Shanghai House Restaurant — Restaurant in San Francisco

A hole in the wall family owned restaurant in the Richmond District. We LOVE the owners to death as she and her husband are just so wonderful! We've been coming here for quite some time and last few times we visited, their kids were there to help out - how cute is that!

Their Shanghai dumplings are a must as it's made fresh every day unlike other places that are pre-made then frozen or it just sits in the steamer all day. We're also a huge fan of their pig knuckle, combo noodle soup, onion pancake, spicy fried chicken and rice cake stir fries. The list really goes on and on as they really have some awesome food! In addition, alot of their items are extremely healthy and light so you never feel like you just digested a pound of lard with all that oil and grease that other similar places might cook their food in.

One thing that must be pointed out though.. the place is extremely small (hence the hole in the wall concept) and because it's family owned and operated, the food can come slow as the wife handles the dining area while the hubby does all the cooking. They have 2 helpers that helps in the kitchen but there's only like 2-3 stove tops (you can see this every time you need to go upstairs to their restroom) but in all honesty, the wait is totally worth...

TLDR: Best xiao long bao in the city, everything else sucks.

Best xiao long bao (shanghainese soup dumplings) in the Sunset/Richmond area, and probably best in the city. I know because my recent crazy obsession over XLBs prompted me to hunt them down and try them everywhere I can find.

Unfortunately, everything else at Shanghai House is lackluster in comparison to other chinese restaurants. Most dishes comes with an unnecessary half plate of oil. -Dry fried chicken wings were okay, nice try (so hard) drenched in too much sugary glaze goo; I prefer San Tung's better dried wings -Jellyfish, don't get it here if you're typically a fan; this is supposed to be a cold refreshing appetizer but the one here is weirdly warm and also super greasy -Spicy combination beef (fu qi fei pian) isn't spicy or flavorful enough -Hand-pulled noodles, generically bland huge pile of carbs

Cash only. Nothing else besides the XLB was memorable except the owner lady (I think) behind the counter looks intimidating and reminds me of the Landlady of Pig Sty Alley from...

I usually order their dry fried chicken wing, XLB, and pan fried dumplings. A little disappointed of the wings and XLB this time. The batter of the wings is too hard, and size is smaller not much meat, sauces is still amazing (Tate's like sweet honey with ginger). XLB skin is too saggy this time, seems like it is over cooked and the meat portion is smaller than it used to be. Pan fried dumpling is juicy inside with thin and crispy skin. Recommend!

Saw other people order their beef ball clay pot, pork feet, shrimp, smoked duck, and some noodle dishes...Those all looks good. I may try them next time.

The restaurant is small with about 10 small tables. Only one server, and seems like only 2-3 people working in the kitchen.

We came here on Sunday 5:10pm, the restaurant is already full, and we were lucky to be seated at the last open table. Waited about 30min for the food. They had many to go orders too.

Not sure if the air conditioning is broken in the kitchen, the restaurant got very smoky, and my clothes and hair all smells oily after...