Taste of Jiangnan

I don’t usually write restaurant reviews, but feel the urge to do so to support this place. Being a native Shanghainese, I haven’t had much luck finding authentic Shanghai dishes other than at a few dingy places in the Manhattan Chinatown, or in a handful locations in Richmond, BC. Usually I judge a place’s authenticity by paying attention to whether the owner or staff speaks the Shanghai dialect, which is vastly different from Mandarin or Cantonese. I give this place 5 stars for its décor and its food. Comparing to other Chinese restaurants’ greasy tables and noisy ambiance in that neighborhood, this place’s elegance reminds me of the character of Shanghai. We ordered sizzling beef ribs, which came with lots of black pepper, green pepper and onion. Very tasty and is exactly how we Shanghainese do «hei jiao niu pai». The other dish we had is the bean curds «su ji». Just like the way my grandma used to make it! Really, a taste of home. Feedback to the restaurant? Add schnitzel-​like Shanghai breaded and deep fried pork chop, and «Russian soup» (luo song tang”) to the menu!

Good décor and different food from many other Chinese restaurants that serve food from other regions. Braised pork is good — it looks fatty but most of the fat is braised away during cooking. The cuisine of this region includes some heavy sauces with some sweetness. Most of staff did not speak English, so good to prepare ahead of time with ideas, or bring a friend who can translate.

The issue with Clement street is that it continues to be T’s favorite street to hang out and it’s also my least favorite. But as dining partners in crime, we have agreed (short of signing a written contract) that he and I will only go when I have no brain cells left on where to go and eat. All things being equal, I’d much rather go to Inner Sunset but then I’d not run into this spot.
Call it southern food is a bit of a misnomer to Westerners. It’s Southern food as in it’s not Northern food, all right, but it’s not Southern like Cantonese food, which is the true south.
Jiangnan literately translates into the south of the (Yangzi) River. That region’s dominant sub cuisines includes Zhejiang, Shanghai and Nanjing (which serves as the north vs. south division). This restaurant specialized Zhejiang and Shanghai and not so much of Nanjing, Jiangsu.
The entire restaurant was filled in no time at all. Every single table had ordered braised pork. and many also ordered the sweet and sour fish, which is very Shanghainese, something my Shanghainese aunt cooked for me often when I spent endless holidays in Shanghai, back when I was young. Both I skipped (yes when in Chinese restaurant I order in Mandarin and my Caucasian companion usually sports a dumbfounded look as if to say «god I hope she does not order gizzard, again!»), but not because it’s not good but I grew up on it. My father lived in Zhejiang, got his Grade A chef’s license there out of boredom, and my mother grew up in Jiangnan. Every summer I took the overnight train, arrive in Wuhan, then we board the Yangzi river ship and we’d sail north for days to arrive at Jiangnan, near Shanghai, in a small city, we’d get off and catch a bus to visit my maternal grandma. The stewed pork and I go way back. It’s one of my comfort food.
There are a few things that one should not miss. For instance. The egg omelet with chives and fish and the vegetable fried rice.
A dominant flavor that is served in Jiangnan style restaurants is the use of sugar. It’s not spicy like Hunan (where I was born) and Sichuan, it’s not too salty like northeastern (where my father was born and raised) food, and it’s also not too subtle like Cantonese (where I spent my teenage years) food. It’s, therefore, often considered to be the most appealing Chinese food to Westerners. In addition, Taiwanese cuisine has mostly adopted Shanghainese style dishes, and there are more Americans who have been to Taiwan vs. Mainland until the last fifteen years. In short, this type of Chinese cuisine appeals to white people, I was not wrong judging by the diners of that evening.
I find it to be a fair representation of my half heritage food. Having born half northerner and half southerner, I find myself often torn between the cuisines as if I need to plead allegiance to one or another. In Taste of Jiangnan, I find myself tracing back my childhood spent in that region, feeding goose (and subsequently being chased by the same darn goose), eating fish out of the lakes and river, making dishes with my maternal grandma who was a Jiangnan woman through and through. I had flashback of eating the same omelet dish on the overnight Yangzi river ship. It was a very long journey, we’d often sleep on the ship for days before reaching our destination in Jiangnan. Then I spent the rest evening giving T a history of Jiangnan, from political to agricultural to geography to climate to art. I guess I’ve been deprived of my other half genes and needed a willing audience.
Once again I realized that good food is not just food, but it also serves as a (memory) bank safety box key. The moment I had that that food, I was awoken by those vivid early childhood memories of my past.
Seeing that I had deprived T of that braised pork dish that everyone was ordering, I proceeded to have my parents make the braised pork dish the way they knew how for T. It was practically identical to the restaurant, I even added two marinated eggs embedded in the dish. (Note to other diners, unless you have my parents in the back of your pocket, please do order the braised pork dish).
I dropped off a hefty container to him before my trip to New York. He then sent back photos of the empty container. Said it was likely the best Chinese dish he ever had. I’m fairly certain it’s that good n’ old midwestern upbringing that made him say that; but still, I was satisfied.

