9 Pell St
New York, NY 10013
Rating: 
Located in the heart of Chinatown on a fairly quiet street, Joe’s Shanghai serves up popular Chinese cuisine including their famous soup dumplings. After entering the restaurant on a very rainy day, we noticed most tables were taken. The server actually brought us to a large table in the back, and our group was denoted with a letter placard on the table. After ordering our food, servers actually sat more people at the table, and eventually the large table was shared by 3 groups. This was a bit understandable since many smaller groups may come in, and their restaurant is quite small.
Having just ate pizza not too long ago, we decided to just try out their pork soup dumplings and scallion pancake. The pork soup dumplings, otherwise known as Xiao Long Bao, exemplifies how famous their restaurant is. Each order comes in a steaming tray with a pair of tongs. After you bite into the soft dumpling, soup pours from the inside. The pork inside is well marinated and goes well with the provided ginger soy sauce. Having not eaten this famous dish before, I was quite surprised at how tasty the dumplings are. The scallion pancakes were very crispy, but were extremely greasy. I felt like I was drinking oil when eating the pancakes.
Overall, Joe’s Shanghai does very well for their pork soup dumplings, but not so well for the scallion pancakes. Service was quite horrible as expected, but there was enough staff around to get stuff done. I did not really like sharing the table with others, but it made sense for the small restaurant. Prices were very reasonable and the pork dumplings were a great value. If you are someone interested in Chinese food, you must give Joe’s Shanghai a try just for their soup dumplings, but not so much for the scallion pancake.
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