Shanghai Morning Restaurant

Alexandra Street is known as the «eating street» to the Chinese in Richmond. If you are coming from downtown, as I was, you might be in a funk over how unattractive this area is. Keep your chin up and your eyes on the prize. For crammed into three long blocks comprised of ugly strip cement malls are hundreds of restaurants, and cafes, some being the finest Asian eateries in Vancouver. Many of these don’t post menus on the windows. Maybe they consider it vulgar or maybe the China expats have too much money to care. I had to exit a Vietnamese restaurant because they had no non meat options. Stroll around, and prepared to indulge your stomach. Evenings, you will see groups of young Asians walking around, heading to their choice of eats. Why make dinner, when you have such an amazing selection at reasonable prices to choose from?
Shanghai Morning was packed when I went in. I was tired after walking for 8 hours and definitely ready to eat. The food here is great. After spying the portions here, I decided to order just one dish, the Braised fish in Wine Sauce. The fish was fresh, and so tender in its delicate wine sauce and paired nicely with the Chinese black fungus, with a slight bitter taste that I thought maybe came from the wine. There was none of that oil you find at the bottom of your plate when you order from many NYC Chinese places. This is Vancouver Chinese, light, properly cooked and well seasoned. There is no excess of salt or grease. Prices are reasonable, especially given the size of the entrees. The portion as, I expected, would have been enough for two. I devoured it all in its delicious entirety, my only regret that I was so stuffed I could sample anything else there or at any other restaurant that night.
Service here was perfunctory. They also seemed to speak mostly Chinese and wowed me by understanding my broken Cantonese. Pointing to anything on the menu is an option if the waitress doesn’t understand you. They were packed so they hesitated to give me the sole remaining table that would have seated four, then gave in. Vancouver’s Chinese restaurants, I noticed, don’t put strangers at your table if you have empty seats, even when packed. They waited politely until I finished every bite of my scrumptious meal, not rushing me out so they could fill the table. Décor won’t thrill you, as its not an upscale place but it was no dive and it was clean. Service here isn’t the warmest, but they are efficient and professional. Had I been with my friend, we would have ordered more and sampled. The food here is definitely very good and from what I saw and tasted, authentic Chinese.

There are so many Shanghai food restaurant around Richmond. How to make this one difference than others are the food and the service. The food is outstanding and tasteful. The service is great. We tried various dishes and none of them disappointed us. We especially liked the drunken chicken and pig feet. The XiaLonBao was great and juicy.

The best xiao long bao in town or even in north america! I have tried xiao long bao at a lot restaurants in Vancouver and San Francisco, I have to say this is the best one! The food is reasonably priced and very delicious!
¹²⁄₁₀ would recommend to my friends and come back

My fiancé and I came here to fill our tummies with some dumplings with the cold weather making our cravings grow stronger by the minute. But sadly.
Dumplings here were a bit of a disappointment– the meat inside was bland in taste. Although there was a good amount of soup in each dumpling, it’d be even better if there was more flavor involved.
We ordered other dishes to eat with the dumplings and surprisingly they all turned out to be pretty good. It pretty much made us forgive for the bland dumplings; makings us realize this place doesn’t specialize what we originally sought to eat, and that’s ok because their other dishes made up for it. For memory purposes’ sake, I’ll just keep a note of that here. ;)

Pan-​Fried Dumplings! The BEST ever! Met some friends here on the way to Whistler. This place was recommended to me by a friend and it did not disappoint. Ordered the juicy dumplings, sticky rice, wonton in chili sauce, green onion pancake and beef roll. All 6 of us were well fed and had leftovers to take with us.

Service was good ⁴⁄₅ ambiance ⁴⁄₅ food ⁴⁄₅. Would come back. I ordered spicy tripe which is a must bok choy with bamboo shoots, xiao long bao which is a must!!! And fried rice.

I love Shanghainese food, heck I went to Shanghai to eat food… multiple times. What I think a lot of people don’t know is that what we know as Shanghainese food is actually a lot of food from Suzhou (a city near Shanghai). Fun fact of the day.
Anyways, I understand that Shanghainese food entails a lot of oil and sugar, but this place absolutely overdoes it. All their food is dripping in oil and really really hard to eat. Especially for someone who eats healthy-​ish most of the time, my stomach was really upset after this meal.
The true test of how good a Shanghainese restaurant is their Xiao Long Bao (dumplings with soup). Theirs did not pass the test. They were flimsy and almost half of them broke even with meticulous chopsticking (that’s a word right?).
Their hot and sour soup and shanghai noodles were pretty bad… they were super greasy and lacked flavor. The hot and sour soup was neither hot or soup, it was bland. Also there was not a lot of things in the soup, it was pretty disappointing. The Shanghai Noodles were also a greaseball that were bland. This one is hard to mess up… Also had their vegetables with garlic and it was so oily we couldn’t finish the dish. I know that most places with put oil to make their veggies nice and shiny and green and what not, but it was totally overdone to the point where it was slimy.
Service was alright, the staffs were pretty unhelpful, but they got the job done. There is a lot of parking, the ambiance is normal for a Chinese place. Would not come back here given that there are so many options out there.

