Shanghai River 滬江海派料理

I went out to Shanghai River this past weekend for lunch with the in-laws to celebrate my brother-in-law's first job and paycheck. This restaurant is on my list of regular places to go eat and I've been going for the last 7 years. Besides a noticeable decline in XLB (小籠包 - (xiaolongbao) or soupy pork dumplings) quality several years ago when supposedly the master chef left the restaurant, the overall food quality has been pretty consistent over the years.

On this particular visit, we ordered quite a few dishes including the popular Shanghai Thick Fried Noodles. For some reason, the noodles were completely unseasoned. We sent the dish back and it was returned to our table with some extra grease, but it tasted completely unchanged! Rather than cause a scene, we packed it to go and salted it later ourselves.

Despite that one problem, all the other dishes were very good as usual. We ordered XLBs, green onion pancakes (one of my favorites), salty soy milk, Chinese doughnuts, sticky rice stuffed with pork floss and Chinese doughnut, a wonton soup, some spicy beef noodles, and gyozas. I love the green onion pancake at Shanghai River because it's thick and fluffy. I haven't been to any other restaurant that makes it this way. It's usually thin and very firmly packed together, making it harder to chew as it cools down.

I will continue to revisit the restaurant as overall it is still one of the best Shanghai places to go in the Lower Mainland.

Summary
Food: Very good. Their XLBs are still good and the green onion pancake is exceptional.

Service: Good. There are many servers around and they are quick to respond. They may not have the best attitude all the time, but overall it's good.

Setting: Good. Easy parking (always one of my top considerations) and the dining room is large, well-lit, and very clean. It can get loud though...

Value: Good. The food is a bit on the pricey side, but your money goes towards everything: food, service, and the establishment.