Japexican On the GO!: Soup In Your Dumplings (No kidding!)

The firs thing you can notice when approaching HaoWeiDao (上海好味道小籠湯包) Soup Dumplings (other than the giant red and yellow sign) is the open kitchen, in which a group of cooks in red shirts prepare the dumplings with great mastery. The dough is rolled with small and thin pins then they are filled with a gelatinous broth; savoury, packed with meat (or not) and different veggies. Then in the hands of a couple of “dumpling masters” they are closed and beautifully placed in the steamer.

The craftsmen behind this lovely creation.

The place is packed almost all the time. You will enter, and will be seated. There is a small pink pad and a pen on each table. You will be handed a Menu (fear not, it is in English and Japanese too) where you can take a look at theory lovely selection of dumplings, noodles and appetisers. The tricky part comes when writing down what you want, as the pink pad only has the names in Chinese, but worry not, it is pretty easy to navigate, dumplings are on the top part, and the rest of the items in the menu are listed in order of appearance (vertically), if you get lost, look at the price and the number of characters in the menu to find what you want. Easy-piecy.

The place is super busy all the time.

At the entrance of the restaurant there is a big refrigerator with salad-type entrees, they are not on the menu, but just stand up and check it out, see what appeals you and take it, there will be someone waiting with a tray and will take it to your table and add it to your pink pad.

The service is super quick, so when you least expect it, its time to enjoy your food. My selection included beef dumplings, crab dumplings, spring rolls, and hot and spicy noodles with a lovely selection of pickled cucumbers and pickled chicken feet.