Yeah Shanghai Deluxe

[ranitidine]

Couldn't get into New Green Bo tonight so the three of us went directly across Bayard Street to Yeah Shanghai Deluxe. The unanimous verdict was that the crowds of tourists can have New Green Bo to themselves from now on. Steamed vegetable dumplings were pronounced "the best I've ever had" by Sandy. The scallops, served with crispy yellow leeks were extremely fresh and tender. The fish fried in seaweed was in a somewhat thicker batter than that of Say En Look of blessed memory but not one had any sogginess or lack of firmness on the outside yet all had fish in the center that rivalled the scallops for freshness and tenderness. The half of a roast chicken Northern China style was a revelation. The chicken tasted as if it had still been clucking this morning. It was cut into narrow, thin slices and covered with its skin. A wing and a foot flanked the mound of poultry. A brown sauce was served on the side for pouring over the meat. The comparison to pulled pork is not completely apt as the taste is so different. We have already chosen the dishes we will have on our next visit. My only cavil is the beer "selection"--stale Tsing Hao or fresh Budweiser. "Which would prefer Monsieur, piss or pee?" I guess one can't always have everything.

[La Niña]

Sounds great. I'll have to go soon. And I must say, I've been disappointed with the last couple of visits to New Green Bo. I'd love to have a new place I like even better. Thanks for the report.

[Pan]

I'm a regular at YSD, but it's part of a rotation with Moon Palace next door and New Green Bo. I find that all 3 are good restaurants and have different strengths. I don't think it's worthwhile to wait for a table at NGB when one is available at the other two (the decor is actually pretty good at YSD, though Moon Palace is a little hard on the eyes, if you care about ambience), but they do some things very nicely, including the noodles with spicy meat sauce and the seaweed with garlic cold dish. I believe I'm remembering that I like the Spicy Cabbage best at Moon Palace.

[Suzanne F]

We went back to YSD last Friday night -- this time ordered according to some of the eGullet recommendations: braised beef with noodles in soup, and the roast chicken. Both were delicious (and the leftover chicken was great in fried rice at home last night).

BUT: after we finished eating, I had that unmistakably unpleasant feeling of having ingested MSG. Anyone else notice that from the food there? If so, can one ask them to leave it out? We'll still go back, but I'd rather not go through that fuzziness and discomfort again.

[weinoo]

You should definitely ask them to leave it out - I would imagine it becomes more of a presence in the soup, as their stock making is probably a little less than perfect!

[Stephanie]

Oh yeah, definitely. I got a bad MSG headache when I was there, so bad that I'm reluctant to go back.

[Pan]

I was back at Yeah tonight. I go there pretty often, so my presence there was nothing unusual, but I had a different cold dish this time. Its name has slipped my mind, but it's something Latin that sounds like the name of a flower. It turns out to be some kind of parsley-like green vegetable chopped up and combined with diced tofu skin (the waiter said "dried tofu," but it didn't seem dried to me), with sesame oil on it. It's a good dish and worth ordering. I followed that up with spicy minced meat noodles, whose sauce was hotter and tastier than New Green Bo's. I'm starting to form a preliminary conclusion that Yeah is a flat-out better restaurant than New Green Bo.

[Bux]

My favorite Shanghai restaurant (Shanghai Village on Grand Street) seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth while we were in Europe last month. We came back and found a "closed for alterations" sign taped to the roll down shutter and it's been that way for weeks. Joe's Ginger is now the closest Shanghai restaurant to where I live. Joe's makes some good soups with noodles that suit me for lunch, but I miss the great soups and other stuff at Shanghai Village. I still check out the store front, but my hope it will reopen is fading.

[Pan]

I really want to promote this place. I took a friend to dinner there tonight a little after 9 P.M., and there was as always plenty of room in the restaurant. It's too bad that people are waiting on line to go to Joe's Shanghai and (at times) New Green Bo when there's a place with better food overall and better decor that has plenty of free tables.

Our dinner tonight:

Cold seaweed

Juicy buns

Eel with leeks in black pepper sauce

Crab sauteed with garlic, scallions, and hot peppers

The seaweed was good as usual. It's nicely garlicky.

The juicy buns were tasty. I think perfection in juicy buns is probably impossible; some will leak when picked up with chopsticks. But I managed to avoid getting any food on my shirt. My dining partner wasn't so lucky.

