just ok. they weren't unforgettable/impressive as the dumplings and noodles. the menu, in my opinion, is slightly Americanized. it's a cash only place. i don't mind. i just wanna get my dumplings w/o flying back to China :P
so, 5 stars for the soup dumplings. ~3 stars for other dishes on the menu. 1.5 stars for the restroom (it's not easy to get to there - have to walk through part of the kitchen and the steep stairs).
I come here for the fresh cut noodle dumplings. I been here twice already and enjoyed everything I ordered. The only other things we got besides the noodles was the chicken wings and shrimp fried rice.
Oh and they DON'T take credit cards!! I didn't realize this until it was too late, but I ran to the Bank of America ATM down the street for some cash. They are always busy here and that's a very good sign!!!!
Best Soup Dumplings Ever!
It seems there are two schools of thought here. The people who like the thinner wrapping and those who like it thicker. I'm a member of the former rather than the latter and Shanghai House is perfection. My friend and I ordered one steamer of dumplings and Dan Dan Noodles. After tasting the dumplings we realized we should have ordered more and skipped the noodles. My biggest problem with soup dumplings is the temp of the soup inside. If the wrapper is too thin, then the soup is too hot and it burns my mouth. No worries here as the soup was the perfect temperature. This is a no frills spot but if you love soup dumplings it worth the trip to BFE. This is a great spot to come with friends, sip some tea and eat some yummy dumplings.
My family was visiting me over the weekend and after a day at Land's End they were pretty hungry. The thing is my dad will only eat Chinese food, ok my brothers and I have since convinced him Pho is good and he'll tolerate Korean food, but that's pretty much it. With that in mind I've been craving some really good Shanghainese food and I heard about Shanghai House through Yelp at that 7x7 list.
First of all the service was extremely slow. We waited a good 25 minutes before we even received our Xiaolongbao and eventually the rest of our food started trickling out as well. We thought no big deal, since I was hoping to finally find a Chinese restaurant that would get it right.
The Xiaolongbao was alright, the flavor was good, but they were tiny, but at least soupy. We ordered off of the Shanghai specials and were disappointed by the twice cooked pork (they used the wrong type of pork) and the shrimp (it's supposed to come with a vinegar dipping sauce)...I know I'm being harsh, but I guess I had high hopes since it's been ages since my last trip to Shanghai...guess I'll just have to keep dreaming about really awesome Chinese food until my next trip, in the meantime the food isn't bad here, but there are plenty of other Chinese restaurants with the same quality that don't make you wait forever to eat.
NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!
I was totally looking forward to dinner with friends here, supposedly since I was told this was one of the "Top 100" places you have to try according to the Chronicle. It's okay, I still love you. But WHAT A MISS! You don't have to be an Shanghainese food expert to know that some of these dishes were just bad. It's freakin obvious.
Pork Chop Noodles - The noodles were so bland! No flavorings whatsoever. Not even some salt! The texture was bad too, mushy and just plain dull. The pork chop portion came seperately and those tasted fine. We also got another noodle dish but I forgot what it was called. It tasted exactly the same, GROSS.
Green Onion Pancakes - These pancakes were tough to eat. It was also very doughy and dry. It had none of the crisp and oily textures that I'm used to with ones that I like. The only flavors I tasted were salt and dough.
Bok Choy, Mushrooms and Tofu - A veggie dish can't be that bad right? Well let me tell you, some of the bok choy was SOO bitter! Where the heck do these people get their produce? Mushrooms were whatevers. My friends said the tofu resembled balls...the ones guys have. Haha yes, we're very mature. This convo basically killed my appetite.
The Soup Dumplings and the Fried Bread (served with condensed milk!) saved them from being a total downer.
My sweetie & I came here before 1:30 yesterday afternoon after we saw a few people sticking out of the door waiting at Shanghai Dumpling King and told me he just wanted to eat something and stop driving. I read some of the reviews while we were looking for parking but was expecting a little more. I had order the xiao long baos for us, and he ordered garlic chicken for us to share. The XLBs were sooo tiny & flat looking. The very few of them that had hot juice in them we accidentally broke & the others didn't have any in it. Some of them even looked like they already were punctured in the basket before we even touched them. The garlic chicken was okay, garlicky with some salty brown sauce with some yummy veggies mixed with them.
