Dish on Dining: Bund Shanghai

640 Jackson St., San Francisco
Chinatown
Open 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily
Major credit cards accepted, no reservations
It’s rare to find good food in Chinatown, so I was especially excited to read my friend Foodhoe’s post about Bund Shanghai, which opened earlier this year in the heart of San Francisco’s Chinatown.
Bund Shanghai, as the name suggests, focuses on Northern Chinese cuisine. Bund is actually what the Shanghainese call their waterfront. (I visited the bund 20 years ago fresh out of high school and it looked like an industrial mess with its murky water and endless row of old shipping freighters. Not sure whether it has modernized any along with that city’s emergence as a world financial powerhouse.)
The restaurant itself is quite contemporary, with a couple of flat screens tuned into CNN. Everyone who works there speaks Mandarin, so points for authenticity.
The menu has a mix of small plates known as dim sum (but with Northern specialties instead of what you find at the popular Cantonese dim sum tea houses) along with noodles (soup and fried) and entrée plates. Vera and I started with a few dim sum plates, including the red bean puff ($3.95) and traditional Xiao Lung Bao ($6.95).


Bund Shanghai’s version was great. The skin (which is a big factor in the eating process) was a nice thin layer, which is a big plus for me. I’ve had some that were thick and dumpy. Vera says she would have preferred the skin even thinner, which we both agree we’ve only seen done well, ironically, at Cantonese dim sum places. Still, I totally enjoyed the steamer of xiao lung bao.

To me, this was like eating white bread without peanut butter or jelly. I didn’t get it. Sure, Bund Shanghai’s mantou was perfectly steamed and when I looked closely I could see intricate air pockets within the bread. But unless you dipped it in the condensed milk, it was pretty bland. Then Vera had the audacity to compare it to Hawaii sweet bread, which is one of MY childhood favorites.
Now all my Hawaii folks back me up here, Hawaiian sweet bread (especially from the former King’s Bakery) is amazingly light and airy but had an incredible subtle sweetness. I could totally eat a slice by itself without anything spread on it.

Quite full by this time, we still decided to try something sweet (as if the red bean puffs and condensed-milk laden mantou weren’t enough). So Vera ordered the Sesame Seed Mochi Balls in Soup ($4.50).

When you bit into the mochi balls, the black sesame liquid oozed out and totally created unusual scenes in your bowl that just a few minutes ago was a blank white canvas. I liked the black sesame filling, but I have to admit I’m not a fan of steamed mochi. Only because they can be bland and a definite choking hazard for young kids and older adults. (In Japan, you always hear about old people choking to death around the new year because sweetened mochi soup is one of the popular traditional new year dishes.)
As we finished off our mochi balls, the room started to finally fill up a bit (so odd since it was almost 2 p.m.). I guess Bund Shanghai must do brisk lunch business during the weekdays, but that’s a shame because the quality of the food is so good that it should be packed all the time. I can’t wait to return to explore the other Northern Chinese dishes on the menu.
Single guy rating: 3.75 stars (Sweet and Savory)
Explanation of the single guy's rating system:
1 star = perfect for college students
2 stars = perfect for new diners
3 stars = perfect for foodies
4 stars = perfect for expense accounts
5 stars = perfect for any guy's dream dinner
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