For those of you that celebrate the Lunar New Year, gung hay fat choy! M and I decided to head over to Ala Shanghai for a light lunch and welcome in the year of the snake. And just as expected, the place was packed. Most people made reservations, but luckily there was an open table for us.
The meal was primarily vegetarian, but I had to get the pork soup dumplings. I mean, come on… soup dumplings. Delicious as they should be. I didn’t realize it before, but one of the little dishes of sauce was on the sour side. Perhaps it’s a dark vinegar? Better on the spring rolls than on the dumplings.
Soupy dumplings aside, the rest of the dim sum consisted of scallion pancakes, spring rolls, and these vegetable dumplings. I may have had them before, but I can’t remember. I didn’t like these at all. The filling is minced, which is fine, but it was a bit on the mushy side and too mushroom heavy. It tasted like they used reconstituted shitake mushrooms, which unless really drained, has a weird taste to it. The spring rolls were crispy as they should be, but the inside was mush. And it’s mostly cabbage in there… and mushy tasteless cabbage is the worst.
I didn’t think the dim sum would be enough, so I ordered some vegetable lo mein. A safe enough option for a picky eater, but it was pretty underwhelming. It reminded me of pancit canton (which basically that is) only it needed more seasoning. Maybe if I had some chili oil or chili paste I would have sung a different tune.
When I asked M what he thought of the place, he said he really liked the scallion pancakes and that was it. He also said if we were to go out again for dim sum, we should go somewhere else. And as much as I hate to admit it… I agree with him.
Sorry all you AS lovers out there, it’s just not our thing.
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