The place is tiny and there was only one waitress, so service was slow, in fact she sometimes had some people from the kitchen helping her bring dishes to customers. Eww, nasty..I saw her a few times rubbing her nose with the top of her hand, at least it wasn't with her palms or fingers though but still! For every table that left there were more customers waiting to sit there...and she'd quickly set up their table settings. Maybe they originally wanted SDK too.
The 10 teeny XLBs were $5.50, in addition to the garlic chicken, & 3 rice bowls our bill was $17 and change..not cheap! So far, the best XLBs I've had are from Shanghai Dumpling Shop in Millbrae. I give it a 2 because the place was clean & I felt bad for the lone waitress having to do pretty much everything in the front.
Food was so-so. The only saving graces of this restaurant are two things:
1. They're the only place (that I know of) in SF, and perhaps the bay area, that serves dao xiao mien aka knife cut noodle soup.
2. As much as I love dirty hole in the walls, I do also enjoy Chinese restaurants that are modern and clean where I don't have to be afraid of using the restroom.
The service sucked for us. The lady missed one of our orders, and then got it wrong even a second time around, and was just slow on everything.
Oh yeah, and they also served another table, who appeared to be "regulars", before us even though they came in way after us. Not cool.
Walked in and with 3 separate groups waiting and no server, we all decide to sit down at different tables. Wrong move on our part. A few minutes later she comes out from the back and makes everyone unwillingly play musical chairs due to reservations not marked at any of the tables. Oh well. A little annoying, but no biggie. We sat down (worst spot EVER by the door where a cold draft blew every time the door was opened) and ordered the famous dry chicken wings, hand cut pan fried noodles, and XLB dumplings.
The food here is actually pretty good, but it's the chicken wings that make me come back to this place, especially since San Tung was closed up the street.
NOTE: Cash Only!
3.5 stars overall rating.
Came here once for lunch and I must say that this place is pretty good. We ordered some of their… Read more »
Yum! I've let my friend who is familiar with real Shanghai and other Chinese cooking take me to the best Shanghai spots on Balboa, and I really liked this one.
We just let her order whatever's good. We had dumplings, spicy beef tendon, a rice cake dish, and a satay soupy/stewy clay pot.
We had baby dumplings, which were yummy and came with the soy/vinegary sauce. One dish of 10 dumplings was enough to split among the three of us. These Shanghai dumplings were comparable to those from other Balboa Shanghai spots. She always shows us the proper way of eating different dishes. These dumplings are soupy inside. You place it in your wonton spoon, pour some sauce over it, and use your chopstick to hold it down, while biting into it. The broth might spill out into your spoon, and you continue eating. Yummy!!!
They allowed us to choose the degree of spiciness of the spicy dishes, so that was good because two of us can't handle very spicy food. The tendon was good, if you've never had it, it's good to try -- it comes cold and served in an oily sauce; it comes with beef and tendon pieces. I LOVE rice cakes, so the rice cake dish was my favorite besides the dumplings. It comes with noodles. The satay clay pot was good...it had meat, mushrooms, and vermicelli.
The restaurant didn't seem that small to me, and we didn't have to wait at all to get a table.
The two reasons I didn't give it a 5 is because of the service and the ambiance. We were waiting for a refill for our tea, and finally, my friend had to get up and ask. And they don't reallly check up on you...but most spots like this are like that. They weren't so big a deal, but that is just why it didn't get a 100%! Also FYI!, this place is cash only.
The price was very decent...for all that food for 3 of us, it was only $10 each!!!
shanghai house looks very modern with a glass door and glass storefront. the walls are all white and immaculate. the tables have painted images of bamboo and koi fish with a plastic overlay
sampling:
-xiao lung bao(10/5.50) hot juicy soup inside, these small morsels are the most tasty i've had in a while. there's just a little meat and it's not bland. came with nice red vinegar w/ginger dipping sauce.
