Wednesday, January 12, 2011

CLOSED! chinese: i strongly recommend SHANGHAI FANS



a/o 4/2011 CLOSED!

SHANGHAI FANS
or SHANG FAN GUANG
No. 3, Xinyi Road, Sec. 3
(02) 2707-5027

MRT: DaAn or ZhongXiao/Xinsheng

hours: 11:30AM -2PM; 5PM-9PM

$$

Kid friendliness: high chairs available

Visit reviewed: 6/5/2010



Shanghai Fans is a solid alternative to the nearby original location of the crazily popular Din Tai Fung, especially for those with large groups or families with three floors of seating and private rooms available upstairs. Like any good Chinese restaurant, it has a huge extensive menu barely covered by what was ordered in this dinner, but unfortunately, the menu is only in Chinese with few pictures, so you should bring a Chinese reader with you.

The restaurant has that old school feeling and the prices are very reasonable for the family style portions. My aunt usually does all the ordering, and many of these dishes are featured on their "Top 10" dishes menu. That's usually my problem in taking so long to blog about Chinese restaurants- they don't have an English menu, someone else is ordering and I'm too busy chowing down to figure out what is what since everything tastes good.

The Crab roe tofu pot has a creamy, sweet flavor along with the silky tofu. I love this over a bowl of rice.



Make yourself a little pork belly sandwich with the sesame buns and braised Dongpo Pork. You can see the fat glistening off the pork belly and also on your lips when you're done devouring it.



The pan fried spring onion pancakes here are fat and twisty, with the spring onions stuffed inside, which may turn off some who don't like the strong scallion texture and flavor.



At Shanghai Fans, the xiao long bao is more of a side dish than the main event, but still satisfies. Those more adventurous can also try the si gua xiao long bao or loofah and shrimp.



Huge pot of Corn and egg soup so everyone can have a bowl or two.



Other dishes I've had before that I recommend ordering are the Shanghainese Pork Ham and Pork soup which has a milky white broth that beats any ramen broth I've had before, the cabbage and peanut slaw, and red bean paste in sesame pastry dessert. Or you can have a bowl of the sweet green mung bean soup.



Chinese food is such ubiquitous thing in the US, but it's sort of stereotyped and simplified along the lines of dishes expected from a take-out menu- beef and broccoli, chow mein, egg rolls, kung pao chicken or even more Americanized, orange chicken (which I admit, I grew up on and like to eat sometimes). But in reality, Chinese food is so diverse and more than what's offered at Panda Express the same way that American food is more than what's sold at McD's. And there's so many great Chinese restaurants in Taipei that I've eaten at- it's been great having this blog to learn more about what is from where, and I'll try my best to keep figuring out the best way to capture and articulate and share my experiences here.

8 comments:

黃愛玲 said...

That's on my to do list. =)

The Thirsty Pig said...

The sesame buns and braised Dongpo Pork look so yummy!

I miss Taipei. Taipei is such fun place. But I am getting to like Shanghai more and more.

Pandalicious said...

tofu soup and XLB look amaze! :D

gaga said...

Mmm, you ordered all of my favorites! I'm so jealous that you get to eat food like this whenever you want!

joanh said...

黃愛玲: cool! come back and post what you think if you try it out.

Thirsty Pig: You must be finding so many good eats in Shanghai!

Pandalicious: it was good! thanks for commenting!

gaga: haha! thanks to relatives who know what to order! thanks for commenting!

Nel:thanks!

Kior said...

I am sorry, But I have to tell you !! The Food is sucks, they have no ideal what is Shanghai Food, and there is NO SERVICE. I have order food at 6:45 pm, we told them to serve around 7:15pm. The first dish they serve is Vegetable Rice...............( Are they Insane? Where is the Cold dishes and Hot dishes? ) Fish Hot Pot is like they put in all the leave over from last night. Vegetable is older than the rude owner of Shanghai Fans. I try to order some drinks, but there is only one waitress at the 1 floor, and the owner and his wife never come and help. PLS try "浙寧榮榮園" or "Yin Yi Restaurant", they are okey, but for sure they are serving Shanghai Food.

joanh said...

Kior- thanks for sharing your experience. I haven't been there in awhile so it's good to hear about yours. I based on my review on everything my aunt ordered and we had decent service. Sorry to hear you had a bad experience- you can try Shanghai Shanghai as well for Shangai food.

Jane L. said...

it's closed! :(

:)