Crystal Jade     翡翠拉麵小籠包  

Before our Art Jamming lesson began, we decided to gather at Wanchai for a quick lunch first. Having no idea on what to eat, we decided to pick one restaurant randomly at Tai Yau Plaza and so here we went to Crystal Jade.

1) Beancurd with Preserved Egg $40
The Beancurd looked delicious but not as meticulously prepared as Shanghai Xiao Nan Guo Cuisine's. The Beancurd was icy but the texture was not particularly smooth. Taste wise the beancurd itself was tasteless but was delicious when go with the sauce, preserved egg and the shredded pork.

2) Noodles with Chicken and Preserved Vegetables $42
I have no idea since when I had fallen for this dish, but it had become my must order dish in any Shanghainese restaurant, unless my companion of the night hate it.

The chicken noodles was generally nice. I particularly love the smooth and meshy texture that the dish brought. The noodle bowl was like those rice in soup which the noodles was soaked until very soft. Perhaps it was the best food for babies since it was very easily chewable. The soup itself was pretty savoury and had a mild taste of chicken. The chicken was very tender and soft, the veggie on the other hand was fresh and chewy. The quantity was quite generous. Yummy!

3) Shanghai Steamed Pork Dumplings $28
The steamed dumpling was not particularly nice, I bet many Shanghainese restaurant can offer much better dumplings than Crystal Jade did. The dumpling skin was quite thin, but there wasn't much soup within the dumpling. The meat was not savoury enough. Although it is one of the signature dish, I would not recommend it.

4) Ramen in Hot and Sour Soup $46
Just by imagining the dish had already got four of us excited. It fulfilled two of our wishes, combining a main dish, noodles, and lovely hot and sour soup. The hot and sour soup was very savory! Simply by drinking the soup would make all of us totally satisfy. The spiciness and the sourness was made suitable, and there were lots of ingredients such as minced beef, spring onions and mushroom in the soup. The mushrooms were fat and fresh, and was extremly juicy and tasty with the essence of the soup fully concentrated into the mushroom. The noodles on the other hand was at normal chewy-ness, not particularly soft even after it was soaked in the soup for a while.

5) Fried Rice Flour Cake with Diced Ham, Corn and Vegetable Cube $58
This dish waz quite interesting. The rice flour cake was diced to little cubes, as well as other ingredients in the dish. The taste in general was nice, it was in suitable saltyness. The rice flour cake was cooked until chewy, however the rice flour cake was not flesh at all. I have been having Shanghainese food since forever as my grandparents were both Shanghainese. Hence I would literally tell whether the rice flour cake source was nice or not, which unfortunately was a no for Crystal Jade.

In general it was quite a good bargain to dine in Crystal Jade. The price was inexpensive and the portions was pretty generous. I was actually quite surprise by the tiny price difference between the appetizers and the main dish, perhaps they should adjust the price a bit? The food quality on the other hand was fine but not particularly nice, yet given the price and portion I wouldn't mind to dine here from time to time.

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1. Wonton noodle soup - more like 'lo mein' because there was almost no soup. It must've been sat a side for a while so all the soap got soaked into the noodles. no good no good

2. Sea eel with bean sprouts (sin wuu) - wasn't bad, but again it was not hot

3. Xiao Lung Bao - good and recommanded

4. Sweet and sour fish - not too bad, the fish was sole, not my type. i liked their fried batter

5. Soy bean milk and dumplings - never show up

Probably wont go there again. The best Crystal Jades are the one in taikoo and IFC

I wanted a Shanghainese food fix but didn't want to fork out, so came here, primarily for their QCed xiao long bao.

My dinner companions were pretty healthy eaters and we ordered the following, in order of yummiliciousness:

(1) xiao long bao - these were of acceptable quality, quite succulent and tasty - pity about the poor quality of the vinegar though.

(2) shredded chicken with "fan pei" - an easy dish which was bland and "safely" made, but was comforting enough.

(3) honeyed ham and vegetarian square bun - (sorry about the creativity in the name lol) this was too sweet for me and overwhelmed the underlying taste of the ham (not sure if there was any in the first place though).

(4) sweet and sour soup - we ordered it because of the kitschy factor. It was surprisingly ok and enough to share between the 3 of us for taste.

(5) half portion of fish head with "fan pei" - this was my idea and it came in a promising pot. The contents were not hot though and there was way too little fan pei (frozen variety so it was all springy and chewy as a result of the cooking). The fish head was ok, a good size for 3 people. The sauce had the usual pieces of pork, mushroom and garlic, but there was no sign of winter bamboo root.

(6) preserved vegetable with minced meat with baked sesame pockets: forgettable dish, taste was ok I think.

(7) desserts: (a) cold almond tofu with canned fruit; (b) sesame dumplings in ginger soup; (c) fermented rice with mini flour balls. These were acceptable but the texture of the tofu was made of cornstarch and not gelatine, so it was quite smooth.

Overall, it was an ok experience especially considering the cheap and cheerful price.