Shanghai Dumpling House

the xiao long bao taste better than any other places i have been. i’m comparing from ding tai fung, dumpling house, shanghai bamboo house, go go café… the flour is not thick and its jucy inside. i like it. just wish it was warmer.
We had the chicken with brocoli rice. not bad either.
I will definitely come back and try more of their Chinese food.

Let me start off by saying that I was craving dumpling like crazy.
Being in Monrovia, I thought that this would be a difficult find. but boy was I wrong. These dumplings were so juicy and savory I seriously dreamed about them when I went home. When I woke up the next morning I asked my boyfriend if we could go there again for lunch. AND HE AGREED (score!).
The side dishes are really good too. I like the spicy seaweed and the bean curd. mmm.
I also have to mention the TV. I love sitting there watching TV while I eat. it feels like I am at my best friend’s house and her mom is making us dumplings.
Great food. Unpretentious. I am going back next time I visit my boyfriend.
yum!

Came here with my boss, who, unlike me, but like most of the clientelle here, is asian. I say that, because I’m a white boy and going to a place to eat asian food where there are only non-​asians is probably a mistake. So I knew I was in the right place.
He gave the secret handshake and then ordered the juicy dumplings, the prime rib fried rice, and some green onion pancakes. This stuff was just stupid good. You gotta dip the dumplings in some soy and spicy and vinegar and when you so it’s really great stuff. I was craving it again another time so we went back but it’s closed on Mondays :-(. So we went to Din Tai Fung. Guess what, I liked SDH better.
Since then I’ve only been able to think about this place whenever I eat asian food of any kind and it’s set the new benchmark for what food really is.

Another shanghai place close by. That makes me happy. More dumplings available close by that is NOT Din Tai Fung (over rated, over priced) and that makes me happy.
My absolute favorite is the Bran dough with black fungus. In English speak its wheat gluten coated with a wonderful sweet glaze with wood ear mushrooms. Soooo good. It’s served cold, but I have heated up my left overs and its great heated up also. Maybe better.
Another fave is the shanghai style greens. Served with edamame here. One of my faves at a Shanghai style place.
And of course the dumplings. Not a huge variety of types, and maybe not the best I have ever had, but they are good and cheap, and we crave them for lunch and we enjoy them! You can watch the lady behind the glass making them.
A great filling, comfort food is the fried rice cakes. Chewy, oowy, starchy, fiberless, goodness.
The service is always friendly, unlike other very authentic asian places that I like to frequent, so that is a nice surprise.
So happy to have this so close to me and my workplace.

I finally got a chance to come here a little over a month ago with my husband and had high expectations (because of Unilocal but of course). This place shares a small parking lot with a Mexican take out place. We had no trouble finding parking.
Anyways, I was surprised of how few tables there are in this place… maybe 10 tables or less? One of the first things I noticed about this place was that it was on the warm side (they don’t have the a/​c on).
When we walked in through the back entrance, we were immediately acknowledged by someone and sat down right away.
We ordered the steak fried rice, chicken chow mein, pork dumpling, onion pancake and vegetarian egg rolls (had a coupon for those).
The egg rolls and onion pancake came out pretty quickly. We both thought the pancake and egg rolls were a bit on the oily side, but tasty.
The beef in the fried rice was flavorful and tender. We thought this dish was oily. The chicken chow mein was tasty but again a bit oily.
The service was friendly and just about average. We had our water glasses refilled several times throughout our meal.
One thing that ruined our meal though was that there was a Caucasian family with four kids (at least under the age of 9) and they didn’t do anything as their kids were running up and down the stairs and around the restaurant. It was quite annoying and the parents didn’t seem to care… But that isn’t the restaurant’s fault, but definitely decreased our dining experience.
Pricing for this place seems to be a bit expensive, when compared to the other dumpling houses in the San Gabriel Valley. But for a place that offers food that is just as good, at a closer location, I wouldn’t mind coming back here again (but still wished the food was a little bit less oily).