This restaurant is very delicious! Excellent service attitude and wonderful indoor design. It seems that bringing me back to China. My favourite is Roasted chicken and Sweeted taro. 5 stars! When you check, they may give you a small mirror which is very cute and Chinese! I love it!

First off, most of the food here is pretty great: braised pork, mapo tofu, crispy rice with salted egg yolk, braised radish. The worst dish here is easily the «dry-​fried french beans with minced pork» — they used soggy frozen green beans, and there’s nothing dry-​fried or french about them.
The reason for the two stars is the general idiocy of their kitchen staff. TWICE I ordered delivery from this place, and TWICE the food spilled out all over the bag. The first time, I ordered a soup and some genius there cut large holes into the top of the plastic containers — half the soup was in the bag when it arrived. I very kindly called to tell them to use some common sense when packing their food, but decided to otherwise give them the benefit of the doubt. The second time, I ordered a tofu dish with clear broth, and for some reason, they thought it would be a good idea to pour that clear broth into a PAPER box. When it arrived, the clear broth was gone from the box and all over the bag. Word to the wise: Don’t order delivery from this place, unless you don’t mind losing half your food and having a giant mess on your hands.

Most authentic southern Chinese food in the Bay Area.
Must-​order regional specialties:
— Sweet and sour sea bass aka squirrel fish
— Tofu with preserved eggs (mix it up before eating)
— Steamed bean curd roll aka su-​ji
— Vegetable rice with salted meat
Good:
— Lotus root in sweet and sour vinegar
— Shredded sea kelp
— Griddled cabbage with pork
— Shredded pork with garlic sauce aka yu-​xiang-​rou-​si
Not their forte:
— All noodles, soup noodles are mushy and bland whereas dry stringy egg noodles are reminiscent of generic chinese buffet assembly line
— All wontons & dumplings
— Spicy shredded pork, not much flavors but you will feel the jalapenos slowly burn through your stomach lining for the next hour
Service:
— A few lost-​bambi young servers, but overall very genteel staff

