Shiao Lan Kung

I would more say 4.5 stars for this place. The service is amazing and so is the food. This is probably my favorite so far in Chinatown. It’s a very small restaurant and not fancy at all, but who needs fancy when the food is this good? I also like the small nature of the place because the servers are more attentive
My family and I decided to come here for father’s day since I really wanted snails in a black bean sauce. Here’s the reason for the deduction is stars — they didn’t have any! I was a little upset, but the other dishes really made up for it. This is the first time dining in at this place, but I have ordered take out in the past.
Fish maw soup — very meaty and very flavorful. Most places I’ve gotten it at doesn’t give you much seafood, but here, it’s perfect. My son killed it. He kept asking for more.
Salt & Pepper Squid — perfect! Not overly breaded, and the squid itself was soft, yet chewy. I craved this the next day.
Sizzlin’ beef short ribs (without bone) — Again, another favorite. They gave me plenty of meat and not just tons and tons of onions and peppers. Also, the meat wasn’t fatty either
Salted fish fried rice — Not too salty. I loved the big chunks of fish they served in it (unlike other places that gives me only shreds of it)
Beef chow fun with gravy — gravy was very flavorful and the noodles weren’t old and hard. A+
Overall: I think I found my new chinese spot for the moment and I will be back.

Theeeeee most amazing food ever. The fried dumplings are a must… drooling just thinking about it!!! Wish they opened earlier than 3:00!!!

This place is so good i almost dream about it. Go out of the box and try something new!
Hot and sour soup is fire!

This hole in the wall place is a diamond in the rough. I love love love this place! Even though i was disappointed many times in the past because of their weird hours (open late and stay open until late) they are never disappointing with taste! My must have is the sweet and spicy shrimp. I donno any other Chinese restaurant that does it this way. Their black bean sauce was spot on taste! over chicken.

Best chinese and best value for money. We eat there a lot, the place is clean and the food is fresh. Orange beef, Hot Pot with beef and eggplants, Salt baked seafood and Peking duck are all perfect. BYOB. It’s not a fancy place, just a regular looking chinatown restaurant, but the food is amazing. One of my favorite restaurants in the city.

A little expensive for the portion sizes. All items a la cart. I had the general tso’s chicken. 1 small Shrimp Fried Rice and an egg roll. The Egg roll was awesome and big. For the general tso’s I am used to a thicker spicier sauce. Sauce was runny and bland. The chicken was more sauteed rather than fried and a little crunchy. It was a decent experience, I still ate it all, just not my cup of tea. I would go back for egg rolls.
Egg roll — $ 1.85
General Tso’s Chicken (just the chicken) — $ 12.95
Smal Shrimp Fried Rice — $ 4.50
To me, This is expensive… Not a lot of bang for your buck.

I ordered take out and the food was delicious! I ordered beef chow fun and it was the best I’ve ever had. I, also, picked up some hot and sour soup and according to my father it was very tasty. For my take out purposes it was great. The restaurant does not have the best ambiance. It would not be a place I’d take my co-​workers or out of town guests. But it’s a great place for some good Chinese food!

Don’t believe the hype. they’re okay.
I don’t see what all the fuss is about. The service was inattentive and forgetful. Two of my family’s dishes were forgotten, so I reminded them. A few minutes later they produced one of the missing dishes and kept promising the other was on its way, but it never arrived.
Food-​wise, nothing here stood out at all; everything we tried was average at best, and inedible at worst.
The tofu was good enough, same as you’d get anywhere.
The sweet and sour chicken, usually considered a safe choice for the less adventurous, was mostly pretty good but about a fifth of the pieces had a large portion of tough gristle.
The beef with ginger and scallions was just plain awful. I was really looking forward to it because the menu highlighted it as a highly recommended dish, but it was rubbery and mostly flavorless. I couldn’t make it past the third bite and ended up wasting it. I hate wasting food but this tasted like it was microwaved from raw to finished. Considering that this was the one they initially forgot, that is quite likely what happened. It shows they have no pride in their food and they’ll take shortcuts to turn tables.
All in all, nothing here was good enough to make it stand out in a greasy sea of cheap Chinese restaurants.

