Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao - best xiao long bao (soup dumplings) in NYC
I've been meaning to try Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao for a long time, but there is always a pretty serious line and for whatever reason i've never had time to go. I finally got to go on President's day for a late lunch (3pm) with my gf (sort of overboard on Chinese New Year's eating...I went there and then to Lu's for pork chop rice). Nan Xiang is on Prince between 38th and 39th, it doesn't have an english sign and the onning is red (if you look on yelp there is a picture on the onning). A little lesson in food, Nan Xiang is the name of the area where soup dumplings were invented.
It's laid out almost exactly the same as Canton Gourmet, which is next door. You walk in and there are some tables and area where you can see them steaming XLB, on the left there is another doorway which leads into another room that is cramped with tables. While the decor is plain (wooden tables and plain white walls) it was very clean and new looking for chinese restaurant.
The service was generally fine, but the XLB took forever to come out (like 40 mins). I was getting annoyed as was the table next to me who was yelling at the waitress the whole time about how bad the service was etc. I think it had to do with the kitchen not the waitress, so i did feel sort of bad for the waitress who kept apologizing and was being really nice about the whole thing.
The menu is very short consisting of typical taiwanese / shanghaiese breakfast items (sweet and salty soy bean milk, you tiao etc), some cold shanghainese appetizers, soup dumplings, a few noodle and soup dishes. They keep it short and specialize, which is exactly how I like things done.
Anyhow, onto the food:
- scallion oil noodles (cong you ban mian): this is a bowl of thin noodles with a sauce made out of soy sauce and scallion oil I believe; I think the scallions were browned, fermented and put in the oil. This version was much better than the version at Taste of Shanghai (http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/647259). The noodles were reasonably al dente, they weren't hand pulled, but they were good; they remind me of ramen. The sauce was very nice and not too salty and had great flavor from the scallion. Both my gf and I both thought it was good. I actually ordered it thinking it would be small (cost $3.50), but it was a big bowl if I had eaten it alone I would've been full. I would definitely get this again
- sweet soy bean milk (tian dou jiang): this was just hot sweet soy bean milk, it was good, not chalky and clean tasting. My gf thought it was a little watery, but we are probably spoiled as the last time I had fresh soy bean milk was in Taipei 2 months ago at Yong He Dou Jiang Wang, which is by far the best taiwanese / shanghainese breakfast I've ever had. Overall, this was good and better than most places in NY
- soup dumplings with crab meat (xie fen xiao long bao): while I like XLB alot, I'm not obsessed with them like alot of people are, so I wasn't like aching for these, but I was pleasantly surprised with the high quality of these XLB as I've sort of trained myself for disappointment in NY. This is the first good batch I've had in NY and having just eaten at Din Tai Fung in Taipei I've got a good comparison to go on. The skins were much better than any of the other places in NY, normally I've found XLB in NY to be too doughy and not tender enough, here they were not too doughy and were tender. They weren't quite as delicate as Din Tai Fung, which has exceptionally delicate skins, but they were good. The filling was what really set them apart from most of the mediocre XLB in NY, all of the places in NY have overly heavy and greasy filling. Not the case here, the filling was very good, the meat was tender and the soup was very flavorful but not greasy and heavy. Overall, we both thought these were very good and I definitely think these are the best XLB in NYC by a long shot.
It was a good meal and while I'll warn people that a) this place usually has a wait and b) be prepared to wait for your XLB if you want XLB this is the place to go in NYC. I also really want to come back for breakfast as their breakfast items looked really good. Highly recommend
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After a long tour of Flushing (Best North Dumplings, Shandong Dumpling, Wang-Zheng's Halal Snacks, Old Wang Ji, duck buns at the Corner 28 window) we stopped in at 4pm (no line!).
Two orders of pork soup dumplings (really good as usual, broth was maybe a little greasier than before). Seem almost too slouchy for the soup spoons! Also had the scallion pancake with beef (very good as well). Pancake could have been a little flakier, but I didn't mind.
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Corner 28
40-28 Main St, Queens, NY 11354›23 Replies-
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re: c oliver
Ha, I kind of broke it up:
Best North
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/738176Shandong Dumpling, Wang-Zheng's Halal Snacks, Old Wang Ji
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/6672...