Came here with the family and really enjoyed both the food and the service! Focusing on the classic shanghainese dim sum like xlb and a plethora of noodle choices, the menu was both expansive and reasonably priced! We ordered the shanghai wontons with chicken as well which came in a large bowl with half a chicken inside and at least 10 – 12 shanghai wontons! Although the skin was a bit thicker than I prefer but the filling was delicious! Also, the tea smoked duck was great, not being too salty and the xiao long bao was filled with juice (again with skin a tad thick). Lastly, we got the fried rice with pork and bok choy that came in a cute little wooden bucket and was very flavourful!
Definitely recommended for a great Shanghainese meal in Richmond! :)

A cool place for a quick lunch in Richmond!
We had some dumplings and noodles. It was fairly cheap and delicious! The food was great!
We were impressed by the fast service and the tasty yet well priced food! The only big thing for me was that it did not accept credit cards and the place isn’t much to look at.

Management has changed and the quality of food has gone down significantly. Last time I was here, I was super disappointed. The staff are rude. Not to mention the place is not sanitary. Its pretty disgusting. Order a bunch of noodles and if you order more than $ 35 you get a free xiao lung bao. This place is very cheap on meat.
What was worse is that after eating my dad got sick. He had diarrhea. I wasn’t feeling well either.
Definitely not coming back. So disgusted with the service and the food. As well, when I told a friend about this incident. My friend mentioned to me he saw a cockroach in this restaurant once. But I have to say the food is cheap that is for sure. But cheap food doesn’t mean its edible food.

* A little care goes a long way *
I had been hearing a lot about Shanghai Morning, and finally got around to trying it out.
Upon arriving it was clear that the server was on top of things, as they offered a seat remarkably quickly for a restaurant in Richmond. Wasn’t hard to get tea, menu, or server at all. So it felt like they cared (or wanted to rush people through quickly to get another table seated!).
Tried out two staple Shanghainese dishes. The rice cakes ($ 9.95) and xiao long bao ($ 4.95).
Service was very quick, and the items arrived almost too quickly. In fact, perhaps the kitchen should have spent a little more time and care in folding the xiao long bao. They were sloppily folded, and thrown into the steamer in such a way that they got steamed together. This made it absolutely impossible to take them out without them sticking to each other and ripping. Boo. The skins were varied in thickness so in some parts they broke too easily and in other parts they were clumpy. The meat and soup were packed with flavour and of good consistency. The broth was on the lighter side, but extremely flavourful. If they had just put a little more care into the folding and placement into the steamer these could have been really good. Photos:
and
The rice cakes were stir fried with juicy pieces of pork and some greens. The ingredients were all cooked to the right level. But a little more care could have been helpful in building the sauce — it was overly salty. Not just slightly. As if they grabbed a handful when they should have grabbed a pinch. I could easily picture the chef picking up the salt and soy sauce with the ladle and just sloppily taking too much randomly. Truly a shame, because everything was cooked to perfect doneness. Photo:
So I’m left thinking that this place has potential as it shows signs of greatness, but perhaps I was there on a bad day where they just didn’t care much. A little more care would go a VERY long way.

My date wanted to eat some dumplings so we ended up at this restaurant thanks to Unilocal.We were seated right away and given a menu. The order form was in Chinese so we asked if there was an English version and there was! I am happy to see restaurants making an effort to provide an English ordering form for the non Chinese literate crowd.
We ordered hot and sour noodle soup, xiao long bao and crab xiao long bao. Everything was tasty! The hot and sour soup was standard and as expected. The xiao long bao was super juicy, the wrapper was thin and overall well-​made. The dumplings did not fall apart. The crab xiao long bao was made to order and was the last item to arrive. Again, wrapper was thin but remained intact when separated from neighbouring dumpling. The juice was infused with crab flavour. The filling was a mix of pork and crab meat. The only downside was that I bit hard onto a piece of crab leg shell that was missed by staff making the dumplings. As tasty as those dumplings are, I don’t plan to order them again and risk a sore tooth.
Service was good. Staff came around to refill tea and clear plates regularly. Washroom was very clean as well.

For delicious and authentic Shanghainese food that won’t break the bank, you’ve got to try Shanghai Morning. A relatively small restaurant, they’ve got a full menu with a little bit of everything to suit your mood. From small dim sum-​like dishes to larger bowls of noodles/​soup and full-​on dinner entrees, they do it all well. This is now my go-​to Shanghainese place for lunch in Richmond.
For one, the Xiao Long Baos (小笼包) are excellent. Juicy and full of flavor, but delicate enough to preserve the ratio of skin to meat and soup, they are top notch here. I also loved the price: 6 XLBs for $ 4.95 or you can get them free if you spend $ 20 for lunch or $ 40 for dinner (non-​weekend). That is just spectacular value for their signature dish — I get them every time I come.
I also want to give a shout-​out to their soups, in particular the Preserved Vegetable Fish Slice Soup (雪菜鱼片汤面, $ 7.50). I loved the freshness of the fish, the eminent «slurpiness» of the noodles, and the saltiness of the preserved vegetables. They seem to do lots well beyond XLBs, and I feel like something new always catches my eye on the menu.
Logistically, the parking lot is a bit tight (where isn’t it in Richmond?) and it’s cash only. But other than that you can’t really get much better food-​wise or price-​wise. Some dishes might not suit your taste (I didn’t love the chive dumpling or the beef roll), but you’re sure to find something here you like to go with your XLBs.
Shanghai Morning: come for the Xiao Long Baos, stay for the variety.

