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| - 4.5 stars rounded up to 5. Came in with low expectations due to the reviews being all over the place, but were pleasantly surprised.
Note: we were not in a sweet mood so we didn't try the boba.
The xiao long bao were small as some have mentioned, and did visually resemble frozen 99 Ranch XLB, but they were much tastier, albeit a bit ghetto in presentation, having been steamed on paper towels instead of steamer liner paper or cabbage or lettuce. Still, they were a refreshing respite from all the sweet abominations I've been subjected to in my search for replacement XLB in the wake of the closing of Supreme Dragon in Diamond Bar, CA and the downhill-going of J & J in Alhambra, CA, my two favorite XLB establishments outside of NYC (Joe's Shanghai Cafe and Yeah Shanghai) and Hong Kong (Peking Lau, which I'm not even sure still exists anymore).
The pork potstickers were also quite good, juicy and thick-skinned, though not as good or as thick as the recently-defunct Shanghai Old Kitchen in Chino, CA (why does everything I love on the west coast have to close down?!?). I'm back to having to trek back to my old NY/NJ stomping grounds to get decent thick pork dumplings.
The hot tea was free and it was piping hot and jasmine, so I was happy.
Service was not bad. It's a casual boba place so you go up to the register to order, they don't take your order tableside.
Would definitely come back to try more items on the menu.
UPDATE:
We got a green milk tea boba the second time we came but when we asked for it to have no extra sugar, she said, "I'll try but it won't taste good." This is how we always get it and we like it, so it was insulting for her to say this to us. I'm not one of those people who uses the phrase "the customer is always right" to justify all kinds of unreasonable customer behavior, but I do think that she could have found a nicer way to tell us she thought we were wrong. We are obviously not the only ones who want our boba this way, since many boba shops offer different sweetness levels, INCLUDING non-sweet (technically probably no added sweetener, since it's still slightly sweet from the boba syrup). That said it came to us exactly right and tasted as expected: milky, tea-y, with just a hint of sweetness punctuated by sweet chewy boba.
Shanghai chow nin go was the wrong flavor profile but at least the rice cakes were nice and Q (chewy). This was made with chicken and did not have pork, beef, shrimp, spinach, or shiitake mushrooms. It was on the slightly sweet side and had too much cabbage. Would not get again, but it wasn't inedible.
Niu rou mien were not handmade but they were nicely cooked with a good amount of chew. The beef was tender and had a good bit of tendon-y bits (YMMV if you don't like tendon) but the broth was a bit bland and not spicy enough. It also had a hint of a strange flavor that wasn't bad per se but wasn't a taste I expect from this dish. Would get again.
Chung yao bang (green onion "pancake" - similar to Indian roti) were also nicely chewy but did not have enough green onions. Would also get again.
XLB were still small, still good flavor, but not soupy enough and not hot enough - these are supposed to burn if you don't take your time carefully biting a small hole and blowing and slurping your way through it until it cools off enough to take tiny bites of it. NOT be cool enough you can pop one in your mouth casually like a chocolate bonbon. That said, I would still get this again.
Still have yet to make our foray into the sui gao (boiled dumpling) or dry noodle parts of the menu. That's next on the agenda.
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