Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao

I think this may be my only 5 star review for my whole visit to Hong Kong. I cannot recommend this eatery any higher; it is the best Xiao Long Bao restaurant in the whole of HK in my opinion, and the other dishes are just as delicious.
The restaurant has recently been refurbished, or has been since I visited a year ago. The system of the restaurant now operates better; staff move more freely around the area and there seems to be more of an order from who brings your food, tops up your Chinese tea and then takes your plates away. Also, since the refurbishment the space is used to its optimum potential, plus the décor is really pretty which is always a bonus in my book!
I would recommend (other than the Ciao Long Bao!) the steamed pork dumplings, they’re delicious, very different to the BBQ dumplings you get in most dim sum restaurants.
I will be visiting again on my next trip! And I highly recommend you go there, book a trip just to go there, I promise you won’t be disappointed!

Our second favorite Xiao long Bao place besides DTF. Their hand pulled noodles are the best. We usually order the spicy Dan Dan noodles or hand pulled beef noodles soups. Yummy. We tried many locations of this chain in HK and in Singapore .
Service is great and food is always decent every time .
This time we visited the Gateway Arcade location and We ordered Xiao Long Bao, spicy noodles soup and spicy shrimp won ton. Too much food for two people! We were two happy souls after.

A 40-​minute DukLing junk boat ride around Victoria Harbour left us famished. Not too far from Tsim Sha Tsui promenade is the Harbour City mall, where Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao is located. We stumbled upon this restaurant on accident, but I was satisfied with the food here in the end.
Given the restaurant name, you must order those two items: la mian and xiao long bao. Entering the restaurant, you pass by the large windows where chefs are preparing the la mian, pulling the long starchy noodles repeatedly at arms length — a fun ‘prequel’ for your meal.
We had our la mian in a broth with preserved shredded pork and vegetables. Overall the dish was very warming and filling. The noodles had great chewy texture, but it becomes filling very quickly. The broth preserved pork and veggies weren’t too salty either.
The XLBs were delicious here. Much to my surprise, it was four per order as opposed to the usual eight or ten. The dumpling skins were smooth and thin, yet robust enough to hold inside the juicy pork and delicious soup.
Service was quick and decent. The restaurant is very spacious and I appreciate the large booth seating and the modern, comfortable atmosphere. Now I’m interested in trying the Crystal Jade branch back home in San Francisco, but we’ll see if it’s as good as Hong Kong’s.

This place is a no-​fail option for Chinese food and a real crowd-​pleaser for out-​of-​town visitors.
What to try:
The specialty — Shanghai soup dumplings — are exquisite and well-​priced. They have the perfect flavor and thin yet strong skin. I also recommend the shrimp and vegetable fried rice, bean curd with picked vegetables and river shrimp (tiny and so sweet).
If you love crabs — don’t miss their special hairy crab menu (yes — «hairy» can be a desired trait for crabs!), available from fall to around January. The hairy crab Shanghai soup dumplings and the hairy crab roe fried rice are standouts.
Other tips:
At busy times there can be a wait, which is efficiently processed by an automatic queue machine (dispenses numbers based on party size) and a friendly hostess. The staff is incredibly efficient and friendly (somewhat unusual for Hong Kong) and are actually happy to see repeat customers. They do takeout orders as well (~20 minute wait for a small order)

After walking around for what seemed like an endless maze of shops at Harbour City, all I wanted was to find a place to sit down and enjoy a decent meal. And Crystal Jade offered just that. Delicious xiao long baos at a very reasonable price! Something about the pork meat they use makes it so darn addicting. My husband and I ordered two servings of those bad boys and we were still craving for more. Even though this is an actual sit-​down restaurant, it’s a place where you tend to order and finish your meal in 15 –20 minutes. It’s not like they intentionally rush you but it’s just how quickly the orders come and how fast customers devour their meals.

Good XLB’s but otherwise a little disappointing.
Not really a dimsum place, no carts and only a small selection of Dim Sum items on the menu.
The hand pulled noodles are nice.
The chilli wontons were terrible, they have far too much vinegar.
The décor at this location is clean and modern, but more cafeteria-​like than high end.
This has a very different feel to the palacial Crystal Jade in San Francisco.
The service is better than average for asian eateries, but not stellar.
The food is average and the prices reasonable.
The XLB’s are good, but I still prefer XLB’s and other dumplings at Din Tai Fung.

