Eats - Chinese - Shanghai

Happy Cafe
250 South B St.
San Mateo, CA.
650/340-7138
Overall: ***
A tiny (as in eight tables) Shanghai restaurant with some of the best food in San Mateo or anywhere for that matter. The Shanghai-style dumplings (xiao long bao, tiny pork-filled steamed dumplings that burst with broth when eaten) and cold boiled chicken are delicious. You can have an fantastic lunch for practically nothing, although you may need to share a table (go before 11:45 on weekdays). Chinese menu is in Chinese & English. Highly recommended.

UPDATE: On weekends, there are additions to the menu, and ordering is a bit simpler since they just give you a sheet of paper to mark what you want. You can order Chinese breakfast foods (donuts, soy milk, sticky rice stuffed with a donut and dehydrated beef, etc.). I've taken two non-Asian friends here so far, and both loved the food, especially the xiao long bao and the sliced, spicy tendon. I should note that one of my friends is picky when it comes to eating new things, and usually only eats at Denny's or steakhouses. 11/2002

Did I mention that I love this place. We had a big lunch today of boiled chicken with house dressing, the squid with onions, sliced tendon with spicy sauce, the Chinese version of rice cake (the same they use in duk gook) with pork and greens, and two orders of xiaolongbao. Admittedly, the squid can be a little off sometimes, but otherwise it was perfect. 12/2002

NOTE: I should mention here that I personally love dive-y restaurants, and Happy Cafe is the quintessential dive. No atmosphere, but good service and good food at a reasonable price.

Hu-Chiang Dumpling House
10877 N. Wolfe Rd
Cupertino, CA 95014
408/873-4813
Overall: *****
A visitor to the site tipped me off to this place, which opened earlier this year. I went for lunch with my friend Michael after a doctor's appointment, and the food was excellent. We had hu-chiang style dumplings (basically xiao long bao), the same thing with crab, wontons in hot sauce, and a beef dish. The servings here are not large, but the food is very good. The crab dumplings actually taste heavily of crab and the wontons in spicy sauce have a dribble of black vinegar and a spice I couldn't identify. Delicious! One of the best lunches I've ever had in San Jose. Service was first-rate, and for the first time Chinese people mistook Michael and I for Chinese even though we kept responding in English. I love it when that happens. March 10, 2006

Update March 27, 2006: We return on a rainy night during the week and order several other dishes, including the braised pork, which I love: fatty and in a fatty sauce, it's served with steamed buns here which balance out the inherent fattiness of the dish (did I mention it was fatty?). We also ordered the hu-chiang dumplings and crab dumplings, but the crab dumplings weren't as crab-flavored. Disappointing. The other dishes were quite good. I should mention that the portions here are smaller than you might be used to at other Chinese restaurants. TIP: Arrive before 7 weeknights or you won't get a table. Service was excellent, although I think the waitress was practicing her English and she kept steering us towards traditional Chinese-American dishes like Kung Pao chicken. Still, I highly recommend this place...if you can get a table.

Update June, 2010: We return for lunch on a sunny day. Food has stepped down a notch perhaps. It wasn't as good as I remember it being, but perhaps we ordered the wrong things. I'll provide an update in a few weeks.

Old Shanghai Restaurant
5145 Geary Blvd, San Francisco, CA
(415) 752-0120
We found this place because it sits directly across from the Hobby Store, which has great prices compared to Michael’s or similar stores. We ordered xiaolongbao (the kind with the crab), cold smoked fish, rice cake with pork and preserved mustard greens, baby eels, and steamed rice. The xiaolongbao were nicely done with tasty, medium-thickness wrappers, but the filling was a bit sweet for my taste, and didn’t really taste of crab. The cold smoked fish is coming off of our list of items we order; this is the best I’ve had but basically I don’t understand or like the dish. The rice cake with tiny shreds of pork and mustard greens were lovely; soft, slightly chewy (not mushy) and subtle. The baby eels arrived in a lake of oil, which isn’t unusual or necessarily a bad thing. The nice thing is that their brown sauce isn’t quite as heavy as I’ve had before, and you could actually taste the eels. We ordered some steamed rice since this is a pretty rich dish to eat on its own. October 22, 2006

Shanghai Dumpling Company
455 Broadway
Millbrae, CA, 94030
650/697-0682
Mon-Fri 11 a.m.-3 p.m., 5 p.m.-9 p.m.; Sat-Sun 10 a.m.-9 p.m.
Overall: ***
Went here on a tip from a reader. I was on my way to see my boyfriend play in his bamboo orchestra at the bamboo auction in SF, and decided to stop off. I had xiaolongbao and kao fu (they spell is How Fu on the menu). The xiaolongbao were good, although the broth inside was a bit salty. The kao fu was very nice, with not as "bready" a texture as Shanghai East. 4/9/2005

UPDATE 4/19/05: Went back with actual Shanghai people, who immediately said "this isn't a real Shanghai restaurant. The menu is all over the place...no focus." Anyway, we had the xiaolongbao, which stuck to the paper liner (I don't know why they insist on doing this), steamed buns (seared-bottom wheat steamed buns with pork inside and a bit of broth, very nice), wonton soup (a bit too plain for me), spicy wontons (served with peanut buttery style), kao fu (really pale this time, save it for the weekend), and the oddest thing—these steamed wheat rolls similar to "snail" rolls but smaller and plainer. Apparently, the real version of these—the ones we had appeared to be store-bought—are a great Shanghai-ese favorite because as you chew them they become sweeter.

