When it comes to Shanghai food, it can range from quite economical to quite expensive. Shanghai River is supposed to fall onto the latter. But it didn’t seem to deter people from going there. There was a small group waiting for seats as we got in. Because Wendy and I are the rare ‘couple’ to go to this restaurant, we got a seat quite quickly.
You can see the group of people huddled inside the glass door waiting for seats.
Quite a busy Wednesday night!!! We’d thought it would be semi-quiet, but we were wrong!
The staple to all our Shanghainese dinners. The “soupy” pork dumpling (Shao Long Bao – pinyin). So delicious!
Here’s an up-close shot of the dumpling. HOLY BATMAN! That’s a LOT of soup inside. Most places are like 50-75% of that amount. BIG THUMBS UP! Wendy noted that it wasn’t as oily as some other places also.
Tonight, we’re order the staples of our usual Shanghainese orders. The “Dan Dan Noodle” uses a special mix of spicy oil, peanut butter and sesame sauce. Every place makes it differently. We had high expectations for this place due to the price premium over most other places. It fell a bit short because the soup was slightly too bland. We still think Top Shanghai’s Dan Dan Noodles is still the best in Richmond.
Wendy absolutely loves the Glutinous Rice balls in Osmanthus-scented wine. It has a superb mixture of fermented rice, Osmanthus-scented rice wine and the wonderfully chewy texture of mini rice balls. This was really well done. It wasn’t too sweet as some place might make it. This is a ‘must order’ item.
The bill was pretty reasonable. We didn’t order too much today as I’m trying to keep my weight low and my wallet filled with something! With tip, it was $23.50. Judging from the restaurant’s reputation and the nice environment we were in, this was good value! Thanks for reading!
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Well … if you want to fill your wallet with something, I got some Monopoly money that I can give you. How much do you need? 10 $50 bills OK? LOL! Seriously, the XLB looked absolutely delicious. Was the color of the broth off or was it that orangey looking?
Ben
One of my favourite restaurants! Their Xiao Long Bao are some of the best. I think the prices they charge are generally reasonable for the quality that you get. However, it can get up there if you are hungry and order too much.
Sorry I must have missed reading these comments back in the day. We just went there again tonight and wolfed down three orders of the soup dumplings (Xiao Long Bao) and yes the broth is really orange, and yes they are still some of the best! We snapped a video of their hot-and-cold banana fritter dessert being made at our table too!