ShangHai House

Friday night, I was fortunate to go to a new Chinese restaurant with friends of mine who had lived in China for a year and who could order in Chinese. It was amazing watching them alternate between giddiness and being close to tears at being able to order some of the dishes that were extremely close to what they routinely ate while they were there. The location is where the No. 1Panda House used to be, across Guess Rd. from where the old Willowdale theatre used to be. The sign still remains, so, for now, that's what you'll need to look for. The take-out menu and their website state that the name of the restaurant is actually ShangHai House.

The sweet corn and minced chicken soup was the least exciting offering that I sampled. It was good and it would be nice on a cold winter day, though.

These green beans were the Pleasant Steamed Bean - Jam Bun Silk. The beans were excellent. They had a thin sauce that reminded me of fermented beans, but I wasn't exactly sure what it was and I was too busy chewing to ask.

This was Fried Tofu, Home Style and was my favorite of everything we tried. The tofu was crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside, with a delectable brown, ever so slightly sweet, sauce.

The Yu-Shiang Shredded pork was also wonderful and was served with a much sweeter sauce.

We each received a compimentary orange at the end, which was delicious.

The service was very friendly, but the restaurant, which was almost empty when we arrived at 6pm, was almost full when we left and it was challenging getting a bill, to say the least. We ended up having to just go up to the cash register with our money in hand.

I carefully photographed their entire menu and was thrilled with the results, but it turns out that their entire menu is online. Be sure to check it out, because it's at the least entertaining and at best exciting for the adventurous. They appear to serve dim sum all the time, so I'm craving pork buns and scallion pancakes, which I haven't had in years. They also have dishes listed like "Sizzling Cowboy Bone" and "Spoiled Chaotic Pork." There are just so many dishes I would like to try, but I'm not quite sure braised pigs' knuckles are on that list yet.

Definitely check this place out at your earliest convenience.