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| - Not bad! The famous Xiao Lung Bao is worth its reputation, or at least it was when I went. The filling was good, the burst of hot broth inside makes for a cool novelty, and the fresh ginger on the side makes it even better. I also ate the pan-friend Shanghai dumplings, which had a nice green onion flavor along with the cripsy-fried dough taste. They didn't blow my mind, but they were fine. I wouldn't drive across town for them. I ate the spicy pig ear appetizer, which offers something fairly unusual for a nice price of less than $5. It's a heaping dish of cold slices of stir-friend pig ear, which has a crunch reminiscent of tripe, drenched in chili oil and (I think) sesame oil. It was fun to eat pig ear, but the flavor was a little boring. I think a better quality of chili oil could make the difference. Last and least, I ate the salt-and-pepper squid, which came deep-fried in fluffy tempura-like batter. It had salt all right, but I'm not sure if there was any pepper. It also had some fried garlic and green onion. It was kind of boring too, but at least the squid was nice and tender and not hard to chew. Everything was fine here and the staff was nice, so there's nothing really bad to say about it. It just didn't rock me. I saw some people getting huge dishes of Kung-Pao chicken and other whitey treats, so I know that they give you your money's worth. If you go here, I'd recommend that you bring a friend and get a few smaller dishes (dumplings, etc) instead of full-on entrees. Also try to make sure you don't get too many dishes that rely on green onion for flavor, because the China Mama seems pretty crazy about green onion and you don't want to end up having a private green onion festival at your table.
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