Quite impressed! I actually have been wanting to try this restaurant for a while now, and the desire became even stronger since my friend (who is a foodie expert in authentic Chinese cuisine) came to eat here twice in a day!
FOOD– bean curd: tasty and to my surprise, came with lots of Shanghai Bok choy on the bottom, so it was more of a vegetable dish. Braised big (pork) bone: delicious, just the exact word that was used to describe it on the menu, was tender, the tendon part was soft, and the bone marrow was so good, we were also given plastic gloves to eat them with which is so clever to keep clean bc there wouldn’t be a way to eat that using chopsticks! Steamed egg with salted egg yolk on top: egg was steamed just right, the salted egg yolk was fragrant and mouthwatering, large portion… Enough for me to eat four bowls of rice with! Braised radish: a bit on the salty side, but still Nom and cooked soft, good eaten with rice, ordered it as the vegetarian option to their well-​known braised prom dish since we ordered the big bone. White rice was fragrant and cooked perfectly. Tea served was hot.
AMBIANCE/​DECOR– comfortable space, well-​lit, and decorated with nice ceramics and art on the wall shelves. You can tell that they put thought into their décor and they are not one of those Chinese restaurants that decorate the place with the most inexpensive stuff possible. Even the lights hanging by the counter were nice! Place is clean too.
STAFF/​SERVICE– friendly (!) and attentive! Took our orders correctly and served the steamed egg into separate bowls for us (!). Staff came by to refill our teacups so our cups were never empty and they came to check on us a couple times to see if we needed anything during our meal. Staff helped pack the radish that we couldn’t finish into a plastic container for us.
Overall, I had a wonderful experience here and my belly was filled with delicious food and I still have leftover to eat tomorrow. Portions are reasonable and they even gave me a gift, along with White Rabbit candy when they brought over the bill. It was a cute small mirror (please see photo) with their mascot on the back. I saw another girl at another table get one too. Then I saw their basket of mirrors at the cashier. Aww :). Would definitely be back. Minimum credit card charge is $ 20. They also have a $ 10 first order via grubhub!

Adored the graceful, artistic atmosphere after an afternoon at the De Young Museum. Staff was very friendly, helpful, translated some Chinese for us, and spoke about native China.
Delicious food and an ambiance that honors female energy!

I just came in here once because the wait was too long at Burma across the street (surprise.) .
Got the braised pork dish, a small plate of cold cucumber, and the wontons in sweet soy sauce.
Braised pork was great — just like my mom makes — sweet, tender, flavorful, comforting. The portion was on the small size — great for 1, but I could see how it would be tough to share with 2 or more.
Cucumber appetizer was actually awesome — very flavorful. Great balance of vinegary and salty. Crisp, cold, fresh tasting. Nice counter to the salty braised pork.
The wontons might’ve been my favorite. They were very meaty, full of leeks and scallions (just how I like), deliciously seasoned. I just wish they made a spicy version with chili oil.
Some cons — even though the place was only about 20% full, the service was inconsistent and a little absent.
$ 20 minimum for credit card which is why I ordered so much — good for leftovers, not good for my wallet.
Place is on the pricier side. $ 11.95 for the pork, $ 8.95 for the wontons. My meal cost $ 29.change and I think I would’ve been happier paying $ 22-​$ 25. It’s a small difference but it’d make me more eager to return.

The food is fcking delicious. But few things to note.
If you can’t read Chinese, it’s best to be with someone who can. Their English translations are pretty off and bad. If you don’t speak Mandarin, it’s also best to be with someone who does. Most of the staff does not speak English, seems to be only one server who does. Thankfully, I was able to order based off of photos on Unilocal.Thanks Unilocalers!
First time I dropped in just for takeout. I had the wu xi style tofu soup and the cold noodle with pork. Uhm, I am in love with the wu xi style tofu soup. It LOOKS like hot and sour soup, but it’s not. It is a very mild soup with an abundant amount of insanely silky tofu, some pickled mustard greens and fungus. Excellent for hangovers or just a typical balmy SF evening. The cold noodle was extremely garlicky my first time around. I had dragon breath.
Second time, I dined in with a group. Loved that they gave us a giant pot of tea to keep at our table! We didn’t have to constantly ask for refills. They were also very good about making sure our water glasses were full.
This time I got to try more of the menu.
Of course we had the Wu xi style tofu soup (which we ALL loved), the sweet & sour sea bass that they known for (incredible!), 2 orders of cold noodle (one pork one chicken), salted egg yolk coated crispy rice cakes, sliced beef with onions (that was the menu description) and some steamed bok choy (I think).
Do not miss the sweet & sour sea bass! It is done with the perfect sauce! Right amount of sweetness and tang. Not to mention that they put crispy rice cakes underneath the sea bass to sop up more of the sauce. Delicious. The sea bass itself was cut up and easy to serve. Crispy, flaky and saucy. We all really liked this.
The cold noodles were not as garlicky this time around. However, the sauce sits at the bottom so I recommend you give it a good mix prior to serving and eating. Still damn delicious. My friend even asked if this is what proper sesame noodles are supposed to taste like.
Loved the salted egg yolk coated crispy rice cakes also. Although I feel like my cholesterol shot through the roof with each bite. We were also taking those and dunking them into the sauce from the sea bass.
The beef dish and the steamed bok choy were ok, nothing to rave about.
Loved Taste of Jiangnan, will definitely be a repeat customer.

