Bund’s Xio Long Bao
Bund’s Rice Shumai
The Bund is one of the few restaurants in San Francisco’s old Chinatown neighborhood specializing in Shanghainese food. Most of the city’s Shanghainese restaurants are in the newer Chinatowns in the Sunset and Richmond neighborhoods. I previously reviewed their Steamed Shrimp and Chive dumplings and the Pan-Fried Pork Buns.
This visit I tried their Xiao Long Bao and their Shanghai style rice shumai, both of which I thought were under seasoned. The Xiao Long Bao were perfectly steamed and contained a generous amount of soup but the pork and soup were on the bland side and needed salt. Xiao Long Bao filling also often has a hint of ginger flavor, which I like, but was not present in these dumplings. But on the plus side, the buns were well made and perfectly steamed so the wrappers maintained their integrity and didn’t leek soup.
Shanghai style shumai are usually stuffed with seasoned, umami filled sticky rice, that has been cooked with pork and Chinese sausage, which is akin to a “dirty rice” from New Orleans. The rice in Bund’s Shanghai rice shumai was brown sticky rice, but there was no discernible pork or sausage in the rice. The rice was also under salted and didn’t have the level of umami flavor I associate with this style of dumpling.
Bund is on Jackson street between Kearny Street and Grant Avenue
Also when you are in San Francisco you should visit Yuet Lee on the corner of Broadway and Stockton streets. Yuet Lee’s only dumpling dish is wonton soup, but they have amazing seafood including salted baked head on shrimp, that I love. Yuet Lee is a classic old-school joint that is open late and perfect for a late night meal after a night of drinking.
The search for the world's best dumplings 