Long's Noodle House

After a few days of sushi cleanse, I had a huge craving for oily Chinese food. So I decided that Long's Noodle House can definitely satisfy my cravings. It was only 6pm when I got home from work; if we speed there now, we might not need to wait for a table. We dashed there, found a nice close parking spot, and went inside. Half the restaurant was full already. The two large tables were reserved. Fortunately, a small table cleared up and we were seated right away.

Long's Noodle House is a small family owned restaurant. The front end is single handedly operated by the female owner. She is the host/waitress/server of the restaurant. Very personable and have a great sense of humor. She treats all her customers like a regular and constantly make hilarious remarks.

Wine Chicken ($7.95)
Comes in this cute Asian style wine container. It is primarily the drumstick of a chicken that is sliced and drenched in Chinese "fa diu wine". The container is filled all the way to the bottom. I really enjoy the wine chicken at Long's Noodle House because the wine taste is not as pungent as elsewhere, but you can still taste it.

Hot and Sour Soup ($6.95)
Very tasty, not as hot and sour as most places. Mild in flavour. Lots of ingredients, definitely not cheaping out. Great portion for the price

Steamed Mini Pork Buns ($5.50)
Also known as: Siu Long Bao, my favourite! These steamed mini pork buns are filled with juicy soup. Be careful when picking them up with your chopsticks, if you make a hole, the soup will spill everywhere! When I poured the soup out, it filled up my soup spoon, and you can see that the liquid is nice and clear - not oily at all. The meat inside was really fresh tonight, it was surprisingly not frozen! Recommended by Hippo!!

Beef Rolls ($5.95)
In my opinion, one of the best in Vancouver. The pancake is soft and chewy - not hard and dry, like the ones you find in bubble tea restaurants. The thin slice of beef is tender and has a perfect complement of sauce wrapped in the roll. Only con with this roll is that each end of the roll does not have enough sauce, so it tends to be more bland at the ends. Otherwise, it is a very tasty and flavourful dish. Highly recommended if you are a beef roll person!

Overall, a great place to grab some Shanghai food in Vancouver. Although this is a noodle house, we actually did not order any noodle this time. The four dishes we ordered was perfect for two people for dinner. We do look forward in making another trip just for the noodles!

Location: On Main Street, north of East 33rd Avenue. You can find parking along Main Street. Always call ahead to make reservations. There was a wait / line up when we were there, and it was just a Monday. Please note: they are closed on Tuesdays.

Food: Fresh and delicious. Every dish we order was very good. No disappointments.
Service: Wonderful personable owner.
Price: The total came to $30 with tax for two people.
Recommended? Yes.

- Hippo


Long's Noodle House 小龍記麵家
4853 Main Street
Vancouver, B.C.
Phone: 604-879-7879

Shanghai Wonderful

I love Shanghai food. There aren’t many good restaurants in town, but Shanghai Wonderful is definitely one of them. I have been here many times over the past few years and it has been consistently serving good food; a very solid restaurant. I like Shanghai Wonderful because of the flavourful yum-tum food with plenty of quality ingredients.

In terms of service, all the Shanghai restaurants are equivalent. For those who never been to a Chinese restaurant, please keep in mind that the only positive in these restaurants are efficiency. Unless you are a regular, no conversations will be generated; simply because the waiters have no time to spare for a decent conversation. My review on most Chinese restaurants is solely dependent on how well the food taste. 

Chicken with Wine Sauce 花雕走地雞 ($10.95)
This free range chicken is soaked in rice wine sauce. The flavour of the rice wine is actually quite strong. My sister didn’t really like it because it was too rich for her. I would not recommend this dish if your palate have not accustom to the rice wine flavour. This chicken itself is cooked really well. It has been soaked in rice wine sauce for hours, so you do not need to dip it in the sauce provided.

Seafood Hot and Sour Soup 海鮮酸辣湯 ($9.95)
Delicious. The soup itself is made of spicy oil sauce and vinegar to create the hot and sour flavour. The highlight of this soup is the amount of ingredients they used. Very rare do you find a restaurant using this much seafood in their soup. Many cheap out and just fill it up with liquid and tofu. I prefer Shanghai Wonderful version of this soup because it is quite mild; a very good appetizer.

Fried Sliced Roll 炸銀絲卷 ($2.95)
A classic favourite. Instead of eating rice, this bread will sometimes be eaten as substitute for the intake of carbohydrate. Inside is very soft with layers. It comes with a sweetened condensed milk on the side. For a healthier option, it also comes steamed.

Fried Shanghai Thick Noodle 上海粗炒麵 ($10.95)
Similar to many fried noodle dishes, it is a bit on the greasy side. Not too strong in soy sauce flavour. I like how it uses a lot of spinach and siu choi, so that it provides moisture to the dry noodles and meat. This is a popular dish, a very simple dish actually, but it stands out amongst other restaurants. It is difficult to ensure the flavour of the noodles, yet not going over greasy. I will rate this above average.

Shanghai Style Juicy Pork Buns 上海小籠飽 ($5.25)
Lastly, the ‘siu long bao’.  I love these juicy siu long bao! The entire bun is filled with soup. It is very fresh as well, which you can tell by the colour of the pork. The meat in many other restaurants turns me off because of the frozen taste given off due to the length of time it has been sitting in the freezer. Be careful while eating this; my cousin squirted the soup on me twice while eating it...

Overall, I enjoyed this dinner. Except the fact that my cousin made a mess on me while eating. I would not say Shanghai Wonderful is the best in town, but it is in my top 5 for its quality and price. It has yet to disappoint me with its flavours. It will continue to be part of my go-to Shanghai restaurant list.

Location: In the corner of Lansdowne Road and Cooney Road. It is behind Lansdowne Mall, a block from No. 3 Road. A 5-minute walk from the skytrain station. It has a small lot, so it may be difficult to find parking when it gets busy.

Food: A good, solid Shanghai restaurant.
Service: Standard efficiency.
Price: The total came to $45 with tax for three people.
Recommended? Yes.

- Hippo


Shanghai Wonderful Restaurant 旺
8380 Lansdowne Road
Richmond, B.C.
Phone: 604-278-8829