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| - Came here for dinner unexpectedly, suggested by family from a recommendation from mom's coworker, and recently visited by some friends as well. Liang's Kitchen used to be in Chinatown but I guess recently moved (within 1-2 years). Weird that it had moved to a location where it has changed a few times and next to a real estate brokerage. Liang's Kitchen was a restaurant I was familiar with having in San Jose a few years ago. Popular Taiwanese style cuisine known for their noodles and other items.
Xiao Long Bao (8) - Steamed dumplings with pockets of soup within. When done well, its amazing. When we got our two orders, we had started to eat them as soon as it was delivered. Upon delivery to table, they already looked a bit shriveled up. When eating the XLB, some had maybe a few drops, some maybe a little more. None of the XLB where plump and full of soup. The meat texture was rough and a bit overcooked feeling.
Pan Fried Chive/Pork Buns (6) - "shang jian bao" is typically a "bao" filled with pork or other ingredients, cooked in a pan from raw to where the bottom half of the bun forms a really crispy/crunchy crust with the top half still being soft. Their version has a very minimal crust to where it almost seemed like they pan fried it for a minute or two, and threw it all into the steamer. The bun itself was very "soft and moist" on the outside. You have the choice of chive or pork or you can split the 6 buns half pork and half chive. Those with chive will be differentiated with a sprinkle of black sesame seeds on top. Filling flavor wise was nice and not over-done. Pork style is mainly pork. Chives is mainly with chives, glass noodles, and egg.
Mama's Special Pan Fried Chive/Pork Buns (8) - "shui jian bao" apparently a derivative of the "traditional" "shang jian bao - pan fried bun", is an interesting dish. Similar to a pan fried bun but they pan-fry the buns with either some water or broth creating a crispy bottom later, similar to what you may have seen in other restaurants done with dumplings called maybe "crystal dumplings". The crispy bottom layer is yummy to eat itself and often not enough for people to pick at XD. Surprisingly, being a "water-fried" bao, the bao itself was "drier" than the pan fried bun previously. Didn't exactly make sense. LOL. Same as the previous pan fried bun, they are offered in a chive or pork version and able to split half and half. Same type of filling.
Beef Roll - typical style beef roll where thinly sliced beef with cilantro and sauce rolled in a green onion pancake style of wrap. 2 wraps cut into 4 servings each per order. Nothing special but not bad either. Would have preferred a little more beef. Seemed a little lacking in amount. Sauce amount was good. Not too much, not too little.
Pork stuffed Pocked Bread (4) - out of the buns/wraps, this was probably the best. little hard to describe but ill try my best. From my speculation, these are similar to those "jian bing" in shanghai where they create a thin crepe-like wrap, add ingredients, and fold to create a closed pocket. Cook the sides enough to create a crispy texture, cut in half, and serve. As the name may suggest, they are minced pork stuffed "pockets". Kind of similar to this chive pocket that I love eating. Would be great if they added chives to this too but the pork itself was nice and flavorful. Additional $3 gets you 2 more pieces.
Shanghai style thick noodles - one of the two suggested items by mom's coworkers and one of my two favorite items to order in terms of shanghai cuisine. To my disappointment though, they did NOT use thick noodles... if in fact, they were fairly thin noodles. Flavor wise, was pretty nice. Not too salty. Just sad about the noodles. That's one of my favorite aspects of this dish. Also has thin pieces of pork, spinach, and napa cabbage cooked with the noodles as well.
Shanghai style rice cakes - the other favorite item I usually order. Amount wise, it was a little smaller than expected. Flavor, same as the thick noodles. Though TBH, besides the difference of noodles vs rice cake, I think they are almost the same XD.
Lion's Head in Hot Pot - my family's favorite dish of the meal. Lion's head is a shanghai staple item often known as the "Chinese meatball". Lol cooked and braised to a perfection in a hot pot. Soft meatball soaked in flavor. its almost hard not to eat a bowl or two of rice with this. My uncle and cousin went through a few bowls themselves on this dish alone. HAHA. Outer layer of meatball dusted in a starch of some kind and fried, creating a skin similar to a fried tofu, then braised in a savory sauce. Oh so good :)
Funny, them being a Taiwanese based restaurant, they did better on shanghai dishes than the Taiwan ones. Granted some are Taiwanese as well but some may understand.
Overall, not bad of a place. Pricey though. Id probably return for the lions head hot pot or similar but not the dumplings/bao.
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