Zhangs Shanghai Kitchen Ltd - Richmond

I have been to many restaurants in Richmond they all are good. However, Chen's (also known as Baiylan) is just a step above.

We ordered 6 dishes for 4 people. We ordered Shanghainese dim sum and the food was excellent, piping hot from the wok! the waitress was attentive, modest venue, the clientele was all Chinese people indicating that it was the real deal. Payment in cash only. Prices are reasonable, and there is an English check list of main dishes of the restaurant. We suggest that you go already knowing what is Shanghainese food and what you have in mind to order...It is open every day from 10:30AM to 10PM.

There is a so called Dumpling Trail in the City of Richmond, south of Vancouver, and Chen's serves one of the best Northern Chinese dumplings (e.g., xiaolongbao/XLB) along the Dumpling Trail. The only drawback is cash-only at Chen's, but it does keep the price quite cheap for a good dumpling and noodles lunch.

This is off the strip mall The parking stalls are all full in front and we have to drive around the building to park at the back The XLB was good,but not enough filling inside We also have the chicken soup which was good which fresh chicken flavor The pot stickers could be more firmer and burnt a bit more would taste much better For dessert we had the peanut sesame round dumplings which were good We notice they have a luncheon special which started at 1130 am till 530 pm and cost 9.95 We will come back to try it out

Okay, I’ve heard of some good things about the XLB at Chen’s Shanghai Kitchen in Richmond… which is pretty much the only reason why I bothered to visit this place. The problem with listening to online reviews is that you can’t always believe what you read. We visited back in the beginning of April and the Grand Canyon-sized pot holes in the cramped parking lot should have been our first clue that we were in for a bad meal. When we walked inside the near empty restaurant, we should have taken that as our second clue. Any good restaurant should have been packed at this hour. In any case, we decided to stay and ordered the Beef Rolls $6.25) which is a classic dish that was butchered at this restaurant. The fatty meat was stuffed in the pancake haphazardly and wound up falling out as soon as you picked it up. Chen’s Signature Soup Dumplings $6.50) should have been better. After all, why call this your “signature dish” unless you are really good at making it? Well, a third of the dumplings were broken to start with and the remaining dumplings hardly had any soup inside at all. When you consider that the dumpling skin wasn’t very thin, you kind of wonder what the heck happened here? I’ve had much better XLB elsewhere. Moving on, the Chili Wontons $7.25) were marginally better. But probably the worst dish at this restaurant had to be their Crystal Shrimp Dumplings $6.95). For the price, it’s a bit expensive for har gow but that’s not the main issue here. The skin was thick and doughy while the shrimp inside the dumplings were raw. We showed this to the waitress who looked at it and took it away but they still charged us for the uneaten mess). We were just happy to get out of this place without getting sick. I guess this is why this place wasn’t busier. Well… live and learn.