«Another great xiaolongbao for Crystal Jade»
Another visit to Crystal Jade this trip was in the Ocean City shop. This one has always been busy with a line. The mainland visitors like this brand (name has been knocked off many times there). I went alone at 4:30 to minimize the wait and got #322 while they were seating 311. Browsed the shops for a while and when I returned it was already 331. She was v nice with a chiding smile and directed me to table 45. I ordered the bao with a beer and snow lettuce fried rice.
The signature dish was excellent as always. But the rice was a little disappointing. They used to have the classic Shanghai steamed rice with little bits of the snow lettuce mixed in for under $ 30Hkd. But they made it fried and added 6 shrimp, more than tripling the price. The result was unsuccessful for me. While the shrimp was tender and good, I missed the moist rice and greater amount of veggie. The bao is always excellent with the juice sealed inside. The have this recipe down to a science.
Michelin gave the chain a star about two years ago. They deserve it and continue to earn it. They now have so much business that the IFC branch is now near impossible. Fortunately in other neighborhoods the M cache means less and there is less wait. I’ll continue to order the xiaolongbao and dandan noodles which have that al dente texture.
Note: Xiaolongbao is a small round steamed dumpling with minced pork inside. It’s full of delicious soup and the trick is to eat it without losing the soup. It is a real challenge to serve it for someone… a little easier for yourself. I think Crystal Jade improved their recipe over the years so the skin is thin but still harder to break. Suffice it to say that they have one of the best soup dumplings anywhere for years and years. This is a Hangzhou-​Shanghai dish and it has become popular, even trendy in recent years.

People have loyalties for 小籠包/​XLB – the biggest fan clubs seem to be 1) Crystal Jade 2) 鼎泰豐/​DTF 3) Paradise Dynasty or 4) an underground hole-​in-​the-​wall using some secret family recipe.
In my never-​ending XLB quest which has thus far spanned all over California and Hong Kong, Crystal Jade has come the closest to the perfect XLB – defying the laws of physics in which a delicately thin wonton skin somehow holds together a dumpling bursting with flavor, replete with succulent pork and savory broth. The filling has just the right amount of fattiness to make a tasty dumpling, yet leaving enough space in your stomach for other food.
A meal with dumplings isn’t complete without its cousin, hand-​pulled noodles. It is deliciously simple – soft noodles that taste noticeably fresh. I would recommend the vegetarian choices because the scallion is a nice complement and allows you to focus on the noodles without the distraction of other toppings.
The other dumplings and the chicken broth are good too, with consistently high quality. There’s also been some popularity lately with the colorful XLB, but in my opinion that’s more fore presentation and novelty because nothing beats the classic XLB here.
Crystal Jade is more expensive than your average meal, but well worth it especially for the overall comfy dining experience and posh ambiance (classy enough to look like a place that James Bond would visit)

My friend had a list of places to eat at, and this was on it. so we went. For Breakfast.
This is the only place in Hong Kong, we ate at twice (see other reivew for other location).
The soup was amazing. It was dried shrimp and peanut sauce. Image those bags of tiny dried shrimp in the ‘ethnic’ aisle at the super market. I’m assuming that’s what they used and that they broke down in the soup, because i never saw a single shrimp.
That said, though, it was amazing. Thick like a bisque almost, enough kick to enjoy but not scorch your mouth.
The soup dumplings were ok, I wasn’t impressed. The steamed buns were lack luster. A large cavity with a tiny dollop of meat, that was very bland. I’ve had much better stateside.
The things that were meh and ok, were still outweighed by the soup, which was amazing.
The place itself is nice, in a mall (most things are in HK it seemed), the staff spoke enough english for us to order. My friend (as he does) tried to ask questions which as usual resulted in blank stares and repeating of the last thing said.
I’d go back.

This place offers consistently good food at a reasonable price, and fast service, so I am a fan. It gets very busy during meal time, so be there early/​late or be prepared for a wait.
This place is known for its Xiao Long Bao. Definitely among the best, with thin skin, juicy broth and ample stuffing. While they don’t make a big show of it, the noodles are pulled in house and you can see it in the semi-​open kitchen. They have dan dan noodle, snow cabbage with shredded pork, chicken noodle, Shanghai stir fried noddles, and more.
Besides the dumplings and noodles, there are many appetizers and entrees to try. The drunken chicken, cold pâté, vinegar ribs, shredded eel, goji berries with fresh nagaimo, shrimp with dragon well tea leaves are all dishes I’ve tried and like. I found the fried fish a bit too dry and hard, and same goes for the duck, but otherwise, I’m pretty happy with the food. Their portions are small, so you can order quite a few dishes to share.
Do save room for desserts. The Chinese doughnut (高力豆沙) with red bean paste is pillowy soft, and the red bean pancake crispy and piping hot. Rice balls in wine soup 酒釀湯圓 is another delight to try.