The SG Location is so much better than this one! (Its next to Hilton Hotel, same plaza as ajisan ramen)
This location’s food was awful and mediocre at best.
I thought– FINALLY dont have to drive 15 — 20min in the san gabriel valley area patiently enduring terrible asian drivers just to get some xiaolongbao, but this location has been utterly disappointing.
We got the rib eye fried rice — beef was so horribly tough and i think the chef forgot to marinade it bc i couldnt even taste a hint of flavor. we sent it back and they add some salt. ._​. but when they re-​cooked it, they piled on more oil. BLEH
The xlb– better than most places that try to pass off their xlb as authentic, but still not as good as the other location. I’m boggled… theyre owned by the same boss!
the last thing we got was the dry scallion noodles — this was the only thing keeping me from starving myself through lunch. It was okay. A little heavy on the oil, but since this dish requires minimal ingredients, i would be mortified if they screwed up on this dish.
Verdict? Not worth it! even if it’s 5 min away, i much rather drive out to san gabriel for a better meal.

Came here for lunch with some of my co-​workers and didn’t know what to expect. A new shanghai restaurant in the heart of monrovia… hmmm. But you know what? The food really delivered.
We had a chance to try:
pork dumplings — pretty good. Nice broth and the skin was cooked well.
spicy pork dumplings — It tasted exactly like the pork dumplings. Is it supposed to be spicy? They were good nevertheless.
shrimp dumplings — i like this one. The shrimp gave a crunchy texture to the pork.
crab dumplings — They skimped on the crab for these dumplings so I’d probably skip this one next time and make Captain Eugene (who knows who I’m referring to?) happy.
Rice cakes (chou neen gao) — These were legit. If they didn’t overcook the rice cakes, this dish would land them an A+.
Beef Roll — Pretty good as well. It’s pretty much beef, hoisin sauce, and cilantro inside of a fried pastry.
I really enjoyed the food here. Although the service was a bit on the slow side and besides the fact that the restaurant temperature was volcano-​like (talk about swamp syndrome), I’d definitely return if I was in the area.

Dumplings were ok. I appreciated that they were homemade vs frozen but it didn’t make me like them more. They were just average. I misread the menu thinking I was ordering noodle soup but I ended up getting fried noodles that were so oily, I literally had to pour the oil out of the container.
The service was great. I might try this place again but only if I was desperate.

I am from shanghai. i’d say their food is 80 percent authentic. the xiao long bao is very juicy. Again compared to ting tai feng, the skin of it is thicker (most of xiao long bao places hv this flaw other than ding tai feng, I dunno why? is it just hard to make skin thinner?) Besides that, I’d say the Xiao Long Bao is very declious. Hot inside and juicy.
I highly recommend the crab favored steamed dumpling.
I really love their preserved veggie and pork noodle and their vegetable/​pork wanton soup. I’ve heard they make their own perserved veggie which just makes the flavor so authentic! And the wanton soup (big one) are very good. T
Fail on the menu is their seaweed! It smells like dead fish. Didn’t get cooked thoroughly!!! Because of that I gave them 4 star!
This restaurant brings me back to Shanghai~ :D
The location is weird. It took me a while to find the little restaurant. My GPS doesn’t have 215 E Foothill Blvd in Monrovia. It only has the 215 E foothill in Arcadia. Just a friendly reminder, it is not in the plaza of the Ralph supermarket. You have to drive further east. There’s a big liquor sign at that tiny plaza.

Delicious! Not too many places like this in Monrovia. I hope they stick around for a long time.
Cozy little shop with delicious XLB and beef noodle soup. The broth has tons of flavor.
The marinated cucumber salad is always on spot here.
The menu covers the usual suspects, but not as large as some of the other dumpling restaurants in the SGV.
Another customer ordering to-​go was asking for all sorts of items that obviously weren’t listed (dim sum). .. You need to trek a bit further for that mister.
All –n all, good food, affordable, and decent service.