The most amazing salt baked squid I’ve ever eaten and it keeps me coming back. I’m absolutely addicted. The service is great — everyone is so friendly and they definitely make you feel like you’re at home. Definitely recommend!

My favorite Chinese place! Peking duck is sublime and so baby bok choy. The menu can be a bit overwhelming (it’s huge), but the waiters will help you along the way if you are lost. Strongly recommended!

There are a lot good chinese restaurants, after all it’s called Chinatown, however there’s only a handful of this small place where they do things rather well and for some reason I haven’t been exposed to the awesomess of this place.
We ordered about seven different dishes and I have to say every single one of them were executed perfectly.
It really doesn’t do any justice to mention the stuff that I ordered because apparently almost the whole freakin menu are delicious…

Yum, yum, yum in my tum, tum, tum. Jumped off the plane and came straight to Chinatown! We were not disappointed! The service was great even though we walked in just before 1 am. Lucky for us, there was a large group in the restaurant eating after a concert. We had an order of shrimp egg rolls (huge), giant fried pot stickers drowning in sauce and two entrée specials. Dragons nest and lucky family. Both full of chicken, seafood and veggies. The restaurant is small, I’m sure it gets packed at dinner time. A number of people walked in to get to-​go food while we were eating and the phone was still ringing. There’s not really any décor but I felt the food made up for it. Overall– great experience.

Truth be told I was looking to go to David’s down the street but it was PACKED. Was craving that Mapo Tofu that I had from there a while back but it was not to be.
Decided to pop into Shiao Lan Kung since the reviews showed that it was pretty good. And it really wasn’t that bad, it reminded me of eating at some HK auntie’s place who’s really not trying to impress you. The torn table cloths, broken sound system, broken credit card machine sign that’s still up even though I see them accepting cards, its not exactly the best of decors and when a place that isn’t exactly impressing you with the stuff around you, they usually make up for it in the stuff in front of you and this wasn’t the case.
The food while not bad is a bit underwhelming for being a downtown joint where their quality is about on par to a local takeout place and $ 2 bucks for rice just seems a little nickel and dimey.
And please have some ambience going whether its music or something so I don’t have to listen to the med students the next table over talking about bowels in this cozy 10 tabler, give or take.

It’s fantastic that this place is regularly open to 2−3AM to cater to individuals who by misfortune or design find themselves craving Chinese food in the wee hours of the morn. Such individuals included my family. The space is on the smaller side, and even at late hours, there were a decent amount of customers. Silverware was clean. Service was prompt, and food arrived quickly. Our order was: seafood pan fried noodles, beef chow fun, pea vines with garlic, and a braised grouper casserole.
Cantonese-​style pan fried noodles are a controversial topic. While some people prefer their noodles crunchy dry, others find that noodles softened by a smothering of sauce are more palatable. Perhaps, like political ideologies, most people are in the middle somewhere. The seafood pan fried noodles we ordered offered a gradient of textures to satisfy, at minimum, the four people of differing tastes sharing the dish. However, we also agreed that the seafood was a little fishy. The beef chow fun and pea vines were quite good. The casserole, though, was a tad salty for our tastes. Again, there may be differing preferences for ideal crunchiness, but in this case, the fried fish was swimming in sauce and without bite.
All in all, we enjoyed our experience at the restaurant and would visit again to explore some other dishes.

This has always been my go to 3:00 am drunk out too late stop for food in the city. Great egg rolls (I know) clams in black bean sauce. Stay away from the Americanized Chinese food.

This place opens late and is one of the highest reviewed place that opens late in Chinatown. I got a congee take out and it was kinda bland.

Located on Race Street, Shiao Lan Kung is a relatively small restaurant, yet has some of the best Chinese cuisine you can get at Chinatown. I have been to this restaurant a few times already, and most of the time, this restaurant has not really dissatisfied me with the food that is offered.
Inexpensive, quick, and friendly staff.
First, the salt baked squid is really good. Hands down.
Got the pan fried pork dumplings.
Great appetizer, love both the texture and sauce that both had which made it tasty overall.
Also got the Pan Fried Noodles with Seafood
Not bad, although the fish cakes and scallops tasted a bit fishy & not cooked thoroughly.
Finally, got the Chicken and Eggplant hot pot.
This dish was really good, but i didn’t expect the sauce used in this dish to be sweet. Usually from other prior restaurants, this dish usually is not sweet.
Overall, Shiao Lan Kung is one of my favorite restaurants in Chinatown that I recommend everyone should try at least once.

