香港六合彩资料网

Go Find Alice is a food blogger who grew up in Shanghai and Hong Kong. She's hit up 42 countries and five continents looking for the perfect dish. You can follow and Instagram (@gofindalice) to keep up on her adventures.

***

Hours: Daily, 9.30am-11.30pm

Hengshan's philosophy is to offer home-style Cantonese cooking at a fair price, and it does exactly that. This place is sort of a “home away from home” restaurant, where most patrons are regulars (a combo of Shanghainese locals, Hong Kong and foreign expats, and mixed laowai families). The vibe is relaxing and servers are quick to respond. Casual but contemporary, the adornments are modest and the atmosphere unhurried. There’s nothing creative or experimental about this place, which seems like the trend nowadays, but the food is consistent and decent. A fine choice if you want a no-frills dim sum or light dinner meal.

Their dim sum menu is comprehensive and affordable, with a medley of steamed, pan-fried, deep-fried, baked, stir-fried, boiled and cooked dishes. Unknown to many, they have a deal from 10am–5pm everyday, when you can select three of their eighteen dim sum dishes for 10rmb each. Not enough to share, but it’s a great start.



Dishes To Get: The delectable honey glazed pork BBQ puff pastry (蜜汁叉烧酥, 18rmb) is outstanding. The sweet and moist BBQ pork stuffing couples well with the baked croissant-like exterior, yielding to a honey-glazed golden puff pillow that’s crumbly, sweet and buttery on the outside and salty-sweetened on the inside. Other favorites include: Chiuchow style pork and peanut steamed dumplings (潮州蒸粉果, 10rmb), stir-fried rice rolls with XO sauce (XO酱炒肠粉, 20rmb), and glutinous rice with mixed meat wrapped in lotus leaf (鲍汁瑶柱珍珠鸡, 16rmb). The last dish even contains dried scallops and is cooked in an abalone juice infusion.

---

Hours: Weekdays, 11am-3pm & 5pm-11pm | Weekends, 11am-11pm

Located just steps away from the citysuper Hongmei location is Xin Dau Ji, a Hong Kong based family-run chain. With two outposts in Shanghai ( is on Xinle Road), its Hong Kong flagship in Jordan is crowned with one Michelin-star. They have an exhaustive selection of Cantonese classics (also available for lunch), but a much more manageable two-page dim sum menu.

While this location isn’t Michelin-star worthy, it’s solid. Prices are adequate for the quality and service. The usual lunch crowd consists of mostly white-collared office men and women, as well as full-time mothers, at least on weekdays. Good place for an informal gathering with friends or family.



Dishes To Get: For lunch or brunch, I’d stick to the timeless staples: steamed pork siumai topped with crab roe (蟹籽蒸烧卖, 32rmb), steamed carp fish balls with vegetables (顺德鲮鱼球, 26rmb), house special custard buns (新斗流沙包, 26rmb) and baked mini puff pastry egg tarts (酥皮焗蛋挞, ?24). The siumai, intricately topped with fresh crab roe, also comes with a whole shrimp topping. Supple and springy, it’s the best of hargao and traditional siumai in one scrumptious package. The egg tarts are just the right amount of sweet, crisp, and eggy -- the commixture of a creamy custard filling enveloped in a flaky exterior crust.

The real winner of the meal here, however, is the salted egg yolk custard buns. More commonly referred to as liu sha bao, or quicksand buns, these golden gems are the Chinese version of molten chocolate lava cakes. Replace the chocolate filling with salted duck egg yolk, condensed milk, sugar, cornstarch, and butter and you’ll get this perfect semiliquid, creamy stuffing that’s both sweet and savory. With a hint of graininess from the duck egg yolk, the explosion of contrasting flavors and texture of the custard combined with the steamed fluffy white buns make this an instant win.

--

Hours: 11am-10pm

This place is Mecca for die-hard Hong Kong style dim sum fiends. You know it’s legitimate when you hear Cantonese, not Mandarin, spoken almost exclusively amongst its managers and clientele. Serving exquisite but traditional Cantonese dim sum fare, Ah Yat Abalone was founded and currently still owned by international celebrity chef Yeung Koon-Yat.

With the accolade title “Abalone King,” Yeung is a member of Le Club des Chefs des Chefs (as in, the club for chefs of heads of states), and a present director at Hong Kong’s Forum Restaurant, where tycoons, celebrities, and government officials swarm for its abalone and premium seafood. Ah Yat Abalone is the spinoff of his more famed establishment, but don’t get me wrong -- it’s held to equally high standards. Here you can find classically upscale delicacies like bird's nest, sea cucumber and abalone, but like all great Cantonese restaurants, their dim sum game is strong as well.

