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| - A newcomer to the Spring Mountain scene, I'm glad Shanghainese cuisine is starting to make itself known to the Vegas Asian food scene joining the ranks of Bund Shanghai, Edamame, and 1900 Asian Cuisine.
With my father's side being of Shanghainese ancestry, perhaps it is somewhat of a birthright for me to evaluate the quality of such aforementioned cuisine. Having sampled all the other restaurants except for Edamame, I can say that A&K is the best of the bunch, but I wish the others well since competition will only push and sustain the quality of offerings all around.
A little primer on Shanghainese cuisine: the flavors tend to involve dishes enhanced with salted meats/preserved vegetables, often blending sweet with savory, lots of seafood (being close to the sea), and all kinds of wondrous carbalicious concoctions involving dumplings baked/fried/steamed, savory rice cakes, thick pan-fried noodles, and buns filled with meat/chinese veggies.
Xiao long bao (soup dumplings) and sheng jian bao (pan-fried pork buns) are popular staple items that are fun to share in groups dipped in some vinegar and ginger so be sure to try these if they are available on the menu. If you've been spoiled by places in Taiwan or LA/Vancouver, it may not be up to par, but it definitely satisfies the craving.
The sweet and sour spare ribs are just like my mother's recipe, a delicate balance between soy sauce, rice wine, rice vinegar, and sugar glazed and crisped to perfection around wok charred spare ribs meant to be enjoyed immediately to retain the fragrance off of the wok. Don't even dare mistaking this dish's namesake with the Panda Express concoction with the toxic red sauce and deep-fried styrofoam coating in their sweet and sour dishes, this is the real deal!
The dungeness crab served with rice cakes was the real show stopper (see photo). Fresh crab coated with a wondrous trinity of ginger/garlic/scallion is delicious enough on its own, but add a bed of glutinous pan-fried rice cakes with chili paste, and one's tastebuds are transported to Shanghai Shangri-la. If you're feeling less spendy and indulgent, the rice cakes with pickled cabbage or chinese spinach is a good alternative.
There was a soup dish on the menu whose name I can't recall that contained salted pork, chinese squash, and thin squares of scrambled egg with a frittata-like consistency, that provided a nice contrast to the typical bold dishes described above with delicate flavors and velvety textures, so if you see something close to that description, it is a nice intermission between the fireworks of flavor noted above.
Some dishes that missed the mark were the salted pork soup with tofu skins (a bit too salty) and the fried yellow fish with pickled vegetables (great flavor but the wet ingredients negated the crispy coating on the fish).
All in all, a solid addition to the neighborhood with tasty Shanghainese dishes that won't leave you feeling Shanghai-ed.
Pro-tip: They have fresh pressed juices (most including carrot) that are on the house if your food bill exceeds a specific threshold (somewhere in the 30s I think), providing a nice palate cleanser post-dinner.
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