Situated on Race street away from the main street of Chinatown (which is 10^th street), this place appears nondescript amongst it’s neighbors but the quality of its food, and that alone, distinguish it. I too would not have tread upon its threshold had Phở Xiet Luan been open on Wednesdays. But here we were and I’m glad to have eaten here.
This place has all the marks of an authentic Chinese restaurant– no frills, very modest table service, meaning no one is going to actively ask how your meal is but if you just look up and look around, a waitress is by your side in a flash. We got the seafood and bean curd hot pot, the chicken and eggplant hotpot, and a third dish whose name I can’t remember (fail, I know). All the dishes were piping hot and flavorful. The portion sizes are moderate, so you’ll definitely fill up but without having leftovers to bring home. Between the three of us, we paid $ 13 each. They do accept credit card but prefer cash. I’ll definitely be back to try their other dishes. I do wish they opened earlier bc they don’t open until 3 pm, but they stay open until 2 AM so that’s probably the reason.

Twenty-​five of us were looking for a late night eatery, and a quick search on Unilocal led us to this Chinatown restaurant. Initially, the server said over the phone that they are able to host a group of this size, but the interior turned out a lot smaller than we had envisioned. Upon entering, you will see a score of small tables tightly stacked together and two larger ones in the back. Seated elbow to elbow, we easily took over this hole in the wall for several hours on this very late evening.
Shrimp Wonton Soup ($ 15.75÷4 people serving size): Great size of pork and shrimp wontons, perfectly thin wrapper, firm shrimp textures, and light tasting soup. One of the best wontons I have tasted. Plenty of wontons for four, but the price was way too high.
Seafood Tofu Hotpot ($ 13.50): The seafood was plump and juicy. Among the seafood, I enjoyed the large slices of fish filets and scallops. The fried tofu cubes were silky soft on each bite. This is my favorite dish of the night. I could sit there and eat the tofu all day.
Chicken with Black Bean Sauce ($ 9.50) Great black bean stir-​fry. Juicy and moist chicken. Great addition of onions and scallions to layer on top of the deepening black bean flavor.
Shredded Chicken Black Bean Pan Fried Noodles ($ 8.50): The noodles were crisp and softened by the black bean stir-​fry. The taste of the chicken was nicely integrated and flavorful. The same can be said about the House Pan-​Fried Noodles with Shrimp, Chicken, and Beef ($ 14.50), as there was a good amount of toppings to go around, and the noodles were crisp and soft in all the right places.
Beef with Scallion and Ginger ($ 10.50): The scallion and ginger stir-​fry had good form to add to the tender and flavorful slices of beef. This was one of the highlights of the night.
Vegetarian Singapore Noodles with Tofu ($ 10.50): Nice curry flavor, and the noodles were fried to dry with good separation. However, I thought the additional $ 2 charge on the tofu was a rip off. Since we ordered so much food, I didn’t like how they nickled and dimed us on this particular plate.
Beef Ho Fun ($ 9.50): The thick flat noodles were slippery and easy to separate. The beef again was tender and flavorful with good chew. This was another highlight for us.
Asparagus Chicken ($ 12.95): Nice thick and firm asparagus and the thick chicken slices were easy to bite into. They seemed to be able to bring out the flavors in simple dishes in complicated way.
Shrimp Fried Rice ($ 7.95): Wok fried rice with eggs, onions, and bean sprout. Nice texture coming from the onions and bean sprouts as the rice was airy and dried. The scrambled egg added a finesse element, and the wok fried flavor made it delicious.
Overall, the flavors on each dish were surprisingly tasty, had good form steeped in Cantonese traditions, nice wok fry wow factor, and tremendous food temperature. In addition to my complaints about the prices, each dish also came out one at a time, prompting those who ordered last to get their food when everyone else had already finished. Structurally, this was probably not the most ideal place for a group of our size. Given the number of competitions in the area, I would only return for late night small gatherings, and all food, no-​frills experiences.

