Chen’s Shanghai Restaurant

I tried Shanghai fried buns, braised bamboo shoots and mustard leaf tofu soup. All are Shanghai cuisine’s well known dishes. They did a good job on the food. However, my silverware are not clean and they seem not super concerned about it, which is alarming. In addition, they accept cash only, which I usually don like unless the food is out of this world.

Chen’s Shanghai Kitchen in Richmond has been around for a long time. They used to be in a tiny shop across from Richmond Centre. Now they are located at 8095 Park Road. It is next to Tai Hing Congee House. There are plenty of free parking but it can be competitive. I’m glad to see this place finally got a fresh coat of paint.
Deluxe Appetizer Platter 繽紛大拼盤: We started the evening with my favorite cold appetizer dishes commonly found at Chinese wedding banquets and large family gatherings.
Jelly Pork 鎮江肴肉
Smoked Pomfret in Sweet Brown Sauce 上海燻魚
Mixed Malantou with Sliced Dried Bean Curd 馬蘭頭拌香干
Jellyfish with Green Onion Oil 蔥油海蜇
Shanghai Style Marinated Bran Dough 四鮮烤夫
Next we ordered a few deep fried dim sum dishes. I particularly liked the radish pastry 蘿蔔絲酥餅. It was flaky and had a lot of shredded radish filling.
Shanghai Style Spring Rolls 上海春卷
Radish Pastry 蘿蔔絲酥餅
Baked Pastry with Beef 牛肉燒餅
Pan Fried Pork Dumplings 鍋貼 was juicy and was nicely pan fried. I do wish the skin was thinner. But the insides were juicy.
Sticky Rice Roll with Pork Floss 肉鬆榨菜粢飯 is a really filling and typically enjoyed with Salted Soy Milk.
Xiao Long Bao 小籠包: I liked the thin skin and very juicy center. There is a lot of soup inside each dumpling.
House Special Wonton and Chicken Hotpot 砂鍋雲吞雞: A creamy white broth the is light but flavorful. Typically we would share this whenever we had 4 or more people.
Pork Spareribs with Brown Vinegar Sauce 鎮江香骨: The meaty ribs packed a very rich sweet and sour profile. I enjoy them in small doses and is not something I would typically order on my own. So it was great to just have a few pieces every now and then.
Crab with Edamame and Rice Cake in House Special Sauce 毛豆年糕蟹: Your typically green onion stir fry crab loaded with edamame. I wish there was more rice cakes on the bottom!
House Special Spicy Lobster 祕制香辣龍蝦: This was the highlight of the evening and one of my favorite dishes. I loved the fragrant and boldness of Sichuan peppercorn aka Chinese coriander. There is a slight numbing effect but was not overdone. Lotus slices and Chinese mushrooms was also a nice addition. I think I can eat this whole dish myself!
Beijing Style Pork Slices with Wraps 京醬肉絲: Stir fry pork tenderloin was soft and had a good sweet bean sauce/​soya paste ration. Add everything together to the wrap. No Hoisin sauce was really needed.
Tea Smoked Chicken 茶葉熏雞: Typically you would order tea smoked duck. Tea smoked chicken was a nice contrast as the meat was less fatty and healthier option. The chicken itself was tender, juicy and tasty without being too salty.
Deep Fried Breaded Fish with Grounded Seaweed 苔菜麵拖魚: This was my least favorite dish of the evening. There was too much batter and the fish was soggy from being deep fried. The seaweed umami was lost being grounded. I think it would have been much tastier if it seaweed simply wrapped the fish and subsequently deep fried.

My friend really likes the XLB here. He says there’s normally a long line during weekend lunch but since we came here at 2pm on a weekday, it wasn’t busy at all. The service was OK, quick, gave us an English menu when we asked for one. Décor is typical of a fastfood Chinese diner.
As for the food, it was barely OK; I’ve definitely had better at almost any of the other Shanghai-​nese restaurants in Richmond.
— The XLB was really juicy & skin was thin but did not break. All good right? BUT, the meat inside was not juicy (maybe all the fat melted into the XLB skin) and tasted like reheated old meat that had a weird taste I did not enjoy. My friend ate my share up so he was OK with it.
— The Pork Chop Noodle in Soup came and it was HUGE. We shared a bowl with 3 big pcs of pork chop and were quite full. Taste wise, nothing special but not bad. They didn’t cut up any of the pork chop or give us knives to cut it up ourselves though so we tore into it with our teeth like animals because we were too lazy to wave someone down. Oh well. Quantity over quality on this dish.
— The Beef Rolls was my favorite dish there. I liked the flavors and the pancake wrap was nicely crisped.
— The Red Bean Paste Pancake for dessert was one of the worse version of this I’ve tasted. Skin/​Pastry was thick, doughy, and soggy and can’t even taste the red bean. We ate ½ and neither of us wanted the rest.
It just didn’t live up to the hype… by far.

this restaurant is no good, last time I went there with Groupon deal. on the deal it offer two appetizers, three main dishes and two dessert for four people. the restaurant did not accepted it. because they said the deal is for 4 bowls of noodles soup. very disappointed with this restaurant.

