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Have all the Yelpers that don't like this place ever considered that maybe, they don't like Shanghainese food?
If you don't like niangao (rice cakes), then you don't like niangao. That's totally different from saying that this place's niangao is BAD.
It's alright. There's no shame in wishing there was lemon chicken on the menu. But don't write reviews like you know anything about Chinese food.
My first Shanghainese food experience.. My cousin took me here and his wife is from Shanghai, so I trust their taste. This was my impression:
-rice cake dish: I'm just not a fan of these rice cakes in lieu of rice/noodles- just chewy, slimy, and tasteless.
-xiao long bao: my very first time trying this dish and I was disappointed.. where was the soup in the center? I wasn't into the dipping sauce either..
-won ton noodle soup: the best of the 3 dishes we ordered.. but also kind of a no-brainer. The broth was very clear, clean, but could've used more flavor.
Is this place really considered to be the best around here? Or maybe Shanghainese food is just not for me..
YUUUMM Shanghainese! Pork chop rice cake, cold noodles, xiao long bao...
Not much Shanghainese around the bay area. Some of their offerings are good, but could always be better. BUT the thing that does it is the people that work there. If you ain't getting treated like family, sucks for you!!! Become a regular here, its worth it.
I've tried their dumplings a few times, they're goood. They're the kind with soupy juice that comes out when you bite it. We ordered the scrambled eggs with shrimp, chow mein, and something else, a beef dish? Huge portions, but on the greasy side. Get the shanghai dumplings for sure though.
Sometimes you like those hole-in-the-wall places for great tasting food,yes so do I, but DO NOT EXPECT IT HERE!
The walls has menu that looks like there was water damage. The decor was very unique, the walls were decorated with spatters of old grease or soy sauce.
I heard the steam xiao lung bao were good--my grandma said it was good back then. When I went, it was just steamed xiao lung bao with a small round meat inside with too much ginger. The sauce that complement the xiao lung bao was like soy-sauce gone wrong.
The Shanghai Chow Mein was palatable but there was so much grease. If I wanted to order extra grease on my noodles, I would, but I didn't.
The cold appetizers were depressing, it looks old and it taste like it's been sitting there. The cold beef tongue was drenched in Chinese cooking wine--too much wine. The wine was like a veil to mask the smell of the meat and dryness due to the lack of business at this restaurant.
I would say it's pretty expensive for extremely bland food. I know the economy is down but the quality of the food should not suffer.
Gross, rude and expensive for what you get.
$14 for Shanghai Chow Mein and an order of xiao lung bao. The chow mein was super greasy and was mainly some shreds of napa cabbage, green onions and pork that blends in to a point where you can't really even see them. The xiao lung bao was cold on the inside? possible not cooked all the way through? Eewww...just hoping I don't get food poisoning. The first couple I had were fine then some where cold...gross.
This place has the most extreme divergence between the funkiness of the decor and furnishings and the sophistication of the cooking of anyplace I know.
I usually start by looking at the cold appetizers in the back and pointing out the ones I want, so often I have no idea what they're called on the menu, or which of the four (?) menus they appear on. The other night I got smoked fish, pig ear, diced firm tofu with some sort of greens, and a mix of soybeans and pickled ... turnips? They were all great, though I prefer Spices!3's pig ear, which they marinate in hot oil and spices.
Then I ordered shepherd's purse won ton soup. The dumplings are filled with a mix of pork and shepherd's purse, which I believe is a wild green. (It's available fresh in spring in the Central Valley, but Shanghai gets it frozen from China) and come in a subtle broth with shredded omelet and tiny shrimp. This is an amazing dish, could be served at Chez Panisse.
I also ordered Crucian carp (vaguely similar to catfish) with "potherb mustard," which is some sort of green. Delicious.
I would have ordered lion's head meatballs (much better than Spices!3's version) or the pork dumplings I don't know the name of, but there were only two of us and that was already enough food for three.
Total bill was $40.
Didn't this place used to serve beer? None the other night.
I review everything in context.
Ah.. this is one of those hole in the wall places I keep on going back to. It is clean..(maybe), but decor is minimum.
