Jade Dragon - Shanghainese in Daly City

[Pandora]

Has anyone been to Jade Dragon in Daly City? Patricia Unterman's review is intriguing: http://www.sfexaminer.com/lifestyle/F...

Would be particularly interested in how it compares to the Shanghainese in the RIchmond - i.e., Shanghai Dumling King and Shanghai House.

Thanks!

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Shanghai House
3641 Balboa St, San Francisco, CA 94121

Jade Dragon Restaurant
2368 Junipero Serra Blvd, Daly City, CA 94015

[Civil Bear]

I was there with my lunch mates a few weeks ago. We had:
Hot & Sour Soup - better than average
XLB - pretty good, but they sat on steamed cucumbers inside the bamboo baskets, which threw off the taste a bit.
Noodles with Scallion Oil - very tasty
Spicy Shrimp - Nice & crispy ion their shells. Tasted a bit like the noodles though, which wasn't bad, but somewhat redundant.
Lions Head Meatballs - good, but not enough gravy.

So everything was pretty good, though nothing blew us away. As it is pretty close to work, we'll be back to try some of the other dishes.

[RWCFoodie]

A couple of us decided to give it shot the other day, I asked a woman I know who is Shanghainese if she had tried it and what she thought. She told me that she and her father have been going there for about the last 10 years or so since this chef took over and that they like it very much.

We ordered several items that Unterman mentioned and that my friend said they like there. The Shanghainese specialties are on sheets attached to the inside of the front and back cover of the menu.

Here's what we ordered:

8 precious appetizer:
Edamane, diced pressed tofu, peanuts, and preserved bamboo were evident but I would be hard pressed to identify a total of 8 ingredients. Not bad but not memorable either. Served hot in a somewhat gloppy sauce/gravy.

Smoked fish appetizer:
Room temp smoked fish fillets. We liked this but I believe I have had better versions.

Shanghai style sauteed shrimp:
Small shrimp in a clear, light sauce. Served with a saucer of red vinegar. Again, not bad but not particularly special.

Noodles with scallion oil:
We liked this dish. The noodles were cooked to a nice texture. They were dressed with a generous amount of almost crispy 2" lengths of green onion tops. The combination of the noodle and the green onion was tasty but if you got only the noodles they were definitely missing some punch.

Lion's head meatballs over baby bok choy:
A lovely presentation and a generous serving. 4 large meatballs stacked in the usual pyramid stack. While lovely, I don't think it had nearly as much flavor as other versions I've tasted.

Servings were quite ample and we had quite a bit left for another meal. As there were only 3 of us, with a generous tip, it came to $20/pp. Service was pleasant, Our waitress and another woman who looked like she might be the owner or manager came by several times to see if we were happy with our meal.

All things considered, I believe we have several other Shanghainese restaurants in the area, especially on the Peninsula, that are better.

I'll post some pictures in another post (hopefully).

[RWCFoodie]

Wish me luck: I'm going to try adding photos, I'm not much of a photographer and my camera is getting really old...

[Cynsa]

You're just too modest; the shrimp glistens, the noodles look al dente, the smoked fish looks lovely and the meatballs juicy! Makes me salivate! Excellent pix, RWCFoodie! Are you tasting more dishes on 11/10?

[RWCFoodie]

Thanks Cynsa - poor old camera with it's dents and scratches and low mega pixels... Asian Pearl in Millbrae on 11/10; haven't been there in a couple of years - will probably post :-)

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Peninsula Asian Pearl
1671 El Camino Real, Millbrae, CA 94030

[charliemyboy]

I thought two out of our five dishes were quite good and the others were just OK.

The smoked fish was a little sweet along with the savory and was my favorite taste of the meal.

The noodles with scallions were also very good. The spaghetti-sized noodles were cooked just right, and the crispy scallion tops had great flavor.

The shrimp was very ordinary.

The little bits of preserved mini-bamboo in the 8 Precious appetizer were very pleasantly crunchy but overall the dish was just good but not special.

In my past experiences with lion's head meatballs I have had them in clay pots with sauce in the bottom. The meatballs by themselves don't rock me, but when I mix some pieces of meatball with greens and sauce from the bottom over rice I usually really enjoy the result. In this case the presentation of the meatballs on a platter meant I didn't have the quantity of sauce I like and since we didn't order rice I didn't get the mix of meatballs, greens, sauce and rice I usually like. The meatballs were not particularly interesting. When I later ate the leftovers with rice I was able to get my usual mix and enjoyed them much more.

The service was excellent. As RWCFoodie notes, our hostesses checked on us regularly. They were friendly and gracious and seemed genuinely eager to please.

I was satisfied enough that if I lived nearby I would come back, but with excellent options like Little Shanghai just ten minutes from my home I'm not likely to make the half hour drive for another try. It would be a decent option for lunch if you're shopping at the interesting Kukje Korean market directly across Garden Gate Way.

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Little Shanghai
17 E 25th Ave, San Mateo, CA 94403

Jade Dragon Restaurant
2368 Junipero Serra Blvd, Daly City, CA 94015

[Pandora]

Thanks for trying it out. I will definitely keep it in mind if I'm at Kukje - we do go their periodically.

I missed the Little Shanghai reviews somehow - will need to check that out as well.

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Little Shanghai
17 E 25th Ave, San Mateo, CA 94403