*** In Short ***
Surprisingly tasty Jiangnan cuisine, with slightly befuddled wait staff. The delicious braised pork is a must try.
*** In Depth ***
Once again forgetting the folly of driving out to the Richmond on a Sunday and forty minutes spent looking for parking later, my friend and I sat down to browse through a menu that we weren’t entirely sure how to order from, with many of the dishes being ones we weren’t too familiar with. We end up going with their:
* Delicious Braised Pork — This is basically your traditional hong shao (red cooking) pork belly. Rich, fatty, and indeed delicious. Rice is a must (more on this later).
* Boiled Cabbage with Shredded Meat — Entirely not what we expected, probably because we can’t read. We were thinking this was a simple boiled cabbage dish, but instead, out came this artsy looking metal bowl placed upon a burning candle, filled with soy-​seasoned cabbage and meat. Meat! (Yeah, we can’t read.) Also delicious, but also something that should be eaten with rice, as it gets salty.
* Sweet Corn Pancake — We had no idea what to expect here, but I was imagining it to be more akin to the Northern Chinese corn biscuits. Instead, they were fried frozen veggie (mostly sweet corn) pancakes, in the green onion pancake sense of the word. A bit strange, but enjoyable.
* Cold Noodles in sauce with Pork — Yeah, we had three pork dishes. Oops. The easiest way to describe this would be as cold sesame noodles with shredded pork on top. Simple and tasty, albeit also a little salty, as you got towards the bottom of the plate.
Now, to the rice story. Our waitress seemed perplexed about a number of things. Part of this, we suspect, was the language barrier, so we started speaking in Mandarin, to… well, little effect. Asking about the fried Chinese bread, and if it was served with anything, we were told «salad sauce.» Attempts to clarify if the sauce was, in fact, condensed milk, led to nothing but further confusion (a photo we saw later confirmed condensed milk). And when asked if we wanted rice, my response of, «we can just use the corn pancakes with the pork instead, right?» was met with the most perplexed of looks. To be fair, we realized upon seeing the pork and realizing what it was, that it was probably incredibly unusual to not get it with rice.
***Accessibility Info***
Venue — Decently sized and fairly spacious, with plenty of accessible seating. I didn’t full complete attention, but there may have been a few seating arrangements that would make wheelchair seating a tad difficult.
Bathroom — Didn’t try them.

Highlights
— Delicious Braised Pork ($ 11.95): Lean chunks of meat with fatty portion still intack in a thick caramel like salty sauce with two whole braised eggs included. So delicious minus the fact that the lean meat portion was a bit chewy.
— Vegetable Rice with Salted Meat ($ 9.95): On the oily side and I couldn’t taste any salty meat since it was so finely chopped and hardly found. I can’t complain, because despite the cons it tasted really good.
— Food was ready even before the 15 minute time to prepare that they mentioned it would take.
Improvements
— Steamed Bean Curd Roll ($ 9.45): For this special dish, I really don’t get the hype. It was salty, had a herbal like taste, and was a-​okay at most in my opinion.
— For the price paid, portion sizes were small. I received 3 takeout boxes and all of them were only half full or less when I opened them upon my return home.
Tip
— Order for pickup through Unilocal!Order and pay through Eat24 straight from the Unilocal app on your phone and all you have to do is go into the restaurant and pick-​up. Easy peasy!