I would of given this place 3 stars, but their sticky rice siu mai is to die for. A mix of mushroom and ground pork, that is the reason when I want some yummy Chinese breakfast, I come here. So yeah... one more star for the sticky rice siu mai.
The rest of the food is good, wonton in the clay pot is good. The xiao long bao is pretty good, not the best, but pretty good.
I been here for dinner a few time, cheap and decently good, but nothing to get excited with. I will go somewhere else for Shanghainese dinner.
OMG....I've passed by here a million times but never noticed it until my friend told me about the best authentic Shanghainese food in Oakland was this little hole in the wall! It's called 'Shanghai Restaurant'...how original? But that didn't matter because I'm a huge fan of Shanghainese food....especially Xialong Bao (Shanghai dumplings), onion cake, and hot soybean milk. These are the 3 typical things I always order and they all passed the test here.
My hubby ordered the thick noodles and they were a bit on the oily side. I was so stuffed but saw the table next to me order a plate of stinky tofu. I'll definitely come back again and the stinky tofu will be on my "to-try" list.
We tried: Xiaolong Bao, Eight Delicacies Noodle Soup, and House Special Sauce Noodles, aka Zhajiang mian.
The XLB filling and skin was fine, but there wasn't much soup inside. It's served with the standard black vinegar with ginger strips. They were probably the best things we ate however.
The noodle soup came in a huge portion, of noodles mostly, with pork cubes, black mushrooms, bean curd, and bamboo shoots with a tart fermented soybean paste and a touch of chili oil. I was expecting a light broth, but the sauce from the toppings changed the broth drastically. The noodles were nice and chewy though.
The dry noodle dish came with the same fermented soybean paste, but with just ground pork and julienned cucumbers. I didn't like the sauce much and the noodles were almost soggy. Everyone else in the restaurant was ordering this dish though. I've had the Korean black bean sauce version, which I prefer over this one.
There's probably other good Shanghainese specialties at this place, but we didn't have them on this visit.
I'm asian. I don't go to asian restaurants to get my ego stroked. Give me and my family great tasting food, good enough quantity, be decent on the clean factor, and some high chairs, and we'll eat the food, pay the bill and get out of the way for the next set of customers.
That being said...I kid you not, we got the stink-eye stare down pretty much every time we made eye contact with the female waitress. She basically harrumphed at us when we asked her for a couple more minutes to decide on what to order, and then when we did order, she looked over at the male waiter and barked somethings at him (or us? I couldn't figure it out), and then walked away in the middle of our questions. Did she mistake us for some customers from the past who did her wrong? See, my huzz and I have been aching for some *GOOD*-pronounced with a gutteral grind- XLB. We even youtubed this guy eating xlb (jonasapproved) just to get psyched out for our adventure.
Seriously, any joy I might have felt from the 'some decent/some completely forgettable' food was SUCKED right outta me from the seriously HORRIBLE service from the weirdo waiter-people.
So the XLB? Somebody talk to me!! Is it all just hype? Should I not have watched that episode when Anthony Bourdain goes to Shanghai to get some XLB and says that it was like, SOOOO GOOD that it would go up against any four star cuisine? So, hey Shanghai restaurant in Oakland: Where's the paper-thin skin? The rich broth that gushes out when you bite the top of the delicate dumpling? The savory meat that you carefully bathe with the ginger-vinegar? It wasn't any of these things....AT ALL. I'm really sad. I just don't get why people like this place, because everything we had was so.......(the following word would be in like, size 2 font) underwhelming.
No I do not recommend this place. My huzz, who is a really easy-going guy, said that he would not have come here if he knew he was going to have to spend $60 on chinese street food (he could care less if the weirdo waitress's eyeball's were bugging out with all the bad mojo she was sending us). And don't go to the bathroom if you can't watch bathroom/toilet scenes in movies (you know, they always have to have a full on fight scene in a gross-me-out-the-door public bathroom or junkie bathroom) - so gross so gross... Lastly, you can't eat "small eats" food with a pre-toddler baby on your lap...come on you cheapos, go to IKEA and get like, one or two of the cheapie plastic high chairs. seriously...come on.
