chen's shanghai kitchen: xiao long baos at their best

shanghainese food in richmond is on every street corner and honestly, theyre all pretty dang good. trying to try every single one, my mom and i went to chen's shanghai kitchen near richmond center.

the parking here is horrendous BUT the food is awesome. good prices and delicious food without being too oily and tastes homemade in the best way...

xiao long bao ($4.50): juicy steamed pork buns  - these were AMAZING. the skin: not so thin that it would pop but also not thick in a way that it gets in the way of enjoying the little dumpling. the juice: PERFECT. steaming hot and tasty without being too salty and its filled to the brim with it. the meat: VERY GOOD, good flavour, not too fat. everything i look for in a xlb is right here.

5/5

black vinegar spare ribs ($~13): deep fried and then tossed in a very very tasty sauce, this dish was quite good! there were a long of bone parts but thats what spare ribs are so i cant complain. it was very tasty and did not feel too heavy since there was no real batter like in sweet and sour pork. 

this is now my go to dish when eating at chinese restaurants. delicious! :D 

4.45/5

sichuan style beef noodles ($~7): beef in spicy soup with noodles: this dish was really spicy but very good too! there was plenty of beef and the noodles were a good texture. the only thing i wish they had was a piece or two of vegetable but for the price, this was beyond my expectations! 

4.75/5

overall: chen's is a small little place that serves delicious shanghainese food. their menu is pretty big and their flavours are all on point. the xlb was very soupy and delicious and i would come back anytime! 

shanghai morning: the kind of dim sum i love

continuing the shanghai adventures in richmond, my mom and i visited shanghai morning in a tiny plaza with limited parking. 

focusing mostly on dimsum dishes this meal...

wine chicken ($5.50): chilled chicken soaked in a wine sauce, a huge portion for cheap with not many bones! deliciously moist chicken and a strong wine flavour, this was a delicious appetizer! 

4.5/5

green onion pancake ($3.50): supposed to be panfried but came out deep fried making it quite oily meaning i could only have one piece despite it being quite good.

3.5/5

xiao long bao ($4.95): of course the pork soup dumplings! what meal is complete without this?! filled to the brim with soup, these had a thin skin and delicious flavour although a bit lighter than others. one of my favourite xlb's to date!!

5/5

spicy wontons ($5.95): LOTS of delicious wontons in a spicy chili oil. perfectly spicy and one of my favourite dim sum dishes. nothing bad to say at all...so good.

5/5

overall: shanghai morning is one of my FAVOURITE shanghai stops in richmond now. it has a lot of small dishes perfect for sharing and i love dumplings so this is like heaven. the total was just at $20 with tax and i was quite filled up! 

shanghai house: another visit of many

yes, my mom and i still come to shanghai house even though there's better in richmond BUT it is convenient and not too busy! we now order some different things and i honestly think they're pretty dang good. 

salted duck ($6.98) - cold duck that is actually delicious and probably my favourite place for it. a lot of breast meat, not overly salty and not filled with those splinter bones. you can taste the natural duck flavours which is the best. 

4.25/5

spicy beef noodle in soup ($6.98) - this is my new favourite dish here. it is quite spicy but very flavourful at the same time. they give quite a bit of meat which is not too fatty. the only thing i dont love is the noodles which are very "normal" compared to hand pulled noodles.

4.5/5 

xiao long bao ($4.98) - better than visit one: skin wasnt as chewy and was thinner. as you can see in the picture these were FILLED with soup but the pork texture is still not the best.

3.75/5

better choice of dishes makes for a better experience but overall, still a solid choice for shanghainese eats! 

suhang: lots of jewels in this duck

my brother visited home recently and he really missed chinese foods so we thought it would be nice to try something special at suhang and also, we can only order so much food when he's here to help eat it! 

xiao long bao ($7.50) -  the flavour of the meat and juice is delicious with a skin that is a tad thicker than normal. i would recommend trying it despite its high price tag. 

4/5

egg white with seafood ($19.80) - a must order for us at most shanghainese restaurants since it is usually a bit lighter. the egg whites are nice and fluffy but the seafood was only small pieces of shrimp and scallops. unfortunately, this rendition left an oilier taste in my mouth than i wanted. 

3.5/5

meatball hot pot ($19.80) - did not get a chance to try, so i cannot comment. 

stuffed crispy duck ($52.80) - this duck has to be preordered and is a specialty here at suhang. the duck is hollowed out and filled with "jewels" including lots of sticky rice, egg yolk, some beans, chestnuts, mushrooms and some duck meat. although visually appealing and with quite a tasty filling, it lacks duck meat and has way too much rice. 

the only meat the meat from the outside which was a really thin layer and not enough for me and the rice is also very heavy so you can only eat so many carbs before feeling stuffed. good to try once because you dont see it often, but i wouldn't get it again. 