The eel was delicious! Really tasty, plenty of hot pepper, tasty leeks.

The crab was really high-quality with roe inside. The accompanying vegetables (mentioned above) were fried up nicely. In particular, the hot peppers were tasty, though potent (do not chew up more than a bit at a time unless you really know what you're doing).

All of the above was $38 including an appropriate (slightly generous) tip.

[Eric_Malson]

I was at Yeah a couple of months ago and can see now that I just ordered the wrong things. I remember ordering a combination plate of some of the same cold appetizers I had just had a couple of weeks before that at New Green Bo (usual stuff like wine chicken, the beef one, and something else that now slips my mind) and being greatly underwhelmed--all had been much tastier at NGB. I can't even remember the main dishes, they made so little impression.

However that eel dish sounds fantastic, as does the nameless cold appetizer mentioned in the Pan's previous post. And spicy minced meat noodles....mmm, good winter fare. I can see I'm going to have make another trip and try again!

[Pan]

Eric, try the Beef Tendon cold dish, though only if you like things that are very spicy.

[Pan]

Tonight, my parents, my aunt, my cousin, and her son had a Mother's Day banquet at Yeah Shanghai. Everyone loved the food, and I think it was the best meal I've ever had at Yeah. Service was excellent. For the first time, I tried taking photos and uploaded them to imageGullet. Some were too glary, but please bear with me. As you can tell, I forgot to take pictures of some things until we had already partly eaten them, but at least these photos give you some idea of what everything looked like.

We got the following cold dishes:

Spicy Cabbage, Kaufu (2 orders), Aster Indicus, Aromatic Beef

and the following hot dishes:

Fresh Scallop with Chives, Jumbo Shrimp with Chili Sauce, Tofu with Crab Meat, Chicken with Chestnuts, special Duck stuffed with sticky rice and other things (must be ordered at least 24 hours in advance), and Sweet and Sour Chicken for my young cousin. We were given a special freebie of sweet red bean cakes for dessert.

The photos start with a picture of the three cold dishes I ordered while my parents and I were still waiting for the others:

Clockwise from the left: Kaufu, Spicy Cabbage (sorry for the glare), Aster Indicus.

In the center, Jumbo Shrimp with Chili Sauce; in the right foreground, Aromatic Beef; in the right background, Kaufu.

Fresh Scallop with Chives

The Sweet & Sour Chicken, made specially for my young cousin (it's usually on the lunch menu, not the dinner menu).

Tofu with Crab Meat

In the center of the frame is the chicken with the chestnuts, but it came out fuzzy. Oh well.

Duck, not yet cut up.

Duck, cut up.

Sweet Red Bean Cakes.

The cold dishes were all good as usual. I had never had the chicken with chestnuts before, and it was my mother's idea to order it. It was terrific! It was noticeably alcoholic, having been apparently cooked in some good rice wine. A large piece of ginger was in the pot, too, and my aunt ate that. Also particularly notable is the Tofu with Crab Meat, which was cooked with egg (whereupon the yellow color, if you can see that through the glare). It was a subtle dish, in a good way. The chili jumbo shrimp, which as you can see came with noodles, reminded me somewhat of some of the jumbo shrimp dishes I got in Malaysia last summer, except that it came with those noodles, which had ground pork on them. Anyway, it was a really tasty dish, and we finished it.

The duck meat was excellent, but the stuffing got a mixed reception. Among other tastes, a somewhat fishy taste was noticed. It came from some little dried reconstituted scallops, which were part of a stuffing that including dried shrimps, mushrooms, I think fresh celery, ham, and doubtless some other things I've forgotten, in a base of sticky rice. It was a complex stuffing and worth getting once, but next time, I want to get the Beggar's Chicken (another item which requires at least 24 hours notice).

The bean cakes were a perfect finish to this feast. I did not have any orange slices, but we were given some. I also did not try the Sweet and Sour Chicken.

My parents were astonished that the total bill was only $118 and change plus tip. I wasn't. But of course, I know the restaurant well.

Edited May 10, 2004 by Pan (log)

[ned]

Nice photos Pan. I've enjoyed Yeah Shanghai 4 or five times now on your recommendation. Thanks.

[Pan]

You're welcome, and I'm glad to do the place some good. There are always empty tables in the front, and I hope they're making a profit and can continue to remain in business for a long time.

