Shanghai Dumpling King — Restaurant in San Francisco

SDK has a new location here in addition to the original one in the Richmond. I've been to the original location a couple times and decided to try the new one since I'm pretty close by. I was never a huge fan of SDK, and it's pretty much the same story here.

Beef Stew Noodle Soup - The broth had a good depth with various spices to highlight the flavor. I could tell that there was some ginger and cloves to give it some layers of complexity. I actually found a piece of dried shrimp in the broth, and that probably helps add some savoriness to the soup. Smart stuff. With the tasty broth, the beef brisket and tendons had good flavor as well, but some pieces could have been more tender. I was not a fan of the noodles though. They were thin like Cantonese egg noodles, but the texture and taste were really odd. The noodles had a strange soft doughiness. It wasn't springy and firm like Cantonese egg noodles or chewy like hand pulled noodles. It was just kind of soft and mushy. I really didn't like that.

XLB - The skin was nice and thin, but it didn't break apart smoothly when I bit into it. The skin had this weird elasticity that made it kind of stretch when I tried to open it up and slurp the broth. It was kind of the same issue I had with Benu's XLB, but at least these are a lot cheaper so it's much more forgivable. Inside, there's a generous amount of pork stuffing, and the broth was pretty much just pure grease. Some people might not appreciate such a heavy handed approach, but it didn't really bother me. What bothered me was the flavor of the broth and pork, which was pretty one dimensional. There wasn't much to balance out the richness and saltiness. It really lacked the aromatic spices like ginger and green onions to cut through the heaviness. The aromatics also give the broth and stuffing a bolder punch of flavor. Without those components, the XLB didn't really stand out.

Stir Fried Green Beans - I thought this was probably the best dish of the night. The green beans had a firm wrinkly exterior while the center was tender and smooth. Garlic, onions, and some fried cured meat stuff added a lot of flavor and crunchy texture to the green beans. It was well seasoned, and the stir frying added that wok hei intensity to the flavor.

Sugar Coated Chinese Doughnuts (Sah Yong) - They came completely cold and not fresh. I didn't like that the sugar was just lazily dumped on top. It should be evenly coated all around the doughnut. I told a waiter about our lackluster doughnuts, and he had some explanation and comped it for us which was a nice gesture. I still think that if the doughnuts had just been sitting there or if the cook was off, then they shouldn't serve them. In their defense, freshly made Sah Yong isn't that common around here. Even venerable Koi Palace can be inconsistent with theirs. I feel like people treat SDK like it's the only place in the city that has good Sah Yong, but I've never had a good one here or at the Richmond location. Am I missing something?

The food hasn't changed with the new location so if you're a fan of SDK, I'm sure you'll still love...

We ate here on Friday, New Years Eve. Ever since Ton Kiang closed we have been searching for another place to eat Dim Sum/dumplings in the City. We saw this place on a list somewhere and decided to try it out. We ordered the spicy dumplings, spicy shrimp and chive dumplings, pea shoots in garlic sauce, chive pancake and pot stickers. We asked the nice waiter if we were missing anything good and he suggested the Shanghai dumplings and the steamed pork buns, which we added. Let me tell you, everything was AMAZING! The spicy dumplings came with different sauces, one with peanut and the other a thinner soy based sauce. Both were great, not super spicy but really good! The Shanghai dumplings were wonderful, savory and a little bit sweet. The potstickers and pork buns were really flavorful and good. The pea shoots were delicious. The chive pancake, while very good, was the weakest part of the meal (though was still devoured). Other than a light vinegar sauce that was brought out to the table nothing that wasn’t sauced in the kitchen came with any, which was sort of lacking. But since all of the food was delicious and cooked perfectly (not dry) I didn’t miss it in the moment.

I’m already looking forward to...

I have been trying to find the perfect Chao lian GAO (which is basically Shanghai styled rice cakes). This place, was sadly, not it. I'll admit it was better than previous restaurants I have been to but the huge turn off was how saucy it was. And not in the seductive way. In my personal opinion, it was drenched in sauce. And so was anything else. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a bad review. In fact, their Xiao long bao, or dumplings were great. Fantastic. Their tofu with vegetables was... Decent. I tend NOT to eat the vegetables because... I don't like vegetables but the tofu? Again, pretended that it was a sponge and almost cleaned the plate, saving the dishwasher another wash. But one of the prasie worthy things in this restaurant was the service. Not exactly the nicest people but not the rudest. But extremely fast service. Really fast. It's like the fast food of the Chinese restaurants. So... I gave this an average pricing. Nicely done, but not...