My boyfriend loves this place but I am not sure why. Aside from some of their plates being really cute and it not being very busy so you get the place almost to yourself, the food was just okay, the portions were terrible and their credit card machine «works sometimes and sometimes doesn’t».
My friends and I came here last night for dinner and ordered 5 dishes:
’ Veggies that I didn’t eat.
’ Jellyfish: my friends said there wasn’t much taste but I thought it was okay. I liked how soft it was and not too chewy.
’ Mayo Shrimp aka Honey Walnut Shrimp: this was okay except for the bottom being very watery. Depending on which piece you get, the shrimp batter tasted funny.
+ Chicken with Black Bean Sauce: I might just like the sauce for this but it was pretty good. When it first came out, I thought it was tofu. The chicken didn’t really look like chicken.
— Soft Shell Crabs: they gave us possible 1 or 2 crab. I think it was more like 1 cut into bits with lots of batter around the rest of the plate. It looked like someone’s leftovers. This was very disappointing. If you want to serve less, at least serve it on a smaller plate so it looks better.
The service was good; our water was constantly being refilled.
Now it is time to pay. Depending on how much you want to put on the card their machine may be «broken»; «works some times.» Our bill came out to be about $ 66 before tip. All of us had cash except for 1 person. The lady was standing at our table, waiting while we still chatted and was taking money out.
At first, my friend was going to give them the cash and put the rest on the card; the lady was fine with that. But as soon as she said to put the whole things on the card instead, she said the machine is «broken». When my friend said she didn’t have cash, the lady said (rough translation) ‘how much cash do you have, I can put the rest on the card.‘
So is the machine broken or not?

Where can you go on a weekend night leading into the early hours of the morning and find a great Chinese place. No I am not talking about the places where there is 3 inches of glass separating you from them either. What I am talking about is a sit down establishment in the Chinatown district of Philly. Shiao Lan Kung is the spot to go to my friends.
As our night of wreck less abandonment came to an end of going to different bars we needed to fill a void. (Jason K. and I) What came to mind was Chinese, with the help of Unilocal,Shiao Lan looked like that place. Mind you this was around 1:45 am and they were open with a few tables being served. This was great we thought, authentic Chinese cuisine, everything prepped fresh, not frozen, with a server always making sure you’re fully accommodated.
We sat at a table with the complimentary house tea being served, which was OK for me. I needed a break from the intake of alcohol that evening, my liver thanked me. As we were sipping our server brought out 3 different dishes of dipping sauces in chili oil, duck sauce, and their house mustard. Right there we knew this was going to be good, with the warm crispy noodles served to us to start munching away.
Our meal started off with:
— Hand made Egg Rolls, these were nice in size that was busting from the seams. I have never had an egg roll this good, yes I know its an egg roll, but I’m telling you this was great.
— Steamed Pork Dumpling’s (8 total) in a soy sauce that was simply delicious. Filled just right, with a great flavor to it. Mix it with the house mustard or chili oil provided and you have brought yourself to a whole different level.
— Beef with Ginger and Scallions. Tender pieces of beef beautifully marinaded that just melted in your mouth with every bite. The ginger and scallions aroma alone would make your mouth water. Mine is right now as I am remembering it.
— Singapore Noodles. This dish of thin noodles, angel hair like was perfectly spiced with curry with nice sized shrimp and pork mixed in this was a phenomenal dish that was enjoyed. Add a little more to it with the chili oil or house mustard and watch your pours open up with sweat.
–Dry Chicken with Black Bean. Another dish we enjoyed with the chicken that seemed like it was marinated in this spicy black bean sauce. A nice flavorful rush to the taste buds with every bite.
Great dinning experience, with everything that was ordered, they also gave us a bowl of white rice to mix and match. What else could you ask for, with everything tasting the way it did.
Nice little spot for anyone to go in and enjoy, clean, very hospitable with prices almost to good to be true. I’d definitely will be back, I plan to make this a stop when I’m going bar crazy in the city.