[Carey]

Something-or-other Arbutus (it's not on their online menu on www.menupages.com and I forgot to write down the whole Latin name)

I love this dish. On the menu it is called "Aster Indicus" but its transliterated name is actually something like "malanto". Great stuff. I haven't seen it, or anything quite like it, on any other menus.

[Pan]

You're right. Aster Indicus. I've edited the post with the photos accordingly. Thank you. And welcome to eGullet, Carey!

Edited May 10, 2004 by Pan (log)

[sacre_bleu]

Is Yeah Shanghai closed?

I've been calling the number on their takeout menu, which I looked up on Amazon.

Could they have just closed up early on a Wednesday night?

Any recent sightings to report?

Thanks.

[tcavallo]

Hmm... I ate there about two weeks ago, the were crowded and there was a private party in the back. My friends live around the corner, I'll ask tonight.

t

[Pan]

I had dinner tonight at Yeah. I got some standby dishes for me (spicy cabbage and spicy minced meat noodles), which were as per usual. They have a redesigned menu with some new offerings (also look at additional lists on your table), and they were doing good business tonight. Their card shows their hours to be:

Sun.-Thurs.: 10:30am-11:00pm

Fri. & Sat.: 10:30am-12:00mid

In any case, THEY ARE NOT - REPEAT NOT - CLOSED FOR BUSINESS!

[Nathan]

Ate at Yeah Shanghai on Saturday afternoon with a good-sized group.

It was quite good (and cheap!)...I'd rate it just a notch below Shanghai Cafe.

The xiao long bao were decent enough, the spicy cabbage not spicy, the shredded eel terrific, the Shanghai noodles excellent and the Tung-po pork almost terrific (it was noticeably drier than the Shanghai Cafe version....although the accompanying sauce and bok choy was first-rate)...

[Eatmywords]

Yea, had a really nice super cheap lunch with a 6 eg'rs on Sat.

Started with signature crab/pork and pork (only) soup dumplings. Skin was a tad thick and we had a bit of a hard time distinguishing btwn them (i.e little light on the crab mt) but still, they were both very good and no one scolded their tongue! Pan fried pork dumplings (2 orders) were above the norm. Soft on the sides with a crispy bottom. Scallion pancake was nothing spl.

Spicy cabbage was interesting. Had a slightly fermented alkaline bite which I wasn't crazy about. Still, was decent.

Spicy 8 Jewel. 8 ingredients, including beef, pork, soy beans, nuts, peppers and who knows what else served cold in a sweetish brown sc. Lots of flavors going on. I wish I could remember the other ingredients. (help)

Really liked Ox tongue and Triples (-ie tripe, funny typo) w/spicy flavor (not spicy at all). Beef jerkyish texture (not as dry or tough), a bit sweet, awesome app.

Mains: Shanghai Pan fried noodles w/chicken, pork, shrimp, brocoli over crispy and soft noodles (depending on where the sc was). Enjoyed the dual textures and the abundence of meats. As you can see, they don't skimp on the portions.

We were going to try the whole eel from the Nyr's menu bot got talked out of it by waitron #4. Instead the eel and chives. A little salty but I liked the slurpy consistency. Long eel slivers sauteed chives in a thick brown sc. Liked it very much.

Finally, Tong Po braised Pork w/steamed buns and baby bok choy accented w/star annise. (refer to Larry Lee's pic in Midtown Lunch thread). Pork could have been a little fattier and tad moist"er" but was still delicious in a steamed bun w/baby bok choy. Was a bit like brisket which I love anyway.

All this, (plus a beer each) for $17 a person (thats including tax and a 20% tip). Can you beat that?

Plus it was great to catch up with fellow posters.

[Pan]

Interesting report. I think your threshold for perceiving spiciness is much higher than mine. Either that, or they toned down the spiciness for you.

[Luckylies]

It was spicy flavored, but not spicy...if that makes any sense.

[Eatmywords]

Interesting report. I think your threshold for perceiving spiciness is much higher than mine. Either that, or they toned down the spiciness for you.

←

My spice tollerance is pretty lame (I prefer low to med). Nothing was spicy-hot. I don't see how they could have toned it down just for us as these 2 apps are obviously pre-made. The Jewel was great

[Nathan]

Mine is very high...but this spicy cabbage was 90% below that of GS....