3319 Balboa St, San Francisco CA 94121
(415) 387-2088
Parking: street parking
Hours: Monday, Wednesday through Friday 11am to 9pm, Saturday and Sunday 10am to 9pm, Closed Tuesdays
Last Visited: December 9, 2006
Food: 3 to 4 stars
Service: 2 stars
Atmosphere: 2 stars
Price: $ to $$
Jamie recommended I try Shanghai Dumpling Shop, now known as Shanghai Dumpling King. And it is such a find! It is so hard to find a place that serves authentic Shanghai style food. Shanghai dumpling spot is a hole in the wall place with great food. Well, it’s a little better than a hole in the wall. Enter the place and both units are painted in white with a lot of colorful menus listing family style set meals posted. There are also many pieces of paper listing specials posted on the wall. However, it’s all written in Chinese. The front of the restaurant is a large window, with white curtains that cover about half the window, so the patrons remain hidden from curious onlookers outside.
The atmosphere is far from glamorous. The noise level is high as people begin to trickle in, and the staff often seems to be dropping plates into the designated tub rather than gently placing them there. The staff is in white plastic aprons and there are a number of people bringing food in from the kitchen. There seems to be a lack of order. See more below.
The food is wonderful. There are many Shanghai bun and dumpling favorites available and the great thing is that they’re homemade. All the dishes are served fresh and piping hot. The stir fry dishes have a lot of “wok air.” The heat remains with them for a prolonged period of time.
- Shanghai Steamed Dumpling – Ten dumplings are served on a bed of Napa cabbage still in its steamer. Accompanying them is a small dish containing dark vinegar with thinly sliced ginger slivers. The dumpling wrapper is twisted on the top and filled with flavorful pork. The dumpling bursts with the juices from within as you bite into them. Excellent. $4.25
- Pot Stickers – Eight pot stickers with golden brown bottoms are served with the same vinegar sauce mentioned above. Unlike typical pot stickers, these have a softer skin and are more moist than typical. Each pot sticker had a slit on its side, probably to let out some of the juice from the filling. The filling was made of pork and cabbage. Good, but it might not be what you expect. $4.25
- Beijing Style Boiled Chives Dumpling – Ten dumplings are served with the same vinegar sauce mentioned above. Pork is mixed with Chinese chives for a mild dumpling filling. These dumplings were excellent. The wrapper was thin, but held together well. The filling was juicy and these dumplings also burst with their juices as you bite into them. Excellent. $4.25
- Stir Fried Noodles Shanghai Style – Thick homemade style noodles are stir fried with slivers of pork, cabbage, Napa cabbage, and spinach leaves in a dark soy sauce. This dish had a lot of “wok air.” There was just a hint of spiciness to the dish, but not enough to overwhelm the flavor. Very good. See latest comments below for 2006 visit. $4.95
- Hot and Spicy Beef Stew in Noodles Soup/Vermicelli Soup – Great flavor. The name describes the soup well. The beef stew is tender and has a taste of five spice to it. The noodles are fine and thin, but would be just a little better if they were fresh instead of packaged noodles. Their size does make them better for absorbing the flavor of the soup though. The soup has a touch of red color and will make your belly warm. The portion is also quite generous. Great, especially for a cold night out. $4.95
For our second visit, we ordered a dinner meal that serves two. All of the food listed below comes in this set meal for only $18.88. Incredible price!
- Shanghai Dumplings – Four pieces. Still served hot, fresh, and delicious. Description listed above.
- Shanghai Drunken Chicken – A quarter of a chicken with skin on is cooked and marinated in Chinese rice wine. The marinade causes the meat to tighten and become slightly more dense. The flavor of wine is strong and intense. You definitely won’t miss it. The chicken is chopped into pieces with the bone intact, and served with the reduced wine sauce. Remember that it’s Chinese style, so the wine will not be reduced until it is thick. This dish is typically served cold. In most restaurants, the chicken comes without the sauce, so that was something unique here. The wine may be too strong for some, but it’s definitely a drunken chicken.
