Title: Shanghai Dumpling King
Author: jean komatsu
Last saved by: ENU

April 2013: Shanghai Dumpling King is opening a branch at 696 Monterey Blvd., San Francisco. address. The Richmond district original site remains open after a quick remodeling.

Shanghai Dumpling King
3319 Balboa St. @33^rd Avenue, San Francisco, Ca
No website, Yelp reviews at: http://www.yelp.com/biz/shanghai-dumpling-king-san-francisco
Review date:   May 2011

This is our favorite Shanghainese dumpling/noodle stand-by. They aren't perfect, especially the stir-fries, but for dumplings they're unexcelled.

We recently tried their main competitor in San Mateo, the similarly-named Shanghai Dumpling Shop, but found nothing admirable there. So this was a good opportunity for us to revisit SDK to see if our memories were holding true – something that gets moot as one ages, LOL!

I had forgotten that SDK does indeed make the Shanghai chow mein we're so fond of, but they call it 'pork stir-fried Shanghai noodles'. Carlos reminded me that we had tried it long ago on our first visit, but I hadn't liked it so we never ordered it again. Eight years being a very long time, we ordered it again, along with the stir-fried rice cakes, xiao long bau (steamed dumplings), spicy won tons, steamed shrimp and pork dumplings, and lion's head meatballs with gravy. 

If you're thinking this sounds like a lot of food – the meatballs alone are a trio of huge, tender chopped pork – you're quite right. But we were aiming to have enough leftover for dinner, which we did.

The xiao long bau were as good as ever, far superior to what we had at Shanghai Dumpling Shop/San Mateo. This is really the best thing they make, and the one dish everybody agrees upon, even in the chaotic world of Yelp.

I love the spicy won tons. Other places make this, including our stand-by Sichuan Fusion/Richmond, but SDK's version is a little less salty and a little bit hotter. I didn't care for the shrimp-pork dumplings at all; they were noticeably saltier than everything else, so Carlos finished most of them. On previous visits we've had the crab-pork dumplings, which are very good, but we skipped them this time.

The stir-fries were good enough to pass muster, but far below our gold standard. We first encountered these dishes back when we were living in our rent-controlled apartment in San Francisco's Richmond district (not the city of Richmond; we like to confuse tourists, and sometimes even shoot them). 

In those long-ago days, a nearby restaurant called Chu Lin made a few really outstanding dishes and the owner was Shanghainese. She began offering the Shanghai noodle dishes and dumplings as a weekend special, and we were in heaven at the first bite. To this day Carlos agrees with me that their stir-fried rice cake (with white gravy, not the brown that everyone uses nowadays) and Shanghai chow mein were the hands-down best.

SDK doesn't reach those heights – no one seems to, especially now that Seafood Clay Pot/Albany, which used to make a decent Shanghai chow mein, has also closed up. SDK's chow mein doesn't have quite the super-fresh chewiness of its San Mateo competitor. But the real problem is that they like a sweetness to it, and we prefer a more salty savoriness to our noodles.

The stir-fried rice cake dish is tasty, but it's easier to make a tasty brown gravy than to make a good-tasting white gravy. The rice cakes are always the dried slices, like the Japanese mochi, rehydrated and then quickly tossed with pork shreds and finely shredded Napa cabbage (and oil – these rice cakes stick together like glue, which they basically are).

I'm fond of SDK's lion's-head meatballs. Carlos will take a half of one meatball but doesn't get excited about them. However, he does prefer SDK's version to their competitor's in San Mateo, which had so much five-spice he wouldn't even touch them – the smell alone turned him off.

We skipped ordering the luscious ni kuo, the deep-fried, sugar-crusted, egg-rich doughnuts that are best steaming hot from the fryer. 

Shanghai Dumpling King is completely bare bones, a true greasy spoon dive. Although they offer some standard Chinese restaurant dishes, it's best restricted to those dumplings and meatballs. The food is no different than it was ten years ago, and that's exactly what people like us come here for.

Long may they continue! Six dishes plus tip was $55, and as mentioned, enough for two meals.