Frequented mostly by Hong Kong expats and well-informed locals, I’m almost sorry to spill the secret on this one. Don’t worry though; the vibe is welcoming and unpretentious. The prices are steep compared to most dim sum spots but not exorbitant. Come with a big party to sample more dishes without having to break the bank. Definitely my favorite from this list of five.



Dishes To Get: A hallmark of its authenticity, Ah Yat Abalone is one of a handful of places in Shanghai where you can find steamed turnip cake, or radish cake. Unlike the more commonly seen pan-fried version, steamed turnip cake requires a freshly made batch of grated radish batter every day. Containing finely chopped Cantonese-style bacon bits, dried shrimp and dried shallots, the cakes get served with special soy sauce and garnished with green onions. Gelatinous and lush, this well-prepared dish is a must.

I can go on to recommend in detail almost every dish here, but I won’t. Other dishes to try include: rice roll wrapped fried fritter "zhaliang" (炸两), steamed shrimp dumplings（蒸虾饺), steamed Malay sponge cake (蒸马拉糕), deep-fried shrimp spring rolls (鲜虾春卷), deep-fried glutinous sesame balls (煎堆). Their zhaliang is the best I’ve ever seen in the city. Perfectly silky and glossy on the outside, it’s filled with a long deep-fried Chinese cruller (youtiao) on the inside, making its center both crunchy and dry.

P.S. Park across at the Shanghai Maxdo Center.

--

Hours: Weekday Lunch, 11am-2pm | Weekend Lunch, 11am-2.45pm

Situated inside a lush courtyard on Julu Lu, Loonfung House reigns over an entire old-school mansion with three floors, several VIP rooms and an outdoor patio. Everything is exquisitely decorated -- even the bleach white tablecloths are tattooed with golden embroideries. Clearly designed to offer a more refined experience, it’s a little fake-pompous with the furnishing but the garden view is beautiful and gives the place a homey air.

Considering its above mid-range positioning, service is somewhat lacking. There are plenty of waitresses and waiters meddling around, but most are clueless. Prices are reasonable though, and the environment is superb. Expect a long queue of families on weekends, so reservations are highly recommended. I would come back again to check out this place for dinner.



Dishes To [Maybe Not] Get: The steamed shrimp dumplings (龙凤虾饺皇, 34rmb) were clumsy. Though larger than usual and stuffed with briny prawns, the outer wheat wrappers could be made considerably thinner. The deep fried shrimp rolls（鲜虾炸春卷, 28rmb) are limp, and not crispy enough. The liushabao custard buns (流沙奶黄包, ?18) are acceptable, though not dream-worthy like that of Xin Dau Ji’s.



Loonfung's most ordered and prominent dim sum offering, the lobster soup rice porridge (龙虾汤泡饭, ?65), still has room for improvement. Compared to my first visit a year ago, the quality of this dish (and the place in general) has declined. The white and crispy fried rice (guoba) component takes up almost 60% of the entire pot and the lobster soup tastes diluted.

---

Hours: Daily, 8am-10pm

The largest, most boisterous, and oldest of the five listed here, Tang Palace has been around since 1997. Boasting at least 30 stores across China (nine in Shanghai), the chain has proved a favorite amongst locals. Here, you’ll get to experience the traditional dim sum hall experience -- tightly packed tables, long weekend queues, seas of babbling voices… you get the point. The dishes are trolleyed to your table, though you don’t get to order off the trays, as dishes are still served to order.

While the chain is most renowned for its roasted baby pigeon, I stuck to the more mainstream dim sum dishes for weekend brunch. The prices are shockingly low, with most dishes ranging from 10-21rmb. Dim sum is served seven days a week, and if you come early enough on weekdays (8-11am) or in the afternoon (2-4pm), you’ll get a 20% discount on all dishes (not valid for takeouts).



The hargaos (虾饺皇, 17rmb) are enjoyable, with reasonably thin translucent wheat wrappers and filled with medium sized but juicy prawns. Yet everything else was disappointing, given their widespread popularity and fame. Points for creative effort with the mushroom and black truffle buns (黑松露香菇包, 18rmb), but only for looks. Minimally encased with truffle paste and a negligible amount of mushrooms, they were just 80% bread.



Clearly there’s not enough taste or quality control. The Portuguese egg tarts (葡式焗蛋挞, 21rmb) might as well be renamed “overly sweet sugar and milk tarts.” The steamed glutinous rice with chicken (荷香糯米鸡, 21rmb) had two, maybe three itsy-bitsy chopped chicken pieces. And where are my pulped ripe mango pieces that are supposed to accompany the mango pudding (香芒冻布丁, 17rmb)? No condensed milk either. It looked and tasted like cheap, yellow-dyed jello.

Sure I can stuff my face with dimsum for less than ?50RMB here, but I’d rather eat some ?5RMB shaobing instead. Yeah, don’t expect to find me here again.

***