Ji-Nan Xian Xiao Long Bao — Restaurant in Da'an District

I thought I’d give this place a try since I always go to Din Tai Fung, but I was really disappointed. The restaurant didn’t have good ventilation, I smelled like an oily dumpling after a quick 15-minute meal, and there’s no tea either only plain water. The reason I could even finish my meal so quickly is because they put fried pork chop under the fried rice category, so I go ahead and ordered that and only a side dish (雪菜百頁, this is not baiye either, it’s just single-layered doupi). I was shocked when I saw the pork chop without rice, yet the answer from the waiter was even more unbelievable when I asked about the rice, he deliberately laughed and said “can’t you see that from the price”, WOW, and they charge a 10% for service? Plus their menu is way too expensive with that quality of food. This restaurant seemed to be very proud that they get a lot of Japanese customers, tbh I’d never recommend this place to any of my friends unless...

Just to preface, we were here in Feb 2023, and returned now in Dec 2023. It is now remodeled and modern looking. However, that may be the best I can say about this place. It is no longer the same restaurant and I will not return.

Food- XLB was reasonably good but now at DTF prices. Other food and dishes ordered were just OK- many favorite dishes are not available (darkened on QR coded menu) Overall food 3 stars, with value considered - not worth the prices. (2stars)

Service- lacking. Servers stood around and forget to bring out dishes or rice. Just generally don’t seem enthusiastic. Adding insult to injury, an automatic 10% service charge is applied.

Atmosphere- clean and new. Modern feel. No complaints there, but I missed the traditional Chinese decorations...

The service and waiting queue needs a lot of work. They just gave us a number, but there's no beeper or other system, and insufficient seats outside for waiting. The waiter taking our order repeatedly gets interrupted and even went to serve the table behind us while in middle of taking our order.

This garbage service makes their food not even worth eating, even if their food is good. And it is NOT good. Ding Tai Fung xiao long baos are definitely better. The ones here were underseasoned - way under salted. And their other food was bland. The fish dumplings were too fishy as well.

And by the way, the prices are EXPENSIVE, and we are not in any sort of nice environment. We were seated in the cold...