-zazang mien (5.95) looked like spaghetti with ground beef, diced cucumber, diced tofu pieces, chili pieces in a brown sauce. definitely not hand pull noodles. probably reconsitututed dry noodles from china
leftovers:
-on the steps up to the bathroom, one discovers this place used to be a house.
-teresa, the waitress, only takes the order. the kitchen help brings out the food. you won't see her again till she says "thank you" when you leave.
-unsure whether to repeat, only the xlb is excellent, the rest of the menu is problematic and/or pedestrian. (read the reviews)
-teresa was unsure where to sit me. finally she cleared the newspapers off one table and gave me her reading table.
-only about 10 coupled tables here, sits about 50 people at most
-cash only.
well.. heres the deal... the pork belly... was fantastic!! OMGGGG... im drooling just thinking about it again. Unlike most places, the pork belly was cut pretty thinly. and each slice practically melted in my mouth.
The dry chicken wings... awesome. crispy and very spicy. well spicy enough.
However, the dumpling.. bleh. I think i will stick with the dumpling king down the street for that. I just dont think it was cooked long enough. the skin was still a little hard and the meat i think was a little raw.
But i will definitely come back for the pork belly and chicken wings... yummmm
Ok... so I was going to give this place 4 stars... but I have to deduct one star for the skin of… Read more »
I came here with my mom on a Sunday evening. We looked into the window and saw only one table left unoccupied, and as soon as my mom realize another group heading towards the door, she quickly thrust open the door and ran to the table before I can ask her if she wants to eat here. LoL, she knows how to claim her territory! There was only one waitstaff and she was busy on the phone taking orders, packing to-go orders and waiting on others, so it took a little while for service. Well, this gave us time to look around and check out what others were eating. From other's tables, nothing seemed interesting other than the Xiao Long Baos in the bamboo steamers so we thought we should probably randomly select some dishes from the menu. We tried:
Tea Smoked Duck (comes w/ 4 buns) The buns were warm, soft and very light. The duck was dry, SUPER salty, tough and chewy. It was bony with almost no meat, got to be one malnutrition duck! Disappointing.
Xiao Long Baos (10 pcs.) - Dry and bland, almost mushy. The skin was gummy and very thin, so thin that most of it busted while steaming, so most of the juice had already leaked out by the time they brought it to our table. Very disappointing!
Hand Cut Rice Cakes- A little oily, but flavor was good. Caution, lots of MSG.
Sesame Rice ball in White Wine Soup Dessert- My mom was so excited when she saw this on the menu. She ordered 2, even though I said I didn't want one. When it arrived at the end, she didn't want to eat it neither. We had them pack it to go, and strangely, the portion ended up half its original portion after packing. Maybe they spilled it while packing?
Sweet or savory Rice Rolls- They don't serve this on weekends! We were both extremely disappointed!
Service is very slow. One busser, one server and I am guessing that there's only one chef.
This place is rather small, seats less than 30 and tables are very close to one another. This was not a very good experience for me, and I'm not sure if I'd return... maybe, maybe not. As for Xiao Long Baos, I'd rather go to Shanghai Dumpling King, which is just a few blocks away.
I brought a date here for a little Xiao Long Bao appetizer after a long afternoon of walking through GG Park's gardens. Thank you Yelpers and thanks Shanghai House for not disappointing. The dumplings were superb, pretty close to what I've eaten in Shanghai. Bonus points for putting ginger in the side vinegar! The other dish we ordered, "zhao pai" eggplant and shrimp, also very well done. The boss and even the cooks in back were very friendly. More bonus points for good restaurant/bathroom cleanliness.
Overall great experience. I probably owe most of that to my date and the great conversation, but Shanghai House did a nice job "setting the stage".
The food here is ok, nothing to write home about, but the service sucks.
My fam took me here last weekend and we had a great time. The service was prompt, we made reservations in advance and walked right in to our table which was already set for four.