We came here for lunch because of the good Unilocal reviews and was not disapppointed. The Xiao Long Bao (XLB) were wonderful, although I personally prefer a slightly thinner skin. They were free for lunch when you order more than $ 20 (weekdays only except for holidays). They have a similar free XLB promo for weeknights but you have to spend more than $ 40 which shouldn’t be a problem if you have more than 2 people. The rice stuffed dumplings were flavourful with a little bit of meat to enhance the taste. We also had the rice cakes with pork chop and the sauce was delicious. The rice cake could have been a little softer but no big complaints there.
The service was good as it wasn’t too busy during lunch time on a weekday. Parking was hard to find but I was able to find a spot after circling the on-​site parking lot. By the time we finished lunch there were a lot of open parking spaces. If I were from the area, I probably would visit this restaurant again.

One of the best places for XLB or siu long bao. I hear people like Shanghai River better, but it is quite comparable. This is a medium sized modernish chinese diner. Like many of the good places, it’s CASH only.
* Siu Long Bao (Chinese Soup Dumplings) — Not the thinnest, but pretty thin skin, and excellent juicy flavorful pork. It’s also only $ 5 for 6 of them.
* Sheng Jian Bao (Pan Fried Buns) — Thicker pan fried cousins of siu long bao. They get an excellent fried bottom on these while keeping it juicy.

Good good, good price
This is one of my friend’s go-​to lunch spot, so I thought I’d try it with him:) very impressed with the speedy service, and the cheap yet tasty food. This place would have gotten 5 stars from me if it accepted credit card and had nicer decoration:) overall, this place gets a thumb up!

The one thing that stuck out to me while dining at this fine establishment was the explosive flavour of their Xiao Long Bao (XLB). It literally satisfied my craving for those juicy broth filled morsels wrapped in perfectly thin dumpling wrappers. Food-​gasm best describes this experience.
Also, I didn’t know this at the time but apparently if you order 40 dollars worth of food (along with a XLB dish) you get a free order of the XLB with your meal! Though 40 dollars is a lot of food!
Important note: cash only, and the beef rolls are just as amazing.

Most important part: xiao long bao is Shanghainese grandparent approved.
Now that that’s out of the way:
I love Vancouver. It’s a wonderful city full of delicious food. This place was right across the hotel I usually stay at, and I’ve been to it twice, so here goes a rundown of all the things I had:
Xiao Long Bao is nice and juicy, great texture, thin yet structurally sound wrapping. Kao Fu is very juicy and flavorful, provides a good taste counterbalance for all the other stuff, with a good portion size as well. Sheng Jian Bao (pan fried buns) on the other hand were lackluster, the bottom was a bit crumbly and the top insufficiently fried, also tends to be just a bit too big. Nuo Mi Ci (fried sticky rice cake) was somewhat tasteless. Siu Mai was decent tasting. Beef rolls were great. Red bean buns were solid. Wuxi ribs were extremely tender and have great sauce, but it seems as though they just slow-​cooked the ribs and then drizzled the sauce on, as the flavor didnt make it into the meat.
But really the xiao long bao is the important stuff and I’m sure what most of the people that read these reviews care about, so yes, 5 stars based on that. Also, the last time I went there you get a free order of xiao long bao as long as you order over $ 45 (I think; it was a couple months ago and I’m working through my reviews backlog so I don’t remember the specific amount, but it was somewhere around that) worth of food.

First time I came here was later at night with my Chongqing connection gal pals and we ordered up the spicy dishes! With the exception of some weird guy staring at us all night, we felt the food was good enough for an A-​OK.
Which in my books for a place in Richmond, is darn good.
Second time I came here was with my brother and we both had just as good a dining experience. No weird Asian Gansgter with googly eyes this time. Comfort rating went up to a 4 start
Third time was with Co-​workers at lunch. Ordered a bunch of dumplings and tried to budget what we would spend this time. Creatively found good food that we could all eat under $ 10 each and left with full stomachs and a satisfied appetite. Co-​worker #1 said it was ok. While other Co-​worker #2 said it was not so good, one dish was a bit salty. Overall? 3 out of 5 between us all.
I’ve been here a few more times since but have to say that it was decent food. Another Unilocaler friend voted it good eats as well.
Come try, see the other side of the morning in the afternoon or night.

We came here with friends for our final dinner before heading back to the ATL. All I really remember was the XLB– solid, juicy, slight sweetness to soup, great wrap texture. Everything else we ordered was good as well… but it’s been a few months since we were there…
Oh Vancouver… why couldn’t I just replicate all your great restaurants and plant exact replicas here where I live???