These few blocks on Clement are littered with restaurants and it takes a fierce competitor to stick around. I tried out Taste of Jiangnan and think it has what it takes to make a name for itself here.
The food is from the Jiangnan region of China. Jiang (Yangtze) nan (south of), which comprise of south eastern cities including Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou, and Wuxi. I grew up in that area and so have been dying to try this out.
Food is 4.5 Stars, Service is 3 stars.
Décor is very traditional and I love the chinaware. Funny though that only half the chairs have a seat cover and they only put them on the seats facing the street.
Food is fantastic.
Steamed Bean Curd Roll: A regional specialty that I haven’t had since childhood. It tasted exactly like I remember — warm and tender. It’s basically a bean curd roll marinated in this awesome braised sauce. Super tasty!
Crispy Rice Crust with Salted Egg Yolk: We loved it! Some reviews say the crispy rice is too dry, but our plate had a good amount of egg yolk even at the bottom of the plate. The flavor is addictive and you can eat it like a snack, all day.
Original Wonton Soup (wuxi style): The wonton soup like the kind I ate while growing up. It’s filled with pork and there’s no shrimp. There are dried shrimp in the soup. Might not taste good to those used to the Hong Kong style wonton soups. The flavor is more mild.
Delicious Braised Pork: So yummy but so bad for you! The braised pork has beautiful lean meat and also the fatty portion. Cooked very well. It reminded me of the braised fatty pork I ate while traveling through Suzhou!
Boiled Cabbage with Shredded Meat: Some will find this dish plain and boring next to the bold flavors of the crispy rice and braised pork, but this was a good veggie dish that balanced out our dinner. The flavor is mild and it’s nothing out of this world. But, it’s like that simple good homecooking that warms your tummy.
Okay, a note about Service — go early if you don’t want to wait. Yes, as the restaurant gets busy, the service starts to fall behind. We noted this as we got in at 6:30pm and the 2 gals took care of our orders fast, with the dishes flying out of the kitchen soon after. But we noticed as more people started to arrive and the dinner floor filled up, the wait staff became unorganized and were rushing from place to place. I saw a part of 2 get up and walk out because they didn’t get service. I suggest increasing the number of workers during peak hours. There are plenty of places on Clement so people WILL walk out.
I really want this place to stick around, so hope they work out their kinks! I’ll be back for more dishes to bring me back to back in the days when I was young, I’m not a kid anymore. But some days I sit and wish I was a kid again.

The only thing I liked on the menu was the salted meat and vegetable rice… and it was delicious… salty and oily just like I envisioned it to be.
On the other hand, the service was just horrendous. It took them 20 minutes to seat us even though there were plenty of empty tables. And after we got seated, it took them another good 10 – 15 minutes to give us the menu and water. Then after that, another 10 – 15 mins to take our order. Then after that, etc etc… You get my point.

The braised pork is as good as everyone says — yum! But my favorite dishes were actually fairly demure, just done very well. Stewed napa cabbage and sliced pork tasted much like home cooking and the braised eggplant was tasty and brought in plenty.
My least favorite dishes were the crispy rice with salted egg yolk and curried chicken with potatoes. The crispy rice was just too dry. Had the pieces been smaller, it probably would have been a really unique dish. As for the curried chicken, it was filled with broken pieces of chicken bone which rendered the curry sauce pretty much unusable.
Would I be back? Yes, probably. There are still quite a few dishes I would like to try!

Food was really good.
Loved the black fungus appetizer — nicely spicy but not too hot.
The steamed egg was nice but way bigger than we expected :)
I had the steamed bean curd roll — tender, nice texture.
My friend had braised pork && loved it – he said a bit too sweet and it was too caloric but worth it: D
And service was very attentive :)

Hope you know how to speak mandarin.
My wife speaks Cantonese and I speak Vietnamese and we both know English but between the three languages, we had a hard time communicating with the staff.
My wife’s soup had a bug in it, but rather than comp’ing it they gave us an appetizer. Deep fried salmon. Problem is neither of us liked the appetizer. It was too oily and had a fishy taste.

