Lai Lai Xiao Long Bao (莱莱小笼), Shanghai

Reviewer: Foodnut.com Lai Lai Xiao Long Bao (莱莱小笼) 504 Tianjin Rd, Huangpu Shanghai, China 021 63520230

Lai Lai is known for top rated Xiao long bao aka XLB or soup dumplings. We’ve been to Yu garden, Jia jia, Din Tai Fung and several other places on past trips, so it was time for a new place.

This is the original location (4 total spots) and had a 25 minute line that extended to both sides of the street! There is also a popular noodle eatery near the end of this block with lines

We stuck to the standard pork xlb, feeling that paying more for crab and other variants is not necessary.

Service was pretty much queue, order and pay at the counter, grab a seat and wait. Expect to share tables. Better decor and environment than Shu Cai Ji.

Food Review:

Pork xiao long bao (CN¥28 for 8 = USD$3.88) looked consistent and were fairly delicate. It was hard to pick them up without soup leaking. Nice small size and thin wrapper. Soup was plentiful but not robust in flavor. Comparing them to ones back home in San Francisco at Dumpling Home (6 for US $14.95) or Din Tai Fung (10 for US$17.50) – these are definitely better but the margin on victory is like 100% vs 92%. It was a matter of nitpicking wrapper, soup quantity, soup flavor, size after a while. Dumplings back in the USA have really improved, but cost 5x more. We ate at Jia Jia the next day and found their version not as good with not much soup in many dumplings. 10/10

Deep Fried Pork cutlet (CN¥25) was eggless and freshly fried. Good size portion, pre-cut helped to help add contrast to the load of XLB. 8.5/10

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