Groupon is a great way to have a cross sample of all their dishes.
The story: My partner bought a Groupon. What! I don’t like going to Chinese restaurants with any coupons or groupons or specials because generally, there are so many rules that I don’t enjoy my dinner and become stressed! NOT At Chen’s, though.
I was worried but the dining experience was good from beginning to end. I was greeted with a smile regardless if I spoke Chinese or English. They gave me a the Groupon Menu. Again, I was a bit worried. Is it all the cheap stuff and crap? NO, it was all my favourite food items and a few other different items. So, it was an opportunity to eat a few dishes that I would normally never order such as green onion pancake (good & crispy), preserved veg with pork noodle soup (tasty), and the deserts (didn’t care for them but my dad enjoyed it).
Then came the bill. I was wondering if they were going to write something Tacky on the bill, like. ‘don’t forget to tip’. NOT at Chen’s!
The bill just had 0.00’s, the tax and my additional food order. No tacky hints, or tips pre-​added or highlighted handwritten notes, like the other restaurants.
I couldn’t finish the food and asked for 2 takeout boxes. No dirty looks or extra charge. Yes, other Chinese restaurant charges (see my previous reviews) and I no longer go to that restaurant.
I’m a regular at Chen’s and would go there even if there is no Groupon. The food is enjoyable. Their service is consistent with or without the Groupon. Overall, a very smooth dining experience.
I would give it 5 stars but had to deduct one star for:
1. lack of toilet paper in the cold washroom.
2. fried dumpling have shrunk in size.
3. Would be nice if their regular menu was in English instead of all Chinese.
Yes, I recommend this restaurant.

I heard good review of this place in the past but I then from what I experienced was totally different. I reconfirmed with a friend why she said this place was great. She said that was the past. The chef moved to somewhere else and food went downhill. Management didn’t know how to keep their employee happy. Well I can see why.
One of the server was really rude.
Incident 1: When we walked in we stood there and she said wanted to give us a small table near the front entrance when there are many tables at the back. We told her its too cold to sit near the window and would prefer the back. The waitress said in Chinese «geez, I don’t know what you want and you should have made up your mind». I am used to going to a restaurant and being escorted to a table.
Incident 2: We had a Groupon and we did make a reservation. She asked us if we made a reservation and we were sure it was her whom we called in the morning. She said to us you can’t use a reservation without making a reservation. Its not my fault you didn’t write it down. We argued with her for 4 mins, and she asked us what number we call and we told her its the number on the Groupon. Luckly we used our cellphone to call so we were able to show her that we did call. Then she said this. «oh I didn’t pick up the phone the other girl forgot to let me know». In my mind, yeah right, it was you who picked up the phone.
Incident 3: table were small and she didn’t bother cleaning up the plates in between so we ended up stacking plates on top of plates and bowl on top of bowl
Incident 4: we asked for boxes to go then she was like how many and we said we would like 2 pastic bowl and 1 box. Again, she was annoyed, She said please make up your mind of how many boxes and bowl before calling me over. That was only few seconds and you should have experience how many boxes and bowls we need.
Incident 5: She played pretend that she forgot the desert.
Food: All soup noodle is made from the same soup base and noodle. Xiao Lung bao ok. It passed the test for soup and freshness but the skin is thicker than the ones i am used to.
Food is ok but Service is horrible. I don’t think I will come back.
The server should understand why business is not so great and have been going downhill, its the service. I mean look at Groupon, not a lot of people buying. I am sorry if you keep it up you would be out of service pretty soon.
FIRST AND LAST TIME AT THIS RESTAURANT. SORRY NEVER COMING BACK.

Finally got a chance to try the famous XLBs at Chen’s. Hype was real! Plump and thin bao skin, juicy meat, filled with soup! All this for under $ 6. (Yes still bitter about my $ 10+ USD experience at Dintaifung…) Another off my list in my quest for the best XLB in Vancouver.
Service was typical of a chinese place but a little better. I went in to try the XLBs and i got in, sat down super promptly, ate, and left all in under 15 minutes.