The FIVE STAR is for the pre-packed frozen food. I never had anything else cook their. Would not know..... My bf only buys the frozen ones home and I am not even sure what the restaurants look like...... But potsticker is delicious(Put frozen potstickers/dumplings/buns. Just put whatever you wish to cook into burn hotpot with oil/water in it and let it seat for 10 min low heat....NEED A LID/COVER)done!!!
fellow yelper updated: Add 2 drops of olive oils.
Shanghai (Shanghai Xiao Chi, in Chinese) is only my third favorite place for Shanghai small eats after Shanghai House and Shanghai Dumpling King, both on outer Balboa in San Francisco. However, I find myself going there more often, thanks to BART. Even though I live in San Francisco, I can get there much faster. I love the ambiance too; the cramped layout, the hustle and bustle and the Shanghainese dialect flying through the air all bring me back to Shanghai.
Despite its attractions, Shanghai Restaurant only comes in second or third to the other places in the brunch/lunch items I most often crave. The xiaolong bao on my recent visit had a saggy, deflated cast to them (like New York-style "soup dumplings") though the wrapper consistency and the depth of flavor were still there. The xian doujiang (salty soy milk soup) is the equal to that of Shanghai Dumpling King's but falls short of the excellent version at Shanghai House; and the congyou bing (scallion pancakes) fall a bit short of the mark. The shengjian bao probably are better than Shanghai Dumpling King's (Shanghai House doesn't offer these) based on my dim recollection. In any event, as the photo shows, they are beautifully constructed though far down the comfort index compared to the salty grease bombs so readily available on the streets of Shanghai.
The main dishes offered are hard-core homestyle Shanghainese, competently done if not exemplary; my wife does most of them as well or better. However the red-cooked pork joint is a must-have if you have the nutritional budget for some fat, salt and sugar.
I love their little won tons here... and their pan fried dumplings... I'm translating from Chinese so I dunno what the heck they're called on the menu... Anyway, you gotta try the little won tons it comes in a little clay pot with maybe 15 wontons all tiny and dried seaweed and egg and dried shrimp skin... trust me I am a foodie.. I have to say they dont have the best service though and I have not gone in a long time. If you're in the area, I would suggest you try it for yourself.. I did warn you they dont have the best service especially if you dont speak Shanghainess-which I don't, I do speak Mandarin though and that puts me a level above white non-chinese speaking folks for them. Their seats are very small and they have no high chairs, so dont bring your baby.
After a designated month of mourning for the closed Berkeley branch, I headed to the mothership. No decor to speak of, but here they had an English- (and Cantonese-) speaking waitress, which made my life much easier. Ordered the braised pork meatballs (Lions' heads) and the rice cakes with pork and mustard greens. Got four huge meatballs, not crusty like I like them but tender and crumbly, good taste, came with bok choy. Shanghai rice cakes were top notch: rubbery, but in a good way, in very umami sauce. Excellent stuff; now I need to return for the XLB.
***
XLB update: About 7/10. Marginally gummier than at the Berkeley branch but significantly better constructed than Shanghai Dumpling King.
Some tasty, some disappointing.
Tasty:
1. the "big wontons." They're not really big, but the filling is tasty enough. You can buy frozen ones to cook at home yourself. $5 bucks a bag for 30 pcs, I think...
2. Tsai fan or vegetable steamed rice. Not that great, but not bad.
3. Meat zhong-zi (the rice and meat thing wrapped with leaves). Not bad. Decent taste. Not too fatty.
Disappointing:
1. Sung jian bao. Haven't found a place that makes decent ones yet. Usually the dough is too thick.
2. Noodles are so-so.
3. Mustard green and tofu ribbons. Soggy, bitter mess and tastes like there's too much MSG.
4. Tofu-gan strips with "meat strips." Lousy seasoning. Lousy meat strips.
Ah, this place reminds me of China-- all the good things about the food, and all the bad things about the service, food prep and ambiance. If the latter notes tend to drive your taste buds, then avoid this place; read below. If the former, then you have every reason to eat here-- head on in.
Ignorance is bliss (I wish I didn't take notes while eating here today-- I really do think their food will remind you of the noodle shops in Shanghai-- or at the very least-- Beijing).
