Jin Jiang Shanghai Restaurant — Restaurant in Burnaby

We came for lunch on a weekend. Not a lot of people when we arrived but afterwards people started piling in after 11:30.

We ordered the drunken chicken, fried pork buns, steamed pork buns, Dan Dan noodles, stir fried Shanghai rice cakes with veggies and deep fried sweet and sour fish.

The drunken chicken tasted pretty strong of alcohol but the chicken lacked chicken flavour. It was very bland. Very smooth and soft but very bland.

The fried pork bun were okay. Not as good as the ones you find st crystal mall. There was a lot of soup, skin wasn't too thick but the meat was too tough. The soup was very sweet but tasted a bit too much like msg.

The steamed pork buns had the same soup as the fried pork bun soup and the same meat as well. The skin broke too easily on these

The Dan Dan noodles were probably one of the most underwhelming Dan Dan noodles I've had. There was very little peanut flavour. The sauce was way too watery and soupy. There was very little noodle. Definitely avoid this dish

The stir fried Shanghai rice cakes with veggies were VERY SALTY. the rice cakes were over cooked not much chew left. There also wasn't enough of the veggies. Definitely avoid this dish.

Deep fried sweet and sour fish was another disappointing dish. Fried till not crispy but almost hard. The sauce didn't have enough ketchupy sweet flavour but instead it was more on the sour side. The fish itself had a very strong seafoody taste (in a bad way). Avoid this dish

Overall way more misses than hits. Unfortunately because there aren't many Shanghai options in this area, this restaurant is one of your only options. The food portions are small but their prices are also lower than others. Flavours across the board were not very good. Wouldn't...

The first time I visited Jin Jiang was back in 2014. It's somewhat hidden in the Best Western location on Kingsway and has a strange interior layout.

Back then, their xiao long baos were under $5. Now, their steamed Shanghai dumplings are almost double the price ($9.68). But I do admit that they are better than I remember them to be. Filling is fairly juicy. Note that I've had them a couple of times over the last few weeks and found the filling to be different on different occasions. Sometimes being more meaty than other times.

As a Shanghai restaurant, their dim sum offering is a bit limited compared to a Cantonese restaurant.

We ordered their turnip cakes ($9.68) which were round cakes filled with shredded radish (we kind of ordered this thinking it was like the Cantonese lo bak go but this is much drier in consistency like a pastry).

The fried shredded buns ($5.98) is a classic served with condensed milk for dipping. I know this more as silver thread buns (which can be either steamed or fried) due to the fluffy interior of the bun.

The pan fried pork buns are basically the like the steamed pork buns but wrapped up like a soft bao and then pan fried for a crispy bottom. The bottoms were super crispy and the filling was still soupy.

We also ordered the deep fried thick noodles with shredded pork ($18.98). Contrary to the English menu name, the noodles really aren't thick. I wish their menu names were more descriptive.

Update - March 2025: Been about 7 months since our last visit. Love the silver thread buns here (either fried or simply steamed). The xlb are still pretty good. Also had a fried fish dish recently which was interesting but wish they would have given a different sauce other...

Initial impression was alright until...

Shortly after placing order, a waiter brought a dish to our table and immediately left BUT we didn't order this dish. It was at 13:39 hour & the place was not busy. Upon waiting for 5 minutes & no server in sight, one of us had to get up to flag down a server to come to our table and pointed out to her that the wrong dish was brought to our table. Without apology or thank you, she just took the dish and brought to another table down the hall.

The self-claimed famous and specialty deep fried Chinese doughnut was terribly executed - hard and dry for $2.98 each.

The stir fry Shanghai noodles were greasy and only had 5 thin, julienned pork for $12.98.

Pan fried pork buns- $6.58 for 5 pieces. Pork fillings were very little; sauce was greasy due to high fat content; the top of buns were very thick and doughy.

Spicy beef noodle in soup $7.98. Both beef & broth lacked flavor. Noodles were not al dante at all.

The worst part was to pay the bill. The cashier told us that the restaurant would not accept credit cards payments unless it was over $50. I questioned her that there were no signs anywhere inside or outside of the restaurant (Not even on the menu) stipulating this requirement. She then said never mind but demanded me to pay with debit card which I didn't have. Eventually, she still accepted my Visa payment reluctantly.

Definitely will not come back. Certainly will report to VISA CARD & MASTER CARD about this restaurant's practice so that they will be blacklisted and lose its ability to obtain...