The worst Shanghai restaurant I ever been to. Some Cantonese people cook Shanghai dishes in the restaurant so they didn’t have any idea of how to cook Shanghai food correctly. I ordered a stir fry shrimp which is the most known Shanghai dish. They massacred it!!! I also ordered the West Lake Beef Soup. They also massacred. Those Cantonese waitress had no knowledge of Shanghai food. It was very disappointing! I wouldn’t go back there again!!! It will be wasting money!!!

Both the beef pancake roll and the shanghainese wonton soup were a huge disappointment. Too little beef and too much sauce in the beef pancake roll. The meat portion of the shanghainese wontons were so little, it was as if we were eating wonton skin in soup. However, the XLBs, Zha Jiang noodle and pot stickers were good but not outstanding. Do not think I would drive out all the way here to revisit if not in this area. So many other great places for this kind of Chinese food in GRVD, no need to go for sub-​par food.

Came here with my family for lunch this past Sunday. The restaurant itself is pretty small and not very nice — kind of dirty. But my sister had come here before and said that the food is good. I grew up eating Shanghainese food at various restaurants around the Lower Mainland and this one I think is definitely below average.
We ordered the Dan Dan Noodles, the Chicken and Veggies Noodle soup, Shanghai Style Noodle in Soup, Beef Pancake, and the Spring Rolls.
Dan Dan noodles were swimming in the sauce. I usually like it when it is a thicker spicy peanut sauce rather than a soup consistency where its like eating a peanut flavored noodle in soup. Overall, the flavors were really good though. The chicken noodle soup was good and milky so it was a very satisfying dish! Shanghai style noodle in soup was mehhhh. Beef pancake was great! Nice crisp on the outside with great flavor from the toasted sesame. The beef inside had a nice texture and the pickled napa cabbage they put in there elevated the dish to the next level and made it so good! Spring rolls were below average and had barely any filling.
If you want to come here for a carb-​filled lunch then go for it! They dont put much meat in any of their dishes and its pretty much all noodles in different types of broth and prepared differently. I love shanghainese food though so if my family wanted to come back here i would still enjoy my meal. But it definitely isnt the best shanghainese food around.

I would say I’m a fan of this place but not a fan of their parking lot because it’s small, it’s one way only and it doesn’t say you can park at the back. So worried that we were going to get a ticket.
I was here one Saturday night to grab some XLB because I was craving it and other places were packed. I arrived at this place during peak hours of dinner time and it wasn’t full. My guess was because there was a banquet held at the corner of that block. So, that took up most of the parking in the parking lot. Service here was kinda same old at any other chinese place. They take your order, place the order in and about 10 mins later the food comes. There wasn’t really interaction even by the time we left. But that’s expected at a Chinese place especially if you don’t personally know them.
Food wasn’t bad. I don’t recall the price of things but i did like the large variety of choices they had and they made it pretty good. Just out noodle plate looked like there was more meat and veggies than the noodles itself (crispy noodles). I do prefer Long’s noodle house’s XLB more because the skin is a lot thinner than the ones here. Though they are both just as juicy.
Overall, I would still come back in the near future and I do recommend it to others. Just keep in mind parking sucks around here.

A dumpy looking place but decent shanghainese cuisine. I think the only issue I had was that 2 dishes were just a tad too salty. But the other dishes were perfect.
The pork jelly dish (think ham in unflavoured jello) was great. Not too salty, kind of light in fact.
I felt the xlb’s were a bit salty. But outside of that they were decent.
The chicken wonton had a little something in the broth that made it quite unique. I wanna say cloves. But I couldn’t quite figure it out. The wontons themselves were well made. The chicken was kind meh and hard to share. Over all a good dish though.
Last was a sweet pork wrap. Pretty heavy on the sauce but again decent. Try it with rice if you have done leftover.
Middle of the road overall with some stand out dishes.
Parking here is a bloody nightmare. Have fun with that.
I’d come back if someone drove me there.

The XLB here have the most soup/​liquid in each dumpling. You have to be extra careful because they also break the easiest. I also enjoyed the potstickers or «wo tip» but everything else was only mediocre. The place is cash only! =/

A decent but bit dingy restaurant. The Xiao Long Bao which is both hallmark and canary of shanghai cuisine were good on the inside but the wrapper is too thin on the bottom (and thick at the top) so sticks to the paper divider.
There are better places for shanghainese in Richmond, but it’s worth checking this one out, too.

