Shanghai Shanghai

The noodles are sticky and not tasty at all. Maybe had higher expectations for them and the soup of the noodles were too salty and the vegetables were not fresh at all.
The shanghai buns were tougher in the skin and not at all up to standards. Of course incomparable to the Longs noodle house. Server was unpleasant with no expression.
If you’re hungry and in the food court there are plenty of other choices you can pick from. If you crave shanghai food then go to Longs Noodle House.

If you have legs, walk over to Parker Place, there’s a better alternative to Shanghainese food court food than this one, your pocket and taste-​buds on your tongue will thank me. even if it is pouring cats and dogs and thunder is about to strike you getting to the other place… really this place is not worth it. I was trying to find exactly where in Unilocal this place was located under… as it is no longer called Shanghai Shanghai but now Shanghai Gourmet House… in the name it is a joke as the only ‘Gourmet’ is in the quality of the signage that is hanging in this stall at the food court of Aberdeen! So how did I even end up here… my memory of this is just like yesterday. actually it was yesterday… and here’s the story:
Meeting other family members at Aberdeen food court, we came around the lunch rush of Sunday, and after fighting off the stupid crawl of parking, and finally finding a spot we ended up at the food court where they were eating already, and my brother and I decided to tour the area to figure out what we wanted, in the end we decided to knock our hunger down with some Shanghainese, a little skeptical as everywhere else was busy, and this place wasn’t, but no matter, it has been here long enough so I was finally going to have a taste of what they have been serving with my own taste buds. I let my brother be in charge of ordering, and it went like this: XLB, pan fried buns with meat (shengjianbao 生煎包), sticky rice with donut and pork fluff (ci fan) and we were also given some broths (none that I tried) and we went to look around while they were preparing our food…
After walking the nearby toy store, and wasting the waiting time away we came back and presented our number and received our trey of food and brought it to our table. I had to do a double-​take at the dead looking food on our trey, everything looked like one-​finger cooking. or close to it, urgh… this is going to be fun ingesting this stuff. At least they gave us enough utensils and napkins to eat all this stuff that was considered food.
On to the food, and looking at the XLB’s you just knew they were from a frozen bag, no matter. I’ve known places that do this trick and still have a good turn out in the finished product, these… just like the rest of the food, wasn’t even hot, luke warm. sure, like when your lazy and you didn’t add enough seconds to the microwave. Biting into these flat dumplings the first rule of thumb on any XLB is to bite a bit to release the soupy goodness… well I bit, I even decided to use the spoon to pour what was inside, a few measly drops… honestly pass this up. go buy yourself some frozen ones… I bet you maybe more successful coming closer to eating out than this. The next thing I decided, hesitantly, on trying was the pan fried buns with meat… another failure… doughy outside that was more steamed than pan fried. there was barely a fried crust on the bottom on these… and the small morsel of meat, talk about cheaping out and laying it on the customer. wow. The last piece of food… (or whatever you call it) was the real kicker. FAIL… the sticky rice with donut and pork fluff was just awful, they didn’t use sticky rice, but red rice, and it was soggy, like eating mush. the only thing holding it together was the plastic see-​through wrap, talk about needing to reduce the water, I didn’t need teeth for this. and there was barely a donut in there, as it was lost within the mushy sea of dark rice, I don’t even know if there was any pork fluff… I already lost my appetite on even trying those two bowls of murky liquid. no thank you.
Money down the drain. most definitely, if there were meals you could redo… this would be one of them… but at least I tried. and I guess trying is part of the battle, this one was lost… right away too! Should have lined up at the busier stalls, or took a walk out in the rain…

Imo, one of the best food court xiao long baos in the city! These were absolutely delicious! I actually like these alot better than Dinesty’s version! I was especially impressed being that these came from a food court stall.
The skin of the buns were extremely tender and tasted very authentic and home made. The pork filling is extremely juicy and moist. The broth encased in the xiao long bao is very flavourful as well and squirts out when you bite into it.

Ok, the wait is quite long for food court food. But the XLB (little soup filled meat buns/​dumplings) was pretty tasty. We have had Shanghai Shanghai almost every trip to Vancouver. Here is the thing, when I go to Vancouver, I have a list of restaurants I want to try. And I always make a point to have XLB somewhere. Well, it’s hard to walk into a restaurant and JUST order a XLB and then walk out. And it’s not something you can just bag it and take it home to eat (cause it won’t be good).
So when I have a list of restaurants and know that I must have XLB somewhere, Shanghai Shanghai is where I go … cause it’s in a food court and pretty darn decent XLB. I can get an order of it and still have the tummy space to go to an actual restaurant. So is it the best XLB I’ve ever had? Course not. But it does satisfy the craving.

Don’t go here is this place.
Too bad I can’t leave no stars.
Very bad customer service and very bad people skills.
I ordered one item and she over charged me and when I asked why she had over charged me so much for one item she the counter person lied to my face said I had ordered two items.
Why argue just give back my money that you over charged me.
No more going to this place.
There are other places that are better.