- Shanghai Wonton Soup with Chicken Broth – A single Shanghai Wonton (a wonton with pork and vegetable) is cooked with a single head of baby bok choy and a bean curd wrap in chicken broth. A piece of drunken chicken is placed at the bottom of a tall ramekin and the broth with wonton and bok choy is poured on top of the chicken. The bean curd wrap is a sheet of bean curd that has been rolled and tied into a knot. The bean curd wrap is soft, but slightly crisp in texture. The soup is flavored with pepper giving it a little hint of sharpness. The soup is cooked in a wok, so it stays hot in temperature much longer than most soups. Very good and it stays warm for a long time.
- Cold Noodles with Chicken and Sesame Sauce – Noodles are topped with shreds of cucumber and thinly sliced tomato strips. Sliced chicken breast tops the noodles. A sweet peanut sauce is served on the side. The noodles are tightly packed into the bowl making it difficult to combine the sauce with the noodles. It’s much easier to remove the noodles to an individual bowl or plate and add the sauce there. The sauce also contains oyster sauce, so it is advisable to stir the sauce prior to combining with the noodles. The cucumbers add a lightness and crispiness to the texture of the dish. However, the chicken is bland, though tender. I wouldn’t recommend ordering this dish alone, but it might make for an okay summer salad if the chicken had more flavor or was removed entirely.
- Soy Braised Pork Ribs – Very short bite sized pork ribs are braised in soy sauce and vinegar. The meat is tender, though the tendons take up a large portion of each piece. Although the dish was served seaming, it lacked the ‘wok air’ described earlier. Nice flavor balancing the sweetness and saltiness of the soy sauce with the vinegar.
- Sesame Rice Dumplings – Sweet black sesame paste is stuffed in rice flour dumplings. The dumplings are then rolled in ground peanut powder. These dumplings were served warm. Excellent.
Of the dinner set, the best items were the soup, Shanghai dumplings, and sesame rice dumplings. Those are highly recommended ordered alone or in a set.
Service would have received a three star rating, but one of our dumplings dishes came out almost half an hour after everything else. It seems that the servers don’t pay much attention to which table puts in their order first. We saw other tables who had arrived after us receive their dumplings first. This was the only negative part of the experience. During my second experience, service seemed as bad as my first visit. Their manner was better during dinner since the restaurant wasn’t as busy, but Shanghai Dumpling Shop has little to no concept of what it means to serve food in courses. All of the food came out in random order, and the dessert arrived about half way through the meal. Soup and appetizer arrived after the main dish and so on. I wonder if they’re thinking family style when everything arrives at the table and then you just eat, but it’s not like everything arrives at one time either. Just be forewarned about this.
Overall, you’ll find the prices a bargain. The service and atmosphere could use a lot of improvement, but the food is delicious. There were so many dishes to try, but I couldn’t fit it all into my stomach. There are many items that I would like to try on my next visit. I highly recommend a visit to Shanghai Dumpling Shop for their homemade dumplings.
During my most recent visit, I was pretty surprised to find that the name had changed, but from what I could tell, the people remained the same. The same servers, at least a few, hard recognizable faces, but a new sign was out front. Upon being seated, we were brought tea, but it took a while to get a menu. Also, I felt quite uncomfortable during this visit. Although I walked in knowing it was a hole in the wall, when I touched the chopsticks, I found them to be sticky. Not dirty, but sticky as though a film had gotten on them. The plates need to be exchanged for new ones. Clearly, the restaurant is doing well, as it was packed during this lunch time with a line forming outside. However, it hasn’t invested in its atmosphere.
We again ordered the Shanghai Steamed Dumplings and found them as scrumptious as before. They were so juicy and flavorful as described above. We also had the Stir Fried Noodles Shanghai Style. Similar to last time, but this visit seemed to offer less meat. I would rather pay another dollar or two more and have more meat in the dish. This makes it look like you’re on a diet.
- Rice Roll – Contained within rice is a mixture of dried pork jerky – Asian pork jerky. Sometimes, you find that the pork jerky is mixed with preserved spicy mustard greens. It may sound unusual, but think giant sushi roll. Good. Wrapped in saran wrap to hold it together, it comes warm.
While we ate, a woman came around and asked if anyone wanted to order the fresh dessert items that were today’s special. She took the plate around to each table. Yet, her demeanor was not as pleasant as it could be. It also took a while to get a check.
Overall, this 2006 experience indicated that although the food remains good, there is much room for improvement in service and atmosphere. Unless I have a craving for their delightful dumplings, I will likely pass on returning until the grapevine starts talking about changes being made for the better.
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