The service was horrible today. We had a waitress that literally pushed my sister out of the way to serve the food. She was downright insulting when we asked for boxes to go, and seemed like she had a pretty big chip on her shoulder. Maybe we should have actually talked Chinese to her, but for someone to hold that much of a grudge because you can't speak her language? Man. If you got this far, and are still willing to go, bring an interpreter who speaks mandarin.
While leaving, I had the chance to check out their food preparation. They were making wontons and, while I'm normally a big fan of food made authentically in the traditional sense, they were using one of the dining tables as a prep top. Think about it-- a table normally used for dining by everyday patrons, wiped down with a wet cloth that's used to wipe every *other* table in the restaurant, has a bunch of wonton wrappers resting directly on top of its linoleum surface. I *strongly* doubt that the wipe cloth had any kind of disinfectant on it, and I was just grossed out.
Okay, so maybe that isn't such a big deal, right? I mean, the dumplings get frozen, then boiled in broth-- so of course anything stuck on them is going to die... It's just the idea of that kid at the next table sneezing into his food, and then you think that maybe they might use *that* table to prep the food... Anyway, I'll likely selectively forget what I just wrote and go back there in a month or so. For now, though, I'm hesitant.
We like coming here for lunch on Sundays. It's always congested and crowded, and like all chinatown hole in the walls, not exactly clean. But the food is great.
We like the steam buns (silver thread buns), which you can also ordered deep fried with condensed milk for dipping. We always order Ma Lan Tow, which is a cold appetizer made from chopped up slightly bitter vegetable stems and tofu. The sticky rice siu mai looks like a pouch of tofu skin holding some sticky rice inside.
The soup noodles are really good here. We've tried ones with duck and beef, and shanghai vegetables with pork. Don't order the cold shanghai noodles--it was yucky. Our friend ordered the eel fried noodles and it was amazingly good. The noodles are fried with baby eels.
The drunken chicken is good but red and undercooked (don't order it if you are nervous about blood), and the dumplings are not that good.
We recommend coming here and trying all different sorts of things from the menu. You can bring some of the dim sum home, frozen.
The only trouble with this place is that it's tiny and there are only 2 tables that fit more 6 or more.
JABBA THE HUTT was what I thought of (in terms of size and looks) when the braised pork joint (shoulder) was brought out to us. It was yummy. Sure, it could have been cooked til it was a bit softer but.... hey, it was enormous!
Otherwise, the food is more or less accurate Shanghainese food, I'm told, but I didn't think it was any great shakes. Plus the fried dumplings are TERRIBLE -- no juice at all.
UPDATE: I took 4/5ths of Jabba home and slow-cooked it some more -- awesome!
I will preface my review by saying i have a soft spot for shanghai cuisine. As a child, I used to gorge myself at Supreme Dragon in So Cal.
With that said, this place is the best of the 3 shanghai style restaurants that I've tried in the bay area and great if you're looking for a nice greasy chinese fix without bell peppers and carrots in all the dishes. Great cha chiang mien and won ton soup. Their rice ovalettes are sometimes overly soy saucy and their green onion pancakes waver in oniony-ness, but overall I am always completely satisfied when I leave.
This place is cool because it is different than most of the other Chinese restaurants in the area. It's very informal here. Most of the items are pretty good. Dumplings, Soup Noodles...
And the prices are pretty good too....
A hidden gem inside of Oakland's Chinatown, with a high quality chef and decent service, though it's definitely a dive. I can only speak for the dishes that I have had, which are -
1) Spicy Tofu with Vegetables clay pot - quite pedestrian, nothing to write home about. It didn't even come in a clay pot!
2) Soup dumplings on the dim sum menu; not like Chinatown but worth a shot
3) Pork meatballs with bok choy - excellent, a great mixture of sweet and salty
4) Loufa Gourd with soybeans - best dish that I have had at the restaurant
5) Eggplant Braised - well put together but standard Northern Chinese fare
6) Fish (I forgot what it was called) - fair, tasty, slightly salty
7) A Cold vegetarian noodle dish - a real classic
All in all an excellent restaurant. There's also a $15 for three dishes deal, although many of the best dishes are not on this 'special' menu. Bottom line: if the translation sounds funny (e.g. gluten balls with lotus) go for it!