The xioalongbao (juicy pork dumplings) are decent! Not the best I’ve had, but definitely not worst either. I would get them again if I ever go back.
I really liked the beef wrap (beef wrapped in something like a pancake). The wrap was crunchy. My friends thought the beef was too sweet (because of the sauce that is put on it), but I thought it was fine.
My favorite dish of the day was the stir fried rice cake sticks. I apologize because I don’t remember the proper name of the dish, but it was extremely yummy!
Service wasn’t particularly attentive, but this place probably has the best dumplings in Monrovia. Not my favorite dumpling place, but I would be willing to go again.

Improving consistency since opening. Been back two more times and the food tasted a better. One suggestion, you can always ask your server to make adjustments to your dish. For example, the first time I ordered their potherb mustard green fried rice, it was good. Then, on another visit, I ordered it again. This time is was too salty. On a third visit, I ordered the potherb mustard green fried rice once again; but, this time I requested they add much less salt and the the dish tasted much better.
I think I’m going to upgrade them by ½ star. The problem is they still must cater to non-​Asians. That means their dishes are not always gonna taste as good as if their restaurant were in Alhambra.

This place is a lil gem. I want to keep it for myself! =)
We wanted Chinese food but didn’t want to venture to San Gabriel.
Remembered seeing Shanghai Dumping House thanks to Unilocal…
so rec’d that to the fam.
It’s in a little slightly run down corner near Myrtle street in Monrovia.
Some parking spots in their shared lot.
We ordered…
— xiao long baos! They make ‘em fresh .
we got the crab and pork, juicy pork, and the pan fried dumplings.
They DO taste really fresh and the skin is thin (not as tihin as ding tai fung). The crab flavor is very distinctive!
–cucumbers — large yummy cool pices!
–rib eye fried rice — the meat was a little dry, but overall a good dish. not too salty.
We had leftovers… =) Good alternative if you want to avoid the traffic /​wait in Arcadia eateries. I did do the MSG tatse test — and didn’t get that parched throat feeling after, so kudos for low msg content.

Monrovia is not such an unlikely place to have a Shanghainese restaurant when you think about how close it is to Arcadia. Frankly, I’m loving the addition of another restaurant where I can get xiao lung bao and delicious noodles that is not Din Tai Fung.
While we waited for the hot foods to arrive, we ordered marinated cucumbers. They are raw and sliced and dressed with a vinegary dressing. The cucumbers are crisp and refreshing and not at all bitter. Another cold dish was the gluten (called bran dough on the menu) with bamboo, mushrooms, and wood ear fungus. Each item is soaked with a thick sweet sauce laced with a lot of star anise.
Their noodle soups are worth ordering. The first time, I was lured in by a beautiful Unilocal photo of a bowl with gorgeous strips of beef tripe. The broth was beefy but light though the actual dish was a little skimpy with the tripe. The noodles were probably not homemade but it was a nice big bowl, with bok choy.
The second time, we ordered noodles with shanghai taste and spicy pork. This was an absolute winner. The noodles are dry, sauced with a mixture of spicy ground pork, chili oil, vinegar and soy. It’s my kind of flavors, tart, a bit salty and a lot of savory heat.
The xiao lung bao are pretty solid. Little balls of dough are flattened by hand and filled with pork by the same woman both times that I visited. It’s fun to watch her. She doesn’t move in that frenetic way that the DTF employees do. The wrappers are pretty thin though her wrapping technique isn’t perfect. Some of the baos arrive slightly gaping at the top, perhaps explaining why they aren’t that hot. The steam has not been fully captured. They serve them with black vinegar at the table, but no ginger! You have to pay extra too, if you want a vinegar that’s been marinated with tons of garlic. I spied the huge jug on the counter but it didn’t seem worth it to pay $ 3 extra for flavored vinegar.
Their rice dishes are not my favorite but still pretty tasty. It’s a big heap of steamed or fried rice with the main entrée. The first time, we loved the twice cooked pork with bok choy. There was a sticky black sauce that was really good. Another time, we ordered the lion’s head meatball rice, also came with bok choy. The meatballs were small, less than golf ball sized and had not been braised in the brown sauce so it didn’t feel like the lion’s head meatballs that I remebered. All rice dishes come with a bowl of hot and sour soup. The first time, the smell of liquid smoke was overpowering, which is incredibly odd because smoke has no place in that soup. The second time, it was toned down if not eliminated but watch out, the cook loves white pepper.
Shanghai Dumpling House does its pork and carbs really well. My family’s already loving this place.

