Shanghai Asian Manor
“Highly recommend this restaurant for anyone craving soup dumplings aka Xiao Long Bao.”
“These scallion pancakes are a lot thicker and darker than what I am used to, but equally good and not as greasy.”
“I hesitate to say this because it's a really bold statement but Shanghai Asian Manor's crab/pork XLB may be the best XLB I've ever had.”
Shanghai Asian Manor
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
PokéStop Nearby: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
Rate and write a review Cancel reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Definitely the best XLB in Chinatown. I was a little skeptical that I was walking into an overrated tourist trap but the XLB lived up to the hype – the dough wrapper, filling, and soup were all on point and very authentic.
Plenty of seating for both large and small dining parties, with downstairs space too. There is typically a sizable wait during the dinnertime rush (even when I went on a random weekday) but the tables do turn over fairly quickly.
Service is a little faster and more attentive than standard Chinatown service, and the hostess is very friendly. Bill came to about $25 for 2 orders of bao and garlic eggplant with chicken. Would come back again for the XLB!
As good a soup dumpling as any other, perhaps a step above….
Beware this places gets packed quickly but if you come right during opening time, there should be no wait.
#Pork: classic, very thin dough yet packed with soup.
#Crab: notably very crabby, they don't skimp on the crab.
#Truffle: unique, for a premium you get strong, earthy truffle flavor, and like the crab dumplings, they don't skimp on the flavor…..extra truffly
Bonus must tries:
#Scallion pancakes: some of the best scallion pancakes: why? well super duper crispy yet not that oily tasting and packed with flavor. My big pet peeve (Joe Shanghai) is doughy scallion pancake.
#Spicy wontons: this was quite the delight. mild spicy flavor with topped with sweet brown paste and a good amount of wontons. I'd get this every time.
OVERALL: as good as any soup dumpling i've had.
This place has gone down hill since I have been coming. At first, it was a great value and service and the food were great. However, I've realized prices are pretty steep like $16 for sweet and sour chicken and price comes close to $30 for two people for two entrees. This place also has a B as a health rating which is not good. I ordered take out and they forgot my soup that I paid for and they did not refund me (they just told me to come back next time to get a refund or walk all the way back there for a cash refund). Not planning to come back as much
Shanghai Asian Manor exists within the shell that used to hold one of my old favorite dim sum places back in the 80s and 90s. Now, it's full of hustling tourists looking for soup dumplings, giant photos of its food, and bright lights. But, enough sentiment.
The food was good – not as great as we hoped. We had the pork and crab dumplings, the spicy dumplings and even went for the truffle dumplings. The pork and crab were, by far, the better of the three. We also ordered the watercress with enoki which came pretty thick (full of cornstarch) and on the sweeter side (we fixed it with the tableside chili sauce), the fried squid (which was very thick and extra chewy), and the porkchop noodles (which we didn't even go half way with).
The service seemed like it should have been fast but was actually pretty spotty. Cordial but not efficient. Everyone seems to be in such a rush to do something but no one wants to give us menus or give us our check.
After picking up our marriage license at the City Clerk's Office, the WIFE and I needed to fill our bellies, so, when in Chinatown…
Shanghai Asian Manor, as mentioned elsewhere, is a really nice gateway bridging more familiar, English-friendly dim sum houses and the ramshackle, health-grade-obscured jointts you can find in some of the hamlets of Sunset Park, Flushing, and Manhattan.
The one thing you can depend on here is legit Shanghainese cuisine: seafood, buns, and dumplings. We came at a weird hour between late lunch and early dinner and the staff looked exhausted. Nevertheless, we flagged them down to order up some scallion pancakes, Shanghai lo-mein with mixed meat and shrimp, and an order of absolutely transcendent black truffle oil soup dumplings. My wife had the cold noodles with sesame sauce.
All the food was great, but it must be said that the truffle oil soup dumplings were perfection itself. Soup dumpling brother is already rich and oily on the tongue but this was something else entirely. I could poke and sip those all day, with or without the shell.
Highly recommend.
I liked the soup dumplings here a lot. My current soup dumplings champion is Shanghai Cafe, and I think that still stands, but the soup dumplings here were pretty similar in terms of quality. Where Shanghai Cafe has a slight advantage is in price and quantity — an order of soup dumplings is a dollar cheaper, and you get two more (8 vs 6). That's not such an enormous difference (they're closer to each other than either is to Joe's Shanghai, for example), but it's a solid tiebreaker for me.
Decided to try a new spot for soup dumplings for lunch. Came in at 12:45 to a packed house. The restaurant is small, and doesn't accommodate for too many customers. Being just a table of one, multiple parties were seated in front of me. I sat down and immediately ordered the crab soup dumplings and the pork dumplings. Serving staff appeared to be irritated throughout lunch time, and the food took a bit of time before coming out. Dumplings came out fresh and piping hot. The filing was a bit too sweet for my taste, but still flavorful and juicy nonetheless. In comparison to other places in the area who also serve soup dumplings, Shanghai has definitely come up with their own distinct recipe. Plenty of filling on the inside.
I usually go to Shanghai Cafe, but decided to try it out here because of the higher Yelp rating. The interior is definitely better than Shanghai Cafe. It's clean, spacious, and bright. The service was great.
As for the food..honestly nothing to rave about. Their soup dumplings looked nice, the skin was not too thick or thin which is good, but the flavor tasted a bit..off. I definitely did not like it. I also usually drink the soup after the soup dumplings, but I my body was rejecting it after the first one. I also had the Shanghai Beef Lo Mein, looked great when it came, wasn't super too oily, but seriously lacked in taste and flavor. The only real good dish I enjoyed was the Scallion Pancake. It was not too thin or thick, crunchy, and tasty!
Overall I don't know if I would come here..there are a lot more better options out there to get your soup dumpling cravings.