We have been totally obsessed with the Xiao long bao for a while now and Phil even replaced my picture on his phone’s wallpaper with an image of the humble dumpling.
Back in the UK, we searched high and low for the perfect Xiao long bao and surprisingly found it outside of Chinatown and based in Camden, London. Naturally we would want to find the best Xiao long bao in HK and I think we’ve found it…
Shang Shang Shanghai looks like it’s another chained restaurant but I assure you that it’s not. The kitchen has glass windows so you can watch the chefs busy making all your noodles (lai mein) and buns from scratch. The restaurant itself is decorated tastefully and the service is swift and attentive; we didn’t have to wait long before we were seated.
The steamed Xiao long bao is heavenly; the wrapping is so delicate and almost transparent, and contains so much hot tasty soup whilst keeping the pork filling really juicy. We didn’t think much of the vinegar sauce which is a shame. Another thing we loved was the fried dumpling; incredibly crispy on the outside whilst maintaining the juiciest tender filling inside – just mind when you first bite into it that you don’t accidentally squirt your fellow diner with the juice!
The sweet & sour pork and fried pumpkin cake were decent enough but it’s the dumplings here that outshine the rest. We ordered so many bamboo baskets of these dumplings that we didn’t have room to try the noodles (which were present on every table) so I’m guessing that’s good too! We’ll go back for it I’m sure.
wow katie, replaced by a dumpling…..