New place so the menu is limited but what they DO have, they make well. Only four types of dumplings but all are juicy and hot and soupy, the best being the crab and the spicy pork.
They also have great dishes like a unique-​tasting pork fried rice that had a nutty, vegetable flavor that was so addictive. We also got the soybeans and greens sauteed in oil and soy sauce that was just the right combo of crisp and bitter.
We wanted to try the noodles in soup but I guess they had a busy Saturday so by the time we got there on Sunday, no more noodles in soup sadly. But we had some great chow mein with veggies.
Overall, a great, comforting dinner. Can’t wait until they expand their menu to include more dumplings and perhaps one day, they’ll have more than one poor lady making all those those hot little delights. Of course, I loved how cheap it was. We had so much food for the five of us and it was under $ 60 :)

I came in with 9 other coworkers on Monday and had 10 dishes.
–Juicy Pork Dumplings/​XLB (2): The XLB were actually pretty good. I saw the lady making them behind glass and was peeking at her every once in a while out of curiosity and she seemed very skilled with her nimble fingers. The skin was thinner than most places serving XLB, which I enjoyed. The juices and the pork were very good. I made some chili oil-​vinegar-​soy sauce and I must say… the chili oil was delicious with these XLB.
–Spicy Pork Dumplings/​Spicy XLB: Like the first, but had a nice kick to it. Dipping it in my chili sauce made it kind of redundant… whoops.
–Vegetable & Pork Wonton Soup: Meh. To me, the broth tasted like MSG.
–Salted Vegetable & Green Bean: My coworkers thought it was a stir-​fried dish with actual green beans (the long ones, and mind you, the majority of us were Chinese or Asian), but I knew looking at the English that it was not what they were thinking about. It was more of a pickled vegetable with lima bean, served cold/​warm. We all agreed it was too oily. It left our little plates full of oil.
–Beef Roll Pie (2): Kind of sweet due to the hoisin sauce, beef was ok, pastry was a bit oily, but ok. I gave most of the cilantro to a coworker who loves it dearly and her eyes sparkled when she heard there were enough leftovers that she could have a second piece, but overall I think it was ok.
–Shanghai Fried Rice Cake: Good, but a bit oily. Very nice chewy texture.
–Chicken Chow Mein: passed on this. Looked oily.
–Shrimp Fried Rice: Eh. Hard rice and too salty. It was oily, but then again, most fried rice dishes in restaurants are.
We had coupons, so we got free spring rolls and crab rangoons. Didn’t try the crab rangoons because I can make my own, but the spring rolls are always a craving of mine. These were perfectly crisp, a bit more golden than expected, but the veggies and skin were delightful.
Overall, I’d like to come back because it’s close to work (because face it, there are better Shanghai places out there), but I had my eye on a few staple Shanghai dishes that the others didn’t want to try this time around for fear of freaking out some of our first-​timers at a Shanghai restaurant.
I noticed they had a Rice Cake Fried w/​Kimchi that I’d LOVE to try next time. sounds unique and I’m a sucker for those things… Oh, and next time, I’m getting those Stir-​Fried Pork Intestines too. :)

