Hong Fu, Highland Park, NJ

[MJP]

I moved to Highland Park in March and we were delighted to discover that Hong Fu, formerly Shanghai Park (and still listed in Google and most phone books by that name) was less than two long blocks from our house and had xiao long bao on the menu!

We've done takeout from them twice and did Sunday dim sum with friends after a convention. The takeout is really quite good, but the xiao long bao are hit or miss when they cool down. The first time they were unremarkable, the second time they were great: the broth was more intensely flavored and the filling was nicely packed, but fell apart in your mouth as it should.

Not to be missed: the rice cakes with salted cabbage. They were perfectly chewy and had such a wonderful flavor to them.

The dim sum menu was Sunday-only and included things like scallion pancakes, salt baked shrimp, fried crullers, and other dim sum fare. No carts, the place is too small for that.

Their menu includes Generic Dragon staples but the Chinese items are in there and in plain English.

Skip the bubble tea on their menu, it's only barely okay and the bubbles were mushy. Have your dessert at Tasty Bakery two blocks up the road - delicious cakes and Chinese sweets, and some of the best bubble tea I've ever had.

If you're a Rutgers student or know someone who is, these guys do deliver to RU campuses and are the same price as the crappy Generic Dragons everywhere else.

If you're equidistant between Hong Fu and Hunan Cottage in Fairfield, try them both, but I would say that this is good if you don't want to schlep up to Hunan Cottage. I wouldn't travel down to Hong Fu. Pithari Taverna in Highland Park, yes.