After a good night at our local bar we decided we'll check out the Shanghai restaurant in Oaktown!
We found a parking spot just 1 block away. Yippee! Meandered over to Shanghai Restaurant and stood in front of the door. Buzzed and hungry we were waffling about going here or Shan Dong around the corner. Finally I said "I want the Ants on the Tree". My wife said okay okay we'll eat here. (She loves both restaurants so she didn't care)
Walked in it was pretty typical. Basic seating. Bright fluorescent lighting. Colorful menu items posted in chinese on the walls. (Listen-you don't come here for the ambiance)
My wife spoke and ordered again in mandarin. (God I love her!)
They gave us two menus--one was the basic menu and the other was some of the breakfast items.
We ordered:
Lion's head (4 big meat dumplings. Yes, they do make them soft, but I'm down with that)
Pork Szechuan Noodles Soup
Xiao Long Bao
House Sauce Noodles Soup
Green Onion Beef (basically Mongolian Beef)
Beef Stew Noodles Soup
Onion Pancakes
Cold spice Tofu (Awesome...or maybe it was because it was the first dish they served us? Whatever, there was none left for the doggie baggie)
(Yeah yeah, I know we ordered a whole bunch of noodles. Hey! I said we were drinking right?) Everything was good. Dishes and bowls came out hot and steaming. You could hear them in the kitchen cooking away and laughing at us for ordering so much! So what, we're bagging it man!
Everything was good! We ate and ate and ate. I think my take on whether food is good or not is that you keep eating until you suddenly stop and realize "Oh oh. I better stop or my belly will explode..." It was that good. (My wife proved my point because 2 hours after we got home she said she was so full. Hee hee)
Our friend, V, was grubbing also. Loved it. He did say that he thought the Milpitas place might have been better. However, I think it was because we had different dishes so that changes it a bit. If we ordered the same dishes I would say Oakland's Shanghai would be on par and hence it's the same.
Summary: No ambiance. Good food. If you want the taste of Shanghai, this is the place to go in Oakland Chinatown.
I had lunch here with a coworker in March 2008 and both got food poisoning. There's something wrong with the loofah squash, it tasted bitter!
Though the small door to Shanghai Restaurant looks like every other restaurant in the heart of Oakland's china town, the quality of the food served inside easily surpasses that of any ordinary Chinese restaurant. Their specialty, the reason that brought me to this restaurant, is the xiaolin bao (show-lin-bow), "soup dumplings" in english. I had ordered them once in NYC, at a place called Joe Shanghai's, famous for this dish. It is basically a small chewy dumpling filled with a special hot soup and a small piece of meat (pork?), and served with a special sauce. To eat it, you bite off the top, put a bit of sauce into the dumpling, then eat the entire thing in one bite. The result: a warm explosion of culinary happiness in your mouth. Shanghai in Oakland is the only other place I've ever found that could match the quality of the ones I had tried in NYC. This particular dish is located on their dim sum menu, and simply asking for "the soup dumplings" is all you have to do.
Another recommendation, commonly known in the asian community but not listed on Shanghai's menu, is the dan dan noodles. The extremely flavorful red sauce along with the cooling cucumber served with these noodles makes them stand out in the midst of the millions of chinese noodle dishes available. Warning: be sure to have plenty of water available because these noodles are quite spicy.
Shanghai's service also separates it from other chinese restaurants. In each of my 4 visits, the servers have been very friendly and easy to understand. They have also accomodated a to-go request (given 20 minutes in advance on the phone) so that I could avoid a lengthy wait during lunch. The combination of their delicious food and excellent service makes Shanghai Restaurant a must for Chinese dining.
this place is very very easily missed. serves up some good noodles and shao long baos. they have an extensive menu of items that are 3 for $15 or $5.95 each...pretty good deal. we usually get the Shanghai style pork chops (my bf calls them tasty tasties bc he cant remember the name of this dish...ever), seasonal veggies (loaded with garlic, yum), and some sort of chicken dish.
