Yeah Shanghai Deluxe

[LESider]

Yeah shanghai! good stuff. had the steamed buns and liked. but the winning dish we had recently was Eggplant with minced pork in pot . beautiful bite sized morsles of eggplant with a great zingy sauce.

[achevres]

We finally went to Yeah Shanghai Deluxe last Saturday. We had the crispy turnip ham pastries, the crab and pork soup dumplings (xiao long bao) and the tong po pork.

Prior to this, our only soup dumplings had been at Grand Sichuan International (several branches) and I really liked them. I wanted to try others, however, since I read so many opinions from egulleteers on the different xiao long bao. Also, at GSI most of their best dishes are spicy and my daughter (though getting better) so far can only eat food with a little spice.

After much research on and off egullet trying to find the "best," I've come to the conclusion that which is the "best" soup dumplings is a matter of personal preference. Personally , I'm happy to get them at all and happy that I enjoy the ones I've had. (Read this blog entry of a guy who only found a couple of good ones in Shanghai : The Spring 2005 Shanghai Xiao Long Bao Survey -- sometimes it's better not to be sooo knowledgable). All that to say I can only compare these to the GSI ones. The Yeah Schezuan xiao long bao are smaller and with thinner skins. The taste is very similiar to the GSI, but they are lighter (not as greasy). So I would rank these as better than GSI, but I would be happy to get either in the Philly area!

The tong po pork is the braised pork with steamed buns and baby bok choy. I had this written down as an item to get, but didn't write down what it was. What a great surprise. Just that day we had had the pork buns at Momofuku and my daughter went nuts over them. I liked them even more at Yeah Shanghai because you can make your pork bun "sandwich" however you want it. Really delicious, like a Chinese pulled pork. We ate way too much!

The Turnip ham pastries were OK, but very greasy at the bottom. We should've saved that stomach room for the dumplings and pork buns.

The service was excellent. We wanted to move to another table after we were set up and it was no problem at all. Our dishes came out almost all at once, so be aware. We will definitely return. Thanks to all of you for the advice.

[backyardchef]

We love this place, too. Like many others probably, discovered it after not being able to get into New Green Bo.

Recent favorites were the pork w/ rice cake and the pork fried dumplings. Everyone else at the table raved about the pork and crab dumplings, but I didn't try any of them.

Edited July 18, 2007 by backyardchef (log)

[Nathan]

its my second favorite Shanghai-style after Shanghai Cafe. the tung-po at Shanghai Cafe is lights out..but Yeah does a respectable version of pretty much everything.

[BryanZ]

Had dinner here on Friday and quite enjoyed it. Service was about as brusque as one can stand, but the food was tasty and hot and mind-meltingly cheap. I seriously spent more on a cocktail-and-a-half afterward than I did on dinner. Per friends' recommendations we got the cold beef/tripe, spicy eight jewels, scallion pancake, crab-pork soup dumplings, lion's head meatballs, tong po pork, and a vegetable dish of sauteed bok choy and mushrooms in a clear sauce. The only forgettable dish was the scallion pancake, and a couple of my dining companions thought that the meatballs were overwhelming. They're large and a bit coarse, but the dish works as a whole.

The food worked very well for the weather, as it was quite rich, but my friend remarked that he liked a recent meal at Congee Village more. I consider the cuisines significantly different to find comparison not all that helpful and would happily return to either.

[Pan]

Yeah, I think Congee Village is better as a Cantonese restaurant than Yeah is as a Shanghainese restaurant, but it IS a somewhat apples-and-oranges comparison. I actually get good service at Yeah, probably because I've been a regular for many years. Lately, though, I've been liking Shanghai Cafe, on Mott St. between Canal and Hester. Have you tried that place?

[BryanZ]

Shanghai Cafe was highly recommended to me, but I couldn't confirm on an online menu that they had tong po pork. I had kind of promised this dish to friends so wanted to go with the sure thing.

[Pan]

I understand that they do, but I haven't had it. Pork belly is just too fatty for my stomach to deal with.

[Sneakeater]

I've had it there.

(It = tong po pork

(There = Shanghai Cafe)

It may not have been called it that on the menu. (They didn't call it that on the menu at Joe's Shanghai back in the day, either.)

Edited December 15, 2008 by Sneakeater (log)

[Eatmywords]

If he brings a copy of Larry's pic there can be no issue

http://larrylee.org/archives/2006/10/new_yeah_shangh.html

[weinoo]

Had dinner with a party of 6 last night at Yeah Shanghai and it was consistently good.

I ordered pork belly with bean curd skin, which were tied into knots and quite tasty, salt & pepper shrimp (good, but not great), one noodle dish - lo mein, which was actually very good, baby bok choy with black mushrooms, and 3 orders of soup dumplings, which were still being freshly made up front. The dumplings were a bit smaller than at some of the other Shanghai joints, but a nice delicate wrapper and delicious, juicy filling more than made up for their size.

It was nice to see the place packed at 8 PM.

[Pan]

What was in the lo mein you got?

[weinoo]

What was in the lo mein you got?

←

I think it might have been the Shanghai lo mein - bits of chicken, pork and shrimp.

The cooks here seem to have a more delicate hand with the oil than at so many other Chinese places...which is one of my pet peeves. Notice it was basically the only dish I ordered that was stir fried, for just that reason.

[gastrodamus]

Shanghai Cafe was highly recommended to me, but I couldn't confirm on an online menu that they had tong po pork.  I had kind of promised this dish to friends so wanted to go with the sure thing.

←

i called shanghai cafe last year and they do have it but haven't made it over there. has anyone tried? i'm still in the quest to find the best tong po rou. my friend and i thought yeah shanghai's version was a little too tough in texture and chewy. he says it used to be much better. nice green bo's version is incredibly tender and the fat melts nicely in your mouth but the sauce can be too sweet. any recos on the best?

[BryanZ]

I wouldn't say it's tough as much as toothsome. You know you're eating meat. Not necessarily a bad thing, but not meltingly soft either.

[weinoo]

Dined at Yeah Shanghai last night - after trying to get into at least 3 other spots, we settled here and were seated after a 20 or so minute wait.

Everything was quite good - snow pea leafs stir fried with fresh shrimp was a a standout and the dumplings were as good as always - some of my favorite in Manhattan.

But the dish that blew me away was the Stewed Pork Belly with Pickled Vegetable.

A large portion of beautiful belly sliced and laid over the pickled vegetable came with 4 steamed buns...make your own pork buns. At $12.99 for the plate, consider the bargain compared to 2 of Momos pork buns with the smidgen of pork on them - this dish needs to be in a semi-constant rotation, it was that good.