First I ran into their sister restaurant Jiangnan Culture in Milpitas Square. I grabbed their menu and ordered takeout from Shanghai No. One a couple of weeks later.
I drove up to the restaurant and was dismayed to find that Shanghai No. One replaced Kumino China. I asked the hostess and was told that the ownership changed before COVID hit.
I ordered some standard Shanghainese dishes and was pleasantly surprised they were well cooked. Homey and yummy. Most of the times I was disappointed at Shanghai food in the Bay Area but they did well in all 3 dishes.
The soup with salted ham, bamboo, and fresh pork (and hence the name). Very delicious. Seasoned just right and not overly salty like its almost the case with everywhere else. Comes with fresh and delicious tofu skin knots. I will drink this soup any day. The seasoning in the salted ham is mostly in the soup already. I guess I could argue they should use better ham like jinhua ham but those are way more expensive than a $20 restaurant dish could use. I almost feel like getting me some iberico and attempt to recreate the soup at home since I see fresh bamboo at the market these days.
Ma lan tou- wow. This was outstanding. Both my wife and I did a double take when we took our first bite. They obviously just made this and it showed. Highly recommended.
Steamed chicken noodle soup. I got takeout so you couldn’t see it. But this noodle soup theoretically come in its own small soup container that’s typically used in more delicate soup in China. It didn’t look like much but the soup was very good. All the chicken essence concentrated into the broth. The chicken itself was also tasty as well.
I was very impressed by our second meal, since decent Shanghai restaurants are rarer than rare around the Bay Area. And that prompted us to get takeout a week later again…
Xiao long bao (6): Never something that traveled very well, so the skin was a little dry by the time it got home. But its not the kitchen’s problem. I think eating it on premise would be a much better experience. Decent.
Steamed beef noodle soup: I wanted to try their soup pot noodle with a different meat so I tried their beef noodle soup. Came with a clear and relatively unseasoned beef broth. While it was nice with chunks of beef and offals, I preferred the chicken version.