their combination noodle soup doesnt have shrimp. it's chicken, beef, and pork stomach. NOT what you would expect from a regular combo noodle dish... so watch out.
overall, i feel like it's tasty, but the quality of food isnt THAT great. eg: the chicken pieces they use in their five spices chicken were all mini drumsticks, and most of it had no meat. just skins and bones.
relatively cheap, accepts cards, and if im craving some noodles id come here.
but the service is def hit or miss....esp if you dont speak chinese.
yep! this place was definitely worth the go. Aside from the fact that the food is heavily saturated in MSG, it was a pretty good experience. I think my sensitive stomach is starting to become somewhat resistant to msg, which is really good because Oakland Chinatown is where it's at! Anyway, this place had some good food. I had the Shanghai chow mein while my co-diner had the special sauce noodles. The shangai chow mein was tastier. The item that blew us away were the soup dumpling. Oh jesus those were sooo good. they were reviewed, as well, in the east bay express. get them!
Went there for dinner last night and went with the 3 dishes plus rice for $18.50 option, which is competitive with some of the other local Chinese restaurants, like D&A. The "lion's head" meatballs were good; The duck with Shanghai sauce was very disappointing - will not this order again. The braised fish was OK. Dessert was included. Once again, cashier added 10% "tax" to the bill instead of the proper amount of Oakland sales tax, costing them one star here and a proportionately reduced tip.
Pretty good food here and the menu reflects reasonable prices. BUT, check your tab before you pay!… Read more »
Just came here for dinner with my wife. We got the xiao long bao (Shanghai dumplings), ji cai nian gao (flat rice cakes with ji cai and pork), "Lion's Head" meat balls, and stir-fried "A-cai" greens.
Xiao long bao - 3 stars (nice and gingery, but a little bland)
ji cai nian gao - 5 stars (perfect)
"Lion's Head" meat balls - 5 stars (perfect)
stir-fried "A-cai" greens - 4 stars (good; not my favorite Chinese vegetable, but it was all they had)
Overall, the food was excellent and authentic.
very good food, not exactly the best ambiance. been there a few times and have not had a bad dish yet. some of my favorites are, the little dumplings, xialong bao, chicken cold noodles, beef pastry, hot soybean milk, stinky fried tofu (avail. after 6pm due to city ordinance). Again, the food is very good, i just wouldn't want to visit the kitchen, in fear that if i see it, i might not eat at this place again.
this place is truely a hole-in-a-wall. if you blink, you'll likely to walk by it...
After reading Kelsey's review of this place, I felt I didn't have too much more to add to it. She's right, Joe's Shanghai in NYC has some of THE best xiao long baos outside of Asia that I've had. I haven't yet found anywhere which can rival those of Joe's. Shanghai restaurant on Webster, though certainly a dive, has some pretty tasty food. The xiao long bao here are tasty, but the wrapper is a little too thick for my taste. Flavorful nontheless. Scallion pancakes, sesame scallion bread, savoury soy milk, five spice beef and rice cake with shephard's purse (a kind of vegetable) and pork were all good. The atmosphere is non-existent but staff are polite. Bathrooms located outside are dismal. Took star off for the negatives. Their sister restaurant is in San Mateo on 25th Ave (Shanghai East Restaurant).
First of all, I've lived in Shanghai for three years, where I enjoy eating a lot. I won't say Shanghai cuisine is China's best, but I know what I like.
Back when this restaurant first opened five or six years ago, this was my favorite Chinese restaurant in the Bay Area - not much in the way of decor, but excellent food served cheaply, with most of the customers speaking Shanghai dialect.
However I've been a few times recently, and was not quite as impressed. It's been very inconsistent - from passable, to excellent. At its best, the food is as good as anything in Shanghai, and really is an amazing deal at $7-$8 per person. But at other times, the food is merely pretty good.
I wish I knew the "secret" to finding out when the food is at its best - perhaps when a certain chef is on shift? My best results have been on weekday nights, but it could have just been luck of the draw.
The xiaolongbao, notably, are not very good. I'd call them the only bad food I've had at the restaurant. They don't have any soup in them, which is pretty much the point of xiaolongbao. I wonder if the ones I've gotten have been frozen, and re-heated. That's what they tasted like, and if that's the case, I'm sure they're better on the days where you can get them fresh.