Shanghai Ding Sheng Restaurant
686 Barber Lane
Milpitas, CA 95035
408/943-8786
We went here late on a weekday night, almost 10 p.m. They have some very odd dishes on the menu, but I was really here to to check out their xiao long bao, which I'm happy to report are just fine. Not great, but tasty. We also had egg whites and tendon (which turned out to be egg whites and fish maw), and one other dish which I've forgotten about. The drunken chicken comes in a cute little pot, but is otherwise just okay. We're going to return here to see what the food is really like when the kitchen staff isn't itching to go home. February 17, 2006

Shanghai Restaurant
82 Skyline Plaza
Daly City, CA 94015
Do not order the fish at this restaurant. The other items were perfectly fine, although I've completely forgotten what we ordered except for the xiao long bao, which were ordinary. Four dish dinner $46.76 before tip. We may go back just because I've completely forgotten about the food...but maybe that's a bad sign. August 27, 2007

Shanghai East Restaurant
105 W 25th St
San Mateo, CA.
650/522-9098
Overall: ***
We went here because one of our new developers knew it had just opened. They serve dimsum and have a regular menu. One warning: show up early for lunch; by 12:30 the place was packed. We had a variety of dishes: steam pork rice, pork chop with thick rice sticks, potstickers (which I didn't try), xiao long bao (I like the soupier ones at Su Hong or Happy Cafe), kao fu (a bit rough for me), and house chicken. We actually had more than this but my memory is failing me. Prices are VERY reasonable. A huge lunch for eight people was about $104 with tip. I believe we're returning tomorrow so look for more info. NOTE: This is the second location: the first is at 930 Webster St. in Oakland, CA. (510) 465-6878. 1/21/2005

Shanghai Gourmet
50 Dixon Road
Milpitas, CA 95035
408/2623338
Overall: **
We only tried a few items on the menu. The xiao long bao were disappointing—thick, doughy, and dry. The mixed seafood soup was fine, with the squid especially nicely done. The baby eels with sizzling oil was quite good, although the sauce could have been a bit thinner, and the lions head meatballs were the best I've had so far. This isn't a fancy place, but the tablecloths were clean and the waitress was helpful and pleasant. 11/2002

Su Hong Eatery & Chinese Restaurant
4101 El Camino Way
Palo Alto, CA 94306
650/493-3836 website
Rating: ****
This is now my second favorite Shanghai-style Chinese restaurant locally (the first being Happy Cafe in San Mateo). This is a regular, nicely decorated place in an older minimall in Palo Alto. The English menu contained none of the dishes we were after, so I brought along my PDA to show them the characters for pork belly with mee gan tsai (preserved mustand greens).

They didn't have that, but they did have a similar dish which I've actually attempted to cook at home, braised pork in preserved red bean curd sauce. While the texture of the meat isn't the same, the lovely layer of fat was creamy and smooth, the sauce was piquant and flavorful. We started with xiao long bao, which were good—the skins were thin, the broth was good, and the filling was smooth. Rounding out things were baby eels with leeks (a bit salty) and tender pea shoots with garlic (a recommendation by the waiter) which were my favorite for the day.

Service was excellent and non-intrusive. As with all dual menu Chinese restaurants, order from the Chinese menu if you can or bring a picture like I did. Oh, and they threw in a free dessert of tiny sliced rice cake, rice grains, and egg threads in a sweet, warm soup. Lunch for two $48. 03/2003

Update 5/24/2003: Returned with two friends. The xiaolongbao were better this time, and I realize now that they're smaller than at Happy Cafe (1" in diameter) with 8 or so to an order. The baby eels with leeks were less salty than the first time, and the steamed pork belly with red miso was also better. The special dishes were fresh bamboo shoots with age (that's what it's called in Japanese), which was subtle, still slightly crisp, and delicious. The other special, a deep fried squab, tasted like leftovers—dry and not very flavorful. $80 with tip.

Update 8/28/2003: Went with a friend for my birthday and to plan a group dinner. I've pretty much decided that the xiao long bao here have the thinnest skins in the South Bay, although they have a habit of using parchment paper instead of cabbage leaves so they sometimes tear. We had Wu Xi spareribs (much, much better this time), fish filets with wine sauce and fungus, and pea sprouts with garlic.

Update 1/7/2005: I decided to treat my boyfriend to lunch. We had xiao long bao (still the thinnest skins), chicken and chestnut stew, and pea sprouts. I really like the pea sprouts although my boyfriend says that they weren't really the entire sprout but pickings from pea sprouts. Whatever. The chicken and chestnut stew you can skip.