ala shanghai

on friday night chris, my sister and i had dinner plans at ala shanghai in latham. we'd both heard good things about it and decided now would be a great time to check it out! they brought out a pot of tea to start, which was impressive! and it was particularly tasty. the menu was so extensive! there were many interesting things. i decided to try something new, so my sister and i split the steamed vegetable buns . steamed > fried. i also ordered the steamed veggie dumplings. i have a really hard time describing asian food. the reason being is that i don't eat too much of it, so i don't really know what to expect or what to compare it to! i do know that i really enjoyed the big veggie buns since they were filled with what seemed to be spinach and mushroom. they were almost sweet inside, and i liked that. the dumplings had a different flavor, and it wasn't my favorite. i ate most of them though! chris and my sister ordered the duck and some spring rolls. i had a hard time deciding on my m

always call for reservation. this is a gen of a chinese restaurant. the first thing to strike you is the linen tablecloths. the menu is uncomfortable--it is missing the usual chinese stuff. instead, the food is from the shanghai region and is exquisite. also, the service is great. the peking duck is great. the soup dumplings are a great way to start.

friday dinner - the two of us arrived at 6 pm but the place was already pretty full.  we had to wait a few minutes for the staff to clear a table - no big deal.  with chinese food we usually order big with the intent that we will nibble on the take home portion, so we did. a cold app, soup dumplings, a veggie dish and two meat dishes.  the cold app, drunken chicken, was on the lackluster side - essentially some cold poached white meat chicken with a hint of alcohol over it - not the most auspicious beginning.  the next courses were far better.  the soup dumplings were great - the broth fatty and unctuous without being overly salty.  the sauteed chinese broccoli with garlic was a vibrant green and, very good,  and a well matched accompaniment to the tasty meat entrees of shredded pork w garlic sauce and orange chicken (yeah, first visit so we didn't stray too far outside the box - and we did eat a lot of garlic!) total for all the dishes plus one beer and tip was $70. service was brisk, yet polite and the room was impeccably maintained - white linen, spotless place settings and glassware.  for an initial visit i can say the experience was very positive.  my gf, having lived in china for a time, recognized some of the more regional fare that isn't always found stateside so we'll certainly have come back and move around the menu a bit.

saturday lunch. my husband and i went out for a lunch date on a saturday afternoon. neither of us had ever had dim sum and (from the reviews here) we had decided to try ala shanghai. it did not disappoint!

we arrived around 1pm and immediately were seated, honestly we didn't see anyone wait for a table, no matter how big of a party. the staff are extremely efficient and work well together - they had a twelve top cleared and reset (for 8) in less than 5 minutes. definitely impressed. the restaurant is smaller than i was expecting, it can maybe hold 60-70 people max capacity. however, the tables are not crammed on top of each other and you don't feel like you're sitting on your neighbors lap.

we needed a few minutes to decide what we wanted, and the complimentary pot of black tea definitely helped whet our appetites. however, instead of (the standard in asian restaurants of this price bracket) cheesy stainless steel pot, ala shanghai serve theirs in beautiful white porcelain tea pots - a pleasant surprise.

the menu is extensive, with quite a few pages that i know we'll be coming back to taste. we stuck to the dim sum page, as that's what we were excited to try. we ordered pork soup dumplings (6), steamed shrimp dumplings (4), vegetable buns (2), sticky rice shu mai (6), and the pork and leek dumplings (6). our meal was delivered to us within 15 minutes and it was fantastic. my least favorite was the steam shrimp dumplings, as i thought the shrimp was too chewy...however, my husband said that i was "too picky about shrimp." he had no trouble eating the other 3.

the vegetable buns were the large puffy buns filled with bok choy, leek and mushrooms. sticky rice shu mai was a little dry, but it's steamed sticky rice. they were tasty with a little soy sauce.

my absolute favorite were the soup dumplings and the pork/leek dumplings. the soup dumplings had a rich, velvety broth around a perfect bite of pork. mastering the "nibble" to let the soup spill out in your spoon and not down your chin took a few tries, but by my third one it was easy. the pork and leek dumplings were very flavorful and full of stuffing. i would go back just for these two trays.

our bill was just over $30 and we were just a bit over full by the time we left at 1:45. it was worth the hour drive and i can't wait to go again. the only downside to the entire experience is their parking lot. it's a little tiny and convoluted. the restaurant is right passed the old loudon road intersection (after the roundabout) in latham...and we missed it. we ended up pulling into the asian grocery right next door and were lucky enough to pull through into a spot. i will know for next time, but i wouldn't want to see that lot on a busy friday night!

ala shanghai is a cozy, friendly and inviting restaurant. only a 2.5 hour drive from home, worth every minute of the drive. a favorite half way meeting point for family in nyc & syracuse to gather and spent time and a traditional chinese meal. the food is fabulous!!!

again and again a must. my better half had the chicken and broccoli and he was completely impressed. (see photo) ... i highly recommend the singapore rice noodle dish. the curry in this dish is amazing and yet if you add a bit from the bowl of spicy soy sauce it will take this already amazing dish to an entirely new level. the atmosphere was total zen and the service was superb. we plan to visit here again and again.

this place has a slightly more upscale feeling than most chinese restaurants. with low hopes, i ordered xiao long bao, and they were just so-so (really thick wrappers, little soup, ma-ma taste):

how you going to keep them down on the farm after they've seen paris?. now that i've experienced soup dumplings at joe's shanghai in nyc, i have something to compare ala shanghai's with. i still enjoy them here, (crab & pork $7) but i'm not about to travel 160 miles just to have a larger and slightly more flavorful dumpling.

tonight we also ordered sea scallops w/ baby bok-choy ($20) - sautéed in ginger sauce; and crispy fish filet ($14) - fried flounder filet with spicy & sweet sauce.

the coating on the scallops was a little salty and the several that i had still had a grain of sand/grit. the baby bok-choy was delicious if not difficult to pick up with chopsticks.

the flounder was plentiful but mostly coating. there was no opportunity to actually taste fish. the sauce was not overly sweet and only the mildest amount of spice could be detected.

service was polite, as usual, and efficient, except for the delay in bringing out the flounder. however, the delay was recognized by management and an apology and explanation was offered without our having to comment.

sometimes when a restaurant has great reviews , everyone blogs it, etc etc , i get overpumped. my expectations are entirely too high, even unreasonably high. but two recent visits to ala shanghai were really informative. i can--and will--bring most of my visitors here. maybe not on their first visit, but eventually. according to t, ala shanghai has american-friendly chinese dishes that taste better than they do most other places, but also some authentic traditional foods. even though i had my real camera at our second outing, i spared our guests my invasiveness. also, we were really hungry. enjoy my iphone pics below. cold sesame noodles--for some reason i was feeling noodley, which is way more j-like than me-like. he happily agreed to ordering this app. we also got the soup dumplings. i wish that ala shanghai made soup dumplings with chicken and also a veggie version for my pork-averse and vegetarian friends. i'd never eaten soup dumplings before (gasp!) and there's something really a

excellent!. food is just like going to nyc chinatown, it tastes so good. the service is very attentive and put on a great show for several dishes. great value for the price. we love the beef in szechuan style, crispy fish fillet, rainbow shredded chicken...