The menu was pretty large so we started to order many dishes. Ofcourse we had the Shanghai Dumps, Pork & Shrimp Dumps, Veggie Dumps, Spicy Eggplant (excellent), Dry Fried Chix (excellent), Salt Pepper Pork Ribs (aah- dry), Green Onion Pancakes (yum), Hand cut noodles (Chow Fun). All was good and tasty, the food came hella fast, we chowed down and were very satisfied. It was very fulfilling, we were all stuffed. Gotta try it for yourself!
G'
Not bad, not bad at all... But growing up with asian food, my expectations are quite high. And this place just made the cut.
The place was smaller than I had anticipated. Pretty clean and decently modern decor with some asian influence.
Their oh-so-famous shanghai dumpling. Pretty good but not something I've never had before. It's comparable to Koi Palace's shanghai dumpling and only a little more than half the price of Koi's. Good stuff.
Potstickers, not bad. MIni-sized but packs a decent punch.
Tea soaked duck. A little on the salty side and a lot of fat. Boo...
Tan Tan Noodles. Spicy. Good. Lots of oil. Clogging...
Bean Curd Puff. The review they had up had a picture of it and the plate did not look like the picture at all! Deception! But it was still good. Although I could have made it myself at home. Easy stuff.
Shanghai Noodles. Bland.
Sweet Soy Bean Milk. Hot. Wanted to try the savory one because of the picture on yelp but they didn't have it. Whack! Sweet one was whatever.
Chinese donut. Doughy. Eh...
Green Onion Pancake. Also doughy. Should have listened Natalie L.'s advice.
Bathroom. Through the kitchen, up the stairs. Apparantly the stairs only leads to the bathroom and nothing else. Weird.
Good dinner though. Probably better for lunch.
This is my first one-star review... In an effort to maintain credibility I'm going to use the old tried and true Zagat framework to organize my thinking and response.
Decor: When I first walked in I got a really weird feeling - the restaurant is a small, rectangular, beige-colored room with no decoration whatsoever. Furthermore, there was no music on and oddly hushed conversation. I felt like I had made a big mistake by even walking through the door. Once we'd been seated the front door kept opening ON ITS OWN and letting the cold richmond air blow across my neck. Not fun.
Food: Started with a hot and sour soup - this was just plain bad. I've had unremarkable H&S before but this was outright awful. Extremely sour with no hot... lack of flavor, odd vegetables, disjointed, and simply wrong. I had about 3 spoonfuls before putting it aside. Zha Do Fu - Fried tofu appetizer - this was OK - I mean.. what could go wrong. Tasted like decently good store-bought tofu that had been fried. Accompanying sauce was uninteresting. The main event: xiao long bao - these were only OK - too sweet and the skin was dry and a little crumbly - I've had better. Main dish: Tofu Noodles with Edamame - this tasted like nothing - funky-ass texture, disgusting presentation, and no flavor. Epic failure.
Service: slow, inattentive, and had to be asked for everything. They even forgot to serve the vinegar with the dumplings. I raised a hand to ask one of the workers there for it, she saw me, and simply walked back into the kitchen. How's that for service?
In summary, don't go here.
The baby soup dumplings are tasty, but they came out a little tepid for me. Just right if you want to pop the whole thing in your mouth right away, but i prefer my soup dumplings hot. Definitely NOT the best soup dumplings ever.
But the real reason my friend and i came to Shanghai House was to have the knife cut noodles. And so our aggravating experience ensues.
We order the wontons with the knife cut noodles. It comes out with just wontons, so we ask the waitress where the noodles are, and she says..."it's not good with noodles." My friend responds with, "the reason we came here were to eat your knife cut noodles." And the conversation goes back and forth as to why it's not good with noodles, and why we want their noodles. So the waitress takes back the wontons hesitantly. She brings back the dish moments later without the knife cut noodles and with regular noodles. Both of us are very confused considering we had a nice little conversation with the waitress about knife cut noodles only moments before, and told her that's why we sent the dish back. So we nicely point out to the waitress that we ordered knife cut noodles, to which she arrogantly responds...."well, you should have been clear when ordering." I think a 2 minute conversation with her about the knife cut noodles that we wanted added to the dish should make our order sufficiently clear. Her attitude and demeanor with the other customers was just as rude. Suffices to say, SERVICE HERE IS HORRIBLE. The food isn't even that good to warrant such arrogance.