The standout for me remains the Tofu and Shepherd's Purse Soup. But really there are a large number of very good dishes here. It's probably worth just ordering whatever looks good from the "3 for $24" menu.
It's not a vegetarian restaurant, but there's enough options available that my vegetarian friends left happy.
All carbs! If you enjoy dumplings and noodles, then this place isn't bad. The wonton soup is quite tasty but the soup dumpling and house noodle was mediocre.
For a while this place had become a pretty integral part of my weekly diet when I was living in Oakland. When it comes to Chinese food, I tend to seek out the less polished places where they do things right with the food and aren't focused on the decor. You can tell by the number of people in here on any given evening that there is a reason to stop in. I go for the xiao long bao, although there are plenty of other great dishes. The server doesn't even ask what I want anymore, just "how many?". The dumplings are not mind-blowing but they are consistently decent and well priced. One order per person plus a green onion pancake is a good light meal. Add a plate of noodles to that and you've got a good full meal.
Really, the food here is pretty bad. The "braised pork joint" that I'd heard so much about is tasty, but with low amounts of edible meat. The Xiao Long Bao were pretty mediocre. The Lion's Head meatballs were mushy and fairly disgusting, if vaguely edible. The Loofah and Soybeans were passable at best.
The sanitation is amazing. People handling raw ground pork making dumplings in the middle of the store and waiting tables with nary a hand wash. Dirty dishes in piles on tables in the middle of the restaurant. Awesome. Note, I haven't deducted and stars in my review for this, if the food was any good I wouldn't care.
$40 for four people with 2 orders of dumplings, and three dishes? Ugh. There's far better less expensive food in the area. Don't go here. Period.
At some point, I was coming here every week. I'm addicted to their Noodles in Special Sauce (I got a friend addicted to it as well) and Xiaolong Bao. This place is worth the trip for the Xiaolong Bao alone. The broth that's tucked underneath the delicate skin is heavenly on a cold day. The Shanghai fried rice is also pretty tasty.
I give it a 4 stars as the place isn't the cleanest. It literally is a hole in the wall place. The waitress, initially, isn't all that friendly but if you go as often as I do, she totally warms up to you. She tries to teach me how to say certain things in Mandarin.
Soup dumplings, scallion pancakes, crispy noodles. yum. Don't find myself in Oakland often at lunchtime- but would go back here. No frills dive mom and pop place. My friend who grew up in Singapore said it was full of her mom's cooking - first time in 3 years of knowing her I heard her speak Chinese. skip the lunch specials and do the dim sum - point at what looks good!
I was pretty disappointed. The xiao long bao tasted alright to me (granted I don't think I'm quite as discerning as some other reviewers in regards to XLB), and the braised eggplant was tasty, but braised eggplant is pretty much always tasty. However, there wasn't anything else we ordered that did it for me- we ordered some non-soup dumplings, green onion pancakes, noodle soup with pork chop, and some stir fried pork, all of which ranged from mediocre to pretty bad.
I was really excited because I thought I had found a Shangai Dumpling King on this side of the bay. Not the case. But at least its cheap, I guess.
In college, when my husband and i were looking for a meal for $10.00 for two people, we would go to Shanghai Restaurant. The lunch rice plates are reasonably priced and comes with soup and fruit. We love the jia zi (homemade dumplins) and thier Shanghai noodles because they are fat and delicious. But what we love the most is the Mu Shu Pork. The crepes they use never seem to dry up and the mu shu itself is super juicy.
Neighborhood: Oakland Chinatown
Category: Chinese
Neighborhood: Oakland Chinatown
Category: Chinese
Neighborhood: Downtown Berkeley
Category: Chinese
Neighborhood: Oakland Chinatown
Category: Chinese
Neighborhood: Oakland Chinatown
Category: Chinese
Some of my favorite dining destinations in the…
Judged on deliciousness and value. Version 1.3…
Among the plethora of food in Chinatown, here are…
I'm not Chinese, but I am Jewish, so it's almost…
Getting out of the office, these are my…