This place just opened up last week, I believe. I live in the area so I gave it a try. They had a grand opening special of $ 5 off to lure in people, and hey, I guess it worked!
TLDR: good Jiangnan style food (not sure where it is but it’s a good change from the normal Cantonese cuisine!) at decent prices, clean & spacious spot — service leaves something still to be desired, though.
Service: we were greeted right away but they don’t seem to speak much English. we were lucky enough to know Mandarin. I could definitely see some trouble if you don’t know any Chinese. thankfully everything on the menu is numbered and has English on it as well (if you don’t know Chinese). They still seemed pretty nice, patient and eager to understand though so that’s always a plus. Food came out fairly quickly but they weren’t super proactive in regards to refilling waters or checking on us. I don’t feel like I should have to flag someone down to get tea or water unless it’s extremely busy (which I understand), but it wasn’t. So I hope they improve on these points!
*Side note: if you have a baby, they only had one high chair when we went… so hopefully they get more soon.
Food: OVERALL, pretty good, I just wish the portions were a bit bigger but it was definitely well-​executed and the flavors were pretty unique!
SKIP:
Sweet corn pancake: it’s literally. corn kernels fried in batter — it didn’t seem like an authentic dish (probably isn’t) and it didn’t taste special. It was OK but totes skippable.
Jiangnan style fried rice: HONESTLY this was just like fried rice my dad makes. I’m not sure what made it ‘Jiangnan style…’ Rice + corn + eggs + peas and. just. typical. Meh.
GOOD:
Steamed bean curd roll: if you like bean curd, you will DEFINITELY like this. It was bean curd braised in a savory brown sauce (sorry, I know this description is horrible). I liked it! Simple but delicious.
Minced pork with eggplant: Typical — pretty good, can’t usually go wrong with an eggplant dish though!
MUST GET:
‘Delicious braised pork’ - (it’s what it says on the menu!!) This was REALLLLLLLY good and tender and dericious. again, simple sounding but just really well-​executed and downright delicious as it is described (lol) GET THISSSSSSS.
There was one more chicken dish that we got (can’t find it on the pictures here or on the menu — I think they might have tweaked the menu since the pictures were posted on ⁸⁄₁₇) but it was almost like a Chinese style curry and it came with potatoes /​DROOOOOOOL

Forget Crystal Jade, this is authentic Jiangnan food, and specifically focused on the Wuxi-​Lake Tai area (my wife’s ancestral homeland). The chef is actually from Shitangwan on the western outskirts of Wuxi. The menu is very limited during the soft opening. Can’t wait to bring the troops once the full menu is offered.
Going solo on the first day of soft opening, I went for the Wuxi wontons (no noodles as of yet) which were a good rendition of «three delicacies» wontons and as good an example of northern-​style wontons as those at Bund Shanghai. I also bit (so to speak) on the rustic «Delicious Braised Big Bone» («grasp by hand» bones in Chinese) which are apparently a by-​product of the spare ribs or some other dish; they give you a plastic glove to hold the bone with one hand while you gnaw off the meat. It’s for the Chinese Henry VIII in you.
I’m laying a five-​spot on it for its authenticity and promise of things to come.

Today was the first day of the soft opening. I went in to try their limited menu. I had the Kun Pao Chicken with Rice. It was tasty and nicely spicy. Not too spicy… but good enough for me.
Service was very attentive…
Not a long wait for the food…
I’d recommend trying this place if you are looking for something different to eat in the area. I usually don’t like to write reviews on just one dish… so I’ll be back to try more.
I’ll start with a 4 star because this is just a soft opening and the menu is limited. So, they are fine tuning and looking to make the restaurant a perfect restaurant. Until the full menu comes out… I’ll have to update my review. Based on the one dish I had I’d give it a thumb up.
Give it a try… Grand opening should happen in around August 22^nd.
Bathrooms are clean.
Nice atmosphere… pleasant seating… although table cloth seems to slide… so be careful when eating.
Till my next couple meals…