Disclaimer: This review reflects their Shanghai pork dumplings only.
I’ll admit, in a mall like Aberdeen where you’re surrounded by so many delicious food options, picking just one place to eat at is no easy feat! In spite of this, I can safely say that Shanghai Shanghai is among my favourites for a quick and satisfying bite.
It’s hard to find a place that makes Shanghai-​style pork dumplings that are good enough to have your return for more, but this place has be consistently successful and doing just that. I’m in love their dumplings and will always have to place a minimum of two orders (don’t judge me, please!). Cost is cheap, and the dumplings are piping hot and bursting with flavour with every bite. Yummy!
Waiting in line is a bit of a pain, but at least I know I’m getting my food fresh!

Oh how the mighty have fallen…
This used to be a decent place for XLB’s in Richmond. Couldn’t quite compare to staples like Cheng’s or Shanghai River, but it had two things going for it: you didn’t have eat a whole sit-​down meal for the juicy little suckers, and they were freshly made and arrived pipping hot. They used to make them out right behind the glass counter to order. And this was all done out of a food court stall in Aberdeen. Respect.
Cue to my recent disappointing visit. Shanghai Shanghai now has a new facelift, complete with pictures and a broader selection. The quality of the food, sadly, has suffered as a consequence. My XLB’s were half the size, thick-​skinned, and had that artificial, premade taste to them.
It’s a sad day for authentic handmade dumplings.

I agree fully with Jespeter and Edward
This is a solid 3 star for a foodcourt– possibly the JUICIEST /​SOUPIEST XLB (xiaolongbao) I’ve had. They aren’t that much cheaper than if you went to a restaurant but if you just want some XLB NOW– it ain’t bad.
IT is steamed fresh and it will come on styrofoam with the paper sheet from the steamer– definitely not the pretty bamboo steamer tray we would like to see but it WAS fresh.
There was something off about these though. The pork was just pork. No texture, very smooth– no gristle but no chives or green onion. Good XLB needs to have minced pork with at least green onion or chives. there needs to be some texture– these ones were just really smooth pork.
Another thing was the wrapper tasted just kind of… gummy. I dunno, the skin was very thin– taiwanese style– and it didn’t burst as you were eating it! but it was missing some sort of flavouring.
The broth inside was good.
hmm​.in fact the more I talk about the XLB the more I kind of want to drop this place to 2 star. i think what is cool is that it is a foodcourt and they had passable XLB.
ok fine.2.5 stars :)
*note that the vinegar they give you doesn’t have ginger. poo.

I don’t think myself a mean person… Yea, the line up is slow, I was so tempted to poke the person in front of me so they can leave from frustration. The waiting is slow, I doubt what they’re cooking behind the door and food window is food made totally from scratch. Food in Richmond can be dodgy, I’m speaking from lots of experiences. And it’s not like a styrofoam box nor plate makes it ever more homy, far from touching anywhere close to my heart. But it’s food court food. I’ll play nice.
Converted from a friend of mine, I didn’t think I’d come to find a specialty food in the midst of the cheap neon lights of the food court. They have the tastiest and juiciest Xiao Long Bao I have ever came across in MY LIFE. But when I ordered the other things in their menu, I was thoroughly disappointed (too much salt is bad for you~~) So I guess I’ll just stick to the little pork buns until I am proven wrong otherwise. (Tough luck.)

Another place in Aberdeen with a semi-​decent line-​up. Every Asian out there knows. if there’s a line-​up, you join the lineup too. Just because.
Parking is available in the nearby lot. Might have to fight the occasional Asian mom and her Lexus SUV to get a good spot though. Just sayin’.
The lineup here was pretty slow. It was about 10 minutes before we got our food.
The XLB (xiao long bao) is always the benchmark to judge the quality of a Shanghai joint. They were filled with a decent amount of delicious soup, and the meat was fine too. However, there was something off about the skin. It was a bit thicker and harder (not brittle but follow my drift), than say Chen’s, Moutai, or Shanghai River. In other words, they weren’t fresh, and probably came here frozen. The ones in Shanghai also taste better, but of course this isn’t a fair judgement. Again, just sayin’.
Actually the real (more legit) reason I gave this place 3 stars was their beef noodle soup. The beef and soup were fine, but their noodles were clumped together like wet hair. Not sure if they skimped on the flour while making it or something, but this was a bit of a nasty surprise. I’m wondering if the long wait during ordering had something to do with this happening. Hopefully you’ll have better quality noodles when you go.
The food is decent if Shanghai-​style is your thing, but if you are up for another type of food, there are other options in this food court.

Shanghai Shanghai is located inside the Aberdeen Centre food court. They have really yummy rice cakes (flat but thick rice noodles shaped in an oval). sauteed with meat and cabbage and bok choy. Pair that with some sweet and spicy tofu and you’re in salty heaven!
One thing though, they are S_​L_​O_​W, and when you’re hungry it feels like a million years before you get your food. However, I highly recommend getting a combo (from A and 1 from B). It’s only $ 7.50 and it lasts you for another meal.