Friday Food: Joe's Shanghai

For the most recent installment of our regular dinners out, Katie, Jim and I went to Joe's Shanghai on Pell Street in Chinatown. We'd never been before, but I had walked by it after Christmas dinner at Nom Wah and took note of the massive crowd waiting to be seated. I got home and immediately looked it up on Yelp to see why it was such a popular destination. After reading tons of reviews raving about the Xiao Long Bao, or soup dumplings, I decided that it was worth a try.

I was concerned that we would have to wait a while to be seated (a common complaint) but at 7pm on Monday night we got in right away. The tables are large, so unless you have a party of 8, you'll most likely be seated with strangers. The tables are big enough that it's really not an issue, although it was bit hard to carry on a conversation since the three of us were all seated in a row. The first thing we were asked is if we wanted crab or pork dumplings, since I guess it's assumed by now that most everyone is there for their signature dish. We ordered pork (Jim and I aren't huge seafood fans) to share, and I wasn't starving so I opted out of ordering my own entrée. I did have a few bites of Jim's sesame chicken, which was perfectly tasty but not particularly memorable.

I'd never had a soup dumpling before, so I can't compare them to anything else, but I can definitely understand the appeal. You get a lot for your money (8 dumplings for $4.95, which falls perfectly within range of my magical $5 price point) and they were surprisingly filling. They are basically exactly what they sound like, which is a dumpling filled with hot (and sometimes VERY hot), delicious soup broth and a ball of meat/filling. They have the potential to be extremely messy or dangerous if you get too excited, but if you take your time they're actually quite simple to eat. The key is to plop the dumpling on your spoon, take a bite out of the top and slowly sip most of the soup before popping the remainder in your mouth. I appreciate any Chinese dish that provides me with a utensil more substantial than chopsticks alone, and believe me when I say that the spoon is your best friend when it comes to soup dumplings.

Yes, the service left a little to be desired (which I expected from the reviews), but it was adequate and an example of "you get what you pay for." I will definitely go back for the soup dumplings and if the reviews are to be trusted, I shouldn't really bother trying them anywhere else. Would I wait in a crowd like the one I passed on Christmas just for the dumplings? Probably not, but at least now I know why it's such a popular spot — even if I'm no closer to being able to actually pronounce the words Xiao Long Bao.