We were recently in the mood for noodles and decided to give this place a try. Shandong is located in Oakland Chinatown. We put our name on the waiting list online as we were driving here. This is an extremely popular place and was packed to the rafters on the Saturday evening we went. The wait in total was more than an hour. As we waited on line we heard regulars gush about how wonderful the food is. There was also a very brisk and busy take out service.
Here is what we ate:
Shandong special dumplings. Wrappers were thick and doughy. Filling bland. The least satisfying dumpling I have had in recent memory.
Hot and sour soup. This was just OK.
We were in the mood for noodles, and this place is famous for hand cut noodles. So we try to of the noodle dishes. One was a spicy noodle dish and the other was the Zha-cai Noodles Shredded Pork & Vegetable. Portions were huge. And the noodles themselves had a good texture. But both dishes suffered from the same issue, they were almost all noodles and some sauce and very little of anything else. Both needed more of the other ingredients -vegetables meat etc. to balance out the dishes. Overall our craving for a good noodles was unsatisfied.
Overall we wondered if the issue with this place was lack of QC from being overwhelmed with so many customers and take out orders. In any case we will definitely not be back.