I honestly think this is the best Shanghainese in town. XLB are hand made! I find the dough is just the perfect consistently so it doesn’t break but does not overwhelm the dumpling. Just yum

Not being familiar with the food scene in Vancouver, I resorted to searching the internet for the best family-​style (i.e. not high end) Shanghainese restaurant for dinner with my parents. They’re very critical of Chinese food, so I wanted to find the best. Chen’s Shanghai Restaurant was praised by several bloggers and seemed to have good reviews — so there we went.
All in all, we were disappointed by the quality of food. They certainly had a variety of dishes available and even some authentic Shanghai dishes that I usually don’t see in North America. It seemed promising. But when the food came out and we started eating, it was clear that the food was not up to par.
1. Xiao long bao — arguably the best dish of the night and that’s not saying much. It’s passable but not surprising. At least it’s made in house and tasted freshly made.
2. Braised bamboo shoots — this is a homey dish that usually natives would only order. I don’t even see it on menus that much. It was clear that the bamboo shoots were from a can and it was not properly braised to the time it’s supposed to. It’s light in flavor though, so it makes a good appetizer
3. Seaweed with garlic — this is a simple dish. Can’t really mess this up.
4. Sweet and sour fish with pine nut sauce — this is a classic Shanghainese dish that is complex to make so you can really tell the skill of the chef. It was pretty bad here. First of all, it’s supposed to be made with whole, fresh fish. What we got was two frozen filets. The batter was too thick and the sauce was coying. I would skip this ones, especially if you’re a fan of it.
5. Tofu with crab — not much crab taste, didn’t come out hot, just not much flavor in general.
6. Salty pork soup — the way my parents describe it, this dish is supposed to be simmered over days so that all the flavor from the pork bones and salty pork is extracted into the soup. Kinda like proper tonkotsu ramen broth. It’s supposed to be milky in color and rich in flavor. Well, it’s most certainly not either of those things. It’s obvious that the ingredients were thrown in for 15 minutes and brought to boil with a pre-​made broth.

My friend’s name is also Chen so after our meal, we were outside taking photos of him next to the restaurant’s banner as an inside joke. People around thought we were retarded. That said, the quality of their food is also retarded, «RETARDEDLY GOOD»…
I feel that I don’t need to describe their food in great detail because there isn’t anything here you wouldn’t find in any other Shanghainese restaurant but what I will comment on is their efficiency. From what I recall about my meal, our food came lightning fast and the quality was surprisingly up to par.
Service was genial, environment was as clean as a Chinese restaurant could be (for what it’s worth). With the influx of mainlanders coming to Greater Vancouver, Shanghainese restaurants have become rather abundant around town. As a lover of dumplings, I certainly have nothing to complain about.
4 stars****

This place still delivers. Even though the main chef left for Shanghai Morning a while back, the replacement guy is still quite decent. The XLB are absolutely delicious.
Parking is available in the woefully small parking lot in front of the strip mall — you’ll probably need to camp for a while during the peak hours.
Special mention goes to the smoked duck. Wow, they really have the flavour down on this dish. It’s not like what you’d find in a Chinese BBQ shop at all. The meat is much more red, and it’s not dry at all.
My friends from China were impressed. What more can I say. Recommended.

Things have slipped a little since the last time we were here, but it’s still good. While the dumplings were hand made and well-​crafted, the filling was lacking balanced flavor and had too much oil. We ordered their zha jiang mian (noodles in brown sauce), and it was sooo sweet; something that we didn’t experience previously. HUGE portion though, and definitely plenty for 2 – 3. Their jiu cai he zi (leek/​chive pancake with tofu) was nice and crispy without being oily, and PIPING HOT. Wait a few minutes before you bite into it or you’ll be in for a rude awakening.
Service was still fine, and the décor hasn’t changed one bit, but overall, it wasn’t as memorable as our previous visits. The only thing I’d probably order again would be the leek/​chive pancake but given that it’s considered a snack, I’ll just order it to go.

I can’t say they’re the best in the city, but Chen’s has some seriously good XLBs. When they’re fresh to your table, they’re big and swelled up with delicious soupy filling. For $ 4.50, they’re certainly a bargain!
Came here for lunch with the mister, and we left full and happy (and with plenty leftovers to cover dinner) at just over $ 20 bucks. On our table:
— XLB. This was a given
— Beef Roll. This is not up to par in comparison to several other Shanghai places, so I’m definitely skipping this option next time.
— Noodle in Bean Sauce. Not very «bean”-like, which is a bonus for me. It was much sweeter than we anticipated though, so it’s more of a preference thing. I liked it, husband didn’t.
— Dan Dan Noodles. Pretty authentic to what I remember, these have the perfect amount of sauce /​soup and have a great spicy kick to them.
The place is your typical hole-​in-​the-​wall, and people don’t stay here long: it’s an eat-​and-​run sorta deal. Staff is always busy, so be patient when you need to remind them for stuff — they’re usually just overwhelmed, and apologized a great deal when I asked for my take-​out containers the second time around.
They’re got both an English and Chinese ordering sheet, but no pictures.
In conclusion, get the XLB. You can thank me later.