3.5/5

enoki and conpoy noodle ($16.80) - perfectly al dente noodles with a thick sauce filled with enoki. again, quite expensive for noodles that lack any protein but tasted good.

3.75/5

overall, this meal was not bad but very carb heavy (might be our ordering mistakes). i feel they skimp on the toppings and amount of meat and charge way too much for what you get. 

shanghai house: no-wait shanghai food

before my recent desire to try every shanghainese restaurant in richmond, shanghai house was my staple for xlbs. the place is pretty spacious and we never had to wait for a table plus its super close to richmond centre so my mom and i would go here all the time. 

xiao long bao ($4.95) - the classic shanghainese dumpling filled with hot soup and pork. the skin is a bit thicker but i dont really mind since i love carbs. the filling is a bit chunkier than i prefer but solid xlbs. 

3.75/5

deep fried spareribs with peppery salt ($13.98) - a nice deep fry to them without dripping oil but there are quite a few chunks of just fat. also this dish is inconsistent as we've ordered it multiple times but sometimes it is spicy, sometimes it is hard, sometimes there's a lot of fat, sometimes the dish is smaller. this makes us not want to order it again.  

due to inconsistency: 3.5/5

i have now found better in richmond but prices are not high (dinner dishes are a bit more expensive) and the food is good.  

aberdeen food court: asian food mecca

aberdeen, although this place does not provide a good shopping experience, it holds one of the best food courts in the lower mainland. they have a huge selection of asian foods from noodles, cha chan teng, malaysian, pho, and even crepes and cream puffs. this place is perfect for people who cannot decide what cuisine they want to sample because they can have a little bit of each.

this time, i went to estea for bubble tea, shanghai shanghai for pan fried pork buns and cafe d'lite for their famous hainanese chicken with oily rice. 

estea express: honey green milk tea half sweet with grass jelly(regular - $4.50): this was actually very delicious with the right amount of sweetness. i also discovered i LOVE grass jelly. its not as sweet as coconut jelly and its like eating jello through the straw! 

3.75/5

(i had ANOTHER big city perks deal where i could get 5 bubble teas for $13. this was such a great deal but AGAIN i didnt use it until the last 2 weeks before it expired forcing me and my mom to consume 5 bubble teas in 14 days. anyways, they had quite a few restrictions so i went very basic) 

cafe d'lite: hainanese chicken with rice ($7.75) - everybody talks about how good the chicken and rice are here including my mom so we decided to share a plate of it and it was very good! maybe not as amazing as some people say but the rice was fragrant without being too oily and i love when the chicken is covered with a soy sauce. pretty good portion for the price too. i would definitely come back to aberdeen just for this.

4/5

shanghai shanghai: pan fried pork buns ($4.95) -  very good and juicy. they were very fresh since i had to wait a good 15-20 minutes for them (so if you plan on getting anything from shanghai shanghai, go there FIRST) although the juice inside was a bit oily, it was steaming hot. the bun was delicious as well but again, quite oily but you cant really complain since most pan fried buns are like that.

3.85/5

all in all, a very delicious and diverse lunch at aberdeen that will satisfy more than one of your cravings. 

dinesty: disappointing food and service

i'm a pretty big believer in the ratings that are on urbanspoon and this prompted me to try dinesty. honestly, this is the restaurant that has disappointed me the most in terms of its like-ness on urbanspoon and i didnt even go in with very high expectations.

my mom and I visited for lunch and it was crazy busy. not only did we have to wait for a spot, but the when we were ready to order, the waitress was hardly paying attention to us. the restaurant is also quite cramped and all the tables small and are very close together. 

xiao long bao ($6.95): soup filled steamed pork buns - I LOVE XIAO LONG BAO. they are one of my favourite things in the entire world and at dinesty, they were not bad for the price! these were not as soupy as i prefer but the skin was nice and thin. 

4/5

marinated beef with soy sauce in pancake roll: ($5.95) - not only was this expensive and prepared sloppily, it was not good. the pancake was hard and greasy, and there was hardly any beef on the inside. flat, oily and unappealing.

2/5

wok fried spare ribs with salt and pepper ($11.95): these were the worst thing that made it to our table. when i bit into one of these, it was EXTREMELY HARD and tasted burnt. this did not seem normal to us so for the first time in my life, we asked to have the dish sent back. this only got worse when one of the waitresses came back and told us that this is how the dish is supposed to be and asked whether we wanted it or not. i had never had such  bad experience with customer service as her attitude made me feel like I didnt know what i was eating.

therefore, we cancelled the spareribs and ordered the cold wined chicken. 

0/5

cold wined chicken ($7.50) - this was to be our meat dish and was quite good. the chicken was moist and the flavour of wine was prominent. also not a bad portion for the price either.

4/5

unfortunately, although there was SOME good food from dinesty, the bad attitude of the servers and the mainly disappointing food made this a place we would not want to return to.