The boyfriend and I were having one of those indecisive nights about what to do for dinner… we must have spent over a hour thinking of a place!!! Anyways, we decided on Aree Thai since it’s been years that we went, but as we were looking for parking it looked absolutely dead… like the waitress was watching movies on her laptop and there were no tables. At this point, we just quickly pulled up Yelp and entered in ‘Richmond’, Shanghai River showed up so off we went. It was a spontaneous decision but it ended up being a really good dinner.
Shanghai River is located in Richmond by No. 3 road. There is free underground parking in the apartment tower that it is in, just make sure you read the signs for the parking. Walking in, it was more upscale than we thought it would be.
There is also a clear glass window where you can see the workers making fresh XLB.
Stir fry sticky rice cake: When thinking of Shanghai food, this is one of my top picks. It’s been awhile since I had this! The rice cakes were perfectly chewy and dense. People usually underestimate them but they are actually quite filling. There was lots of ‘wok hei’ which made it even more delicious. The literal translation of wok hei is ‘wok breath’. I’m not sure how it works exactly but if the wok is at a high enough temperature, it has a distinct delicious taste. The only negative thing was that it was very oily.
Dan dan noodles: This is the boyfriend’s must have when we go for Shanghai food. He fell in love with it and still talks about how delicious it was. The peanuts were very fresh and crunchy and it had a good amount of spice in it.
Xiao long bao: We wanted to compare the XLB here to other places that we tried! It was delicious. They were fresh and juicy.
Pan fried dumpling: Although we had so much food, the boyfriend insisted on trying this as well. Compare to the XLB, the skin was alot thicker. It also had a slight sweetness to it. The meat inside was nice and juicy.
We ordered so much food that we had enough for leftovers the next day! We will definitely be back to Shanghai River when craving some Shanghai food. It was a great find on Yelp!
Yay!
The interior of the restaurant was quite nice. It had a modern, wooden and natural vibe to it. The seating was comfortable too, we got a corner booth. Since we came before the lunch rush, we didn’t have to wait, but noticed towards the end of our meal that a line was forming.
Mushroom spring rolls, $8: My mom and I haven’t been here before, so we let her friend order as she’s been here many times. I’m glad that she ordered because she chose things that I wouldn’t have chosen myself, so I got to try new dishes!
Bun bo hue, $14.00: Another thing that I normally would not have ordered… but after having this, I am definitely going to order it when I’m not feeling like a regular pho! Bun bo bue is a type of spicy broth, if I’m not mistaken.
DIY Street side platter, $22.00: Another thing that I’ve never ordered from Vietnamese places or seen on menus before! The street side platter comes with a variety of different proteins, greens, vermicelli, and fish sauce. On a side plate, they give you dried rice paper and a bowl of warm water. You are then instructed to dip the dried rice paper into the warm water, and then make your own wrap.
As we were leaving, I found the washroom to be quite cool so I took a picture to include in this post. There isn’t a female and male washroom, just some private stalls and communal sinks. This set up works in favour of females because the female washrooms are always the ones that are lined up, haha!!!