Basically, if you can live with out knife cut noodles, and can go down the street to the other Shanghai-nese restaurant, DO IT.
Good Soup Dumplings, not sure if it should be on the "Top 100" things to eat before you die list.
You get 10 fresh soup dumplings for around 5 bucks. Not a bad deal.
Some of the other food was so so.
Overall, I'll try more of the food here and update my review.
Get the "hand cut noodle dish" that's the must have here, it's freak'n delicious. The hand cut noodles being hand rolled have different textures, some noodles thin, some thick, the result = textural awesomeness.
The dry fried chicken here are pretty good too, they're sweeter than San Tung's and a little oilier, but still good. Also the XLB's here are pretty good. Plus this place is pretty cheap. Some cheap ass below thinks $17 for a meal for two is not cheap, uh yeah maybe in China. This just goes to show Yelp is hell of unreliable, don't trust everything you read some people are just poor or cheap.
I will admit the service is sometimes sketch, but it is a mom & pop shop. You have to walk through the kitchen to get to the bathroom and sometimes you'll get a glimpse of the the ol' man rolling out the noodles and dumpling wrappers upstairs. I guess I have a greater appreciation for places that take the time to make their food from scratch, because it does make a difference to those whom appreciate that sort of thing.
The food was okay, some of the dishes were better than others. We had a lot of people so we had the opportunity to try quite a bit.
* Xiaolong bao - The skin was okay, there was juice, not bad, but not 100%
* Vegetarian goose - Perfectly crisp and great flavor!
* Tea soaked duck - It was not bad, it had a smoked flavor. It only comes with 4 buns, they looked softer than it tasted. Order more if you have more than 4 people
* Green Onion Pancakes- Just pass, it is very doughy, not flaky and crispy
* Shanghai Noodles - Was saucy, i believe it is supposed to be cooked dryer. the noodles were not good at all, very disappointing.
* Tan Tan Mein - it was good, not bad. much better than the Shanghai Noodles
* Pig's knuckle - you must pre-order from my understanding. We had the crispy one, it was fatty and good!
* Stewed pork with preserved vegetable - Okay, not sure if this is really the name, but it is a stewed pork with sweet preserved vegetables, this was good too!
The service could of been better, the lady (waitress) wasn't really nice. place is small, so reservations are recommended with big groups. They did take our group of 10.
last but not least, BYOB! =)
Came here on a Monday around 11:30am and the place was already full with one group of two waiting for a table before us. There was only one waiter taking orders and one lady cleaning the table so everything from waiting for a table, ordering and getting the food took a while. If you want to try this place be sure to have ample time waiting. My boyfriend and I took approximately 30-45 minutes to eat only and we didn't get to leave until 2:30pm.
As far as the food goes:
Dumplings (xiao lung baos) - Good..like the thin and soft skin to it. Not much soup in the dumplings though. Meat isn't as tasty as the ones in Old Shanghai restaraunt on Geary but overall I like it because of the thin skin.
Green onion pancake - A little too dry and hard but otherwise tastes the same as any other places I've tried.
Potstickers - Would like it if it was bigger in size. Never seen potstickers this small before but they sure look cute! =P
Shanghai Stir Fry Noodles - Had better at Old Shanghai Restaurant on Geary. This one didn't have enough flavors to it and the noodles are not as chewy as the ones on Geary.
Place is clean and prices are rather cheap. Maybe worth to wait for the dumplings only.
Prix-Fixe Dinner
Neighborhood: Financial District
OPEN on Thanksgiving Day
Neighborhood: Mission
Neighborhood: Outer Richmond
Category: Chinese
Neighborhood: Outer Richmond
Category: Chinese
Neighborhood: Outer Richmond
Category: Restaurants
Neighborhood: Parkside
Category: Chinese
Neighborhood: Outer Sunset
Category: Dim Sum
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