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re: scoopG
He was very disappointed that his hangover prevented Sichuan in Flushing yesterday... so I have a feeling some Szechuan Gourmet (in Manhattan) may be next.
Lau's tip on the LIRR is really great for the way back. At 6pm we were on the platform, train came at 6:06pm, we were at Penn Station by 6:30pm, and caught an express train back home. I was sitting on my couch by 6:45pm!
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Szechuan Gourmet
135-15 37th Ave, Queens, NY 11354-
re: kathryn
buttertart
Oct 4, 2010 08:12 AM
If you go to SG there are two great dishes on the whiteboard (or were Saturday anyway) - chicken (small deepfried cubes) with 3 chilis that is mindblowing, as ma as it is la, the flavor goes on and on in your mouth, and the sliced pork or chicken with (smoked) dried bamboo shoots. Tastes like the best ham ever. Their potstickers are straight out of the Taipei playbook, thin skins, loose filling, my favorites in the city.
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re: kathryn
buttertart
Oct 4, 2010 08:21 AM
Hit and miss, but these are special specials. Yikes, $20 for doumiao? Were they gilded? ;-)
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re: bigjeff
buttertart
Oct 5, 2010 06:08 AM
Did you have them in China? If so were they the really fine ones, not the horse fodder you sometimes get here? The fine ones are great. In middle of pic below - at Wang Si, Suzhou (and sometimes you get them finer).
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re: Lau
buttertart
Oct 5, 2010 06:58 AM
They probably don't travel well. Where are the vegetables sold in Chinatown largely grown, I wonder - most from CA I think.
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re: Lau
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re: squid kun
bigjeff
Oct 6, 2010 02:00 PM
yeah you guys got it good. one of my favorite vegetables is "lung-xui-cai" or Dragon's Beard Vegetable, aka chayote shoots. yep, chayote!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ckgurl/2... [not my photo
]my parents grow it in their backyard (right from the seed of some chayote that I bought in a mexican market) and it takes quite a lot to harvest a good sized bundle but I was in Cali and they had it in the friggin' supermarket by the bundle!
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re: squid kun
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re: buttertart
scoopG
Oct 5, 2010 10:34 AM
Much of it comes from Hunts Point, the largest food distribution center in the world!
http://www.huntspoint.com/huntspoint_...The key is getting them at the "first cut" stage when they the freshest.
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re: scoopG
You can sometimes find snow pea shoots near the sprouts in the vegetable section at Fairway. They're super-fine - almost like alfalfa sprouts (so fine the stems sometimes get threaded through my teeth). The flavor isn't as developed as the more mature ones, but they're good sauteed with garlic nevertheless.
A little known fact about Hunts Point - you can buy a day pass and go get some produce without having to go through the middle man. Some vendors will sell small quantities, but most will want you to buy in bulk.
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re: Greg
buttertart
Oct 5, 2010 02:21 PM
The ones in Jiangsu are not microgreens, they're shoots but smaller and more tender than the ones commonly served here. As baby spinach is to regular spinach, say.
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We back here the other day, got a few more dishes:
- soup dumplings with crab meat (xie fen xiao long bao): same as last time, very good
- scallion oil noodles (cong you ban mian): i really like this dish and it tasted the same as last time
- beef in scallion pancake (niu rou jia cong bing): this was pretty good, its a scallion pancake that is brushed with hoisin sauce and sliced beef is put in it and its rolled up. This is always a favorite dish of mine if made correctly. Their scallion pancake is a bit too greasy, but its very tasty and very crispy which i like. They put a bit too much hoisin on it too. But overall, i liked this and I'd definitely order it again.