-=CLOSED ON TUESDAYS=-
Had a couple coupons from a coworker so decided to stop in last Friday ³⁄₉.
The place is on the north side of Foothill Blvd just east of Myrtle by a taco place, laundromat, and convenience store. There’s only about 10 tables or so inside. The décor is «whatever» (had artificial flower arrangements in baskets), but they have a glass window and you can watch the lady making the dumplings by hand.
Tried…
Juicy Pork Dumplings, $ 5.95
Spicy Pork Dumplings, $ 6.75
Shanghai Vegetarian Spring rolls, $ 4.35
Shredded Pork & Pothers Mustard Fried Rice $ 7.25
Beef Broccoli Chow Mein, $ 7.55
With the coupon, we got the eggs rolls for free since our purchase was over $ 25.
The fried rice and chow mein were on the oily side, but had good flavor at least. The dumplings were fair, nothing spectacular.
When we were trying to leave there were 2 huge trucks making deliveries and we were totally boxed in. We had to wait like 10 minutes to get out! Layout of the parking area sucks! Next time, we are parking on the street!
Overall, the food was pretty good.decent. This is a good option if you want to avoid the long lines at the «other» dumpling house in Arcadia. :)

I’m conflicted about this review because on the one hand I’d like to keep this out-​of-​the-​way gem a secret and all to ourselves in Monrovia and on the other hand I want to see the Shanghai Dumpling House succeed and remain in business for many years to come.
We had the spicy pork dumplings, the shrimp and pork dumplings and the Shanghai Noodles. The dumplings were fresh, hot and a perfect start to an early dinner on a cold winter night. The noodles were well-​seasoned in the more mild custom of Shanghai with extremely fresh bok choy and slivers of chicken.
And the prices were so reasonable that there is no doubt we’ll be regulars.

I nearly jumped up and down when I saw the sign for Shanghai Dumpling House. Soupy dumplings within a mile from home and no line to get in? Amen!
On to the xiao long bao: price wise is cheaper than DTF and tastes much better than Dumpling House Arcadia (since I prefer delicate XLB skin than the doughy ones). Shanghai Dumpling house has that outer thin, delicate skin that rivals Din Tai Fung and there are LOTS of yummy liquid that will burst in your mouth when you pop that XLB in your mouth —(caution: it is pipping hot!).
There are only 2 choices when it comes to XLB: pork and spicy pork. Both are equally good and done right — delicate, juicy, tasty!
Shanghai Dumpling House is my go to place when I need an instant gratification fix for XLB. It may not be in the same class as Din Tai Fung, but it is authentic, delicious, very affordable and very convenient! Love!

Shanghai Dumpling House is the real deal. If you’re like me, and think that «other» dumpling place in Arcadia (*cough…dtf) is over-​hyped and over-​priced, has an overly long wait time, and is just plain over it, then I’m sure you’ll find this restaurant a pleasant alternative.
The dining area is simple, spacious and clean. The wait staff were very attentive, and the owner was friendly. After a long day of work, this is the kind of place I like to just go and chill with my better half, and fill our bellies with some yum-​Oh* food.
Of course we had the xiao long bao. In fact, we had both the «original» juicy, and the spicy. Both were delicious, with the spicy one having a tiny but tasty kick from the chili pepper/​paste. I’m not a skin/​wrap-​thinness snob with xlb. To me, it’s all about the soup and flavor inside each dumpling, and these delivered on both.
We also ordered a couple menu standards, like potstickers and Shanghai (stir)fried noodles. Their potstickers are a little shorter and rounder, and the skin had a little more texture. Not quite what I’m accustomed to, but tasty nonetheless. Although it could be a point of debate, I actually liked that their Shanghai noodles was less greasy than other restaurants, while still having that familiar flavor.
On the recommendation of the owner, we tried the noodle soup with tripe, which really appealed to my Hong Kong animal-​organs-​likin’ palette. Fresh noodles, tasty soup, and tender marinated tripe. Ain’t nothin’ wrong with that!
The owner also offered us a sample of their Shanghai Confusion Meat. Let me just say, if you’re a fan of spam (which I am), you will really dig this cold appetizer dish; diced cured pork complete with that yummy, salty gelatin! (Unfortunately, this item might not be on the menu much longer because apparently the clientele in the Monrovia area just isn’t all that adventurous…)
Tasty dumplings in a less than 5-​minute drive. That works for us. Yeah, I’ll be a fan of that.
*yum-Oh=hot d@mn, that’s good!