"going all out for chinese"

[Gary Soup]

I think SF can hold its own in Cantonese cuisine with any North American City, but is sadly thin in other regional cuisines.

Gary Soup:

My wife and I will be visiting San Francisco in August. Is there any Shanghainese cuisine in SF at all? Would be nice to have some xiaolonbao and lion heads. Couldn't find those in Sacto.

Fortunately, we have a few. My first choice would be Shanghai Dumpling Shop (Balboa at 34th). Best xiaolong bao in town, and ditto on the niangao (rice ovalette pasta) if you like that. I recall the lion's head meatballs being good too. The scallion pancakes are not the crispy, layered kind I like, but my wife likes them. Somewhere on the board (maybe in California) there is a thread started by jschyun on this restaurant.

Shanghai Restaurant (Judah near 9th) is slightly divy-er and cheaper. I can't vouch for their xiaolong bao these days, since we haven't been there for a while, but they always have a bargain "five cold dish special" for some ridiculously low price at weekend lunch. I don't recall trying the lion's head there, but their big dishes are generally OK.

Old Shanghai (Geary at 17th?) is a "nicer" but pricier place. I don't get there often because it doesn't do well in my frugal wife's quality/price ratio calculations (with a heavily weighted denominator) but don't recall any negatives, or having heard any negatives.

Fountain Court is closing at the end of July, and I would avoid Chinese Harvest (if it's even still in business).