- fried buns (sheng jian bao): these were decent, but not amazing. The bread part was too thin, i prefer it a little thicker and there wasn't enough soup in the middle, the filling was good though. Overall, not a bad rendition, but not an amazing one either
- fried dumplings (guo tie): these were fine, but nothing to write home about. The were cooked well albeit a bit on the greasy side (crispy on the bottom soft on top). The filing was decent, but nothing like blew me away about them
- pork and shitake mushroom rice cakes: I'm not a huge fan of nian gao (prefer noodles), but my friends wanted this, so i ordered it. It had pork strips, sliced shitake mushrooms, scallions and a bunch of seafood (fish, shrimp, squid) stir fried together, decent wok flavor and not too greasy. The niao gao was pretty decent although I like mine cooked just a little more. Overall, it was pretty good especially once you got a little chili oil on it.Pretty solid albeit heavy and a bit more mixed than last time. Overall though this is definitely still the best place for XLB in NY. I plan on getting breakfast next time as alot of people had breakfast and it looked pretty damn good
Btw this time, it was weird, XLB came out in 5-10 mins, other food came out in spurts, but some of it mainly the scallion beef pancake took forever (like 35 mins)...totally weird service here
›13 Replies-
re: Lau
buttertart
Apr 23, 2010 05:55 AM
The best sheng jian bao we've had in ages believe it or not were at the old Yeah Shanghai in Manhattan Chinatown - now Old Sichuan - theirs are more bready outside, and very juicy inside (chicken filling), and cheap - 8 to an order.
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re: Lau
buttertart
Apr 23, 2010 08:37 AM
Seriously, try these. Would be interested to know what you think. (Miss those Taipei beef ones though.)
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re: Lau
buttertart
Apr 23, 2010 10:09 AM
Yes at least as of 2-3 weeks ago (I wouldn't have recommended it if they didn't). Xiaolong tangbao too, they seem to have kept their dumpling maker. XLB are better some times than others.
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re: Pookipichu
Joe MacBu
Feb 18, 2010 09:47 PM
On an occasion or two, I've had to wait that long for the xlb (after an hour long wait to get seated). It's just 2 or 3 ladies making them to order in assembly line style. There are a limited number of steamers and each takes ~10 minutes to cook. Full house = long wait. I've seen them run out of the crab filling and wait for someone to go fetch some more from some distant land.
Make sure to order some other dishes to get you through the wait (I like the scallion noodles and turnip cakes). They usually forget to serve an item but still list it on the bill. I keep returning cuz they are the best xlb in town.
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Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao
38-12 Prince St, Queens, NY 11354 -
re: Pookipichu
yah i ordered as soon as i got down, the other food came fairly quickly like within 5 minutes. As Joe MacBu said I think its b/c of the kitchen that the food took so long. The restaurant was close to full although not 100% full. I think one of the issues was there was a table of 8 that each ordered 1 order per person, like two ladies came out with all these XLB and we were like oh here it is and then they brought it all to one table and i was like omg i'm going to go over there and steal an order from them wth
That said again, I'd def go back as the XLB is literally the only good place i've had in NY...i know people really like XLB on this board and like places like joe's shanghai which in my opinion is mediocre, i think they'll be surprised at how much better a good batch is
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re: Lau
ChiefHDB
Feb 19, 2010 05:32 AM
Dammit, you guys are making me hungry for XLB. It's funny, this is literally the only place I've ever had good XLB. I'm from Ohio, so no good XLB there, and the places I've been to in Manhattan have been terrible. I heard of some good places in Atlanta when I lived down there, but it was so hard to pull myself away from all the unbelievable Latin American food.
I may have to go back to Nan Xiang today.
Check out our flickr set from the last time I went for delicious food porn: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lawandfo...
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re: ChiefHDB
chefjellynow
Feb 22, 2010 10:55 AM
PICS ATTACHED
went today, had XLB and scallion pancake with sliced beef.... outstanding
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re: chefjellynow
buttertart
Feb 22, 2010 11:49 AM
You know the XLB are good when they're a bit slouchy like the ones in the picture. Skins muct be nice and thin.
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re: c oliver
Slouchy indeed, and with the freshest, cleanest tasting soup inside (not gummy like some), and so much soup packed into each one. The scallion pancakes with beef were great too, just the right amount of hoisin sauce and not at all greasy. We got there at 11:15 on Saturday and were seated right away, but when we left there was a line out the door.
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re: c oliver
Miss Needle
Feb 22, 2010 11:12 AM
I've been there around prime lunchtime during a weekday and didn't have to wait. The XLB were brought out in about 10 minutes. The place is crazy on weekends.
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re: Miss Needle
chefjellynow
Feb 22, 2010 11:57 AM
they only took 10 min or so today and were very thin as you all guessed by its slouchy-ness
hehe
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