[Shanghai] Tao Heung 稻香

Tao Heung 稻香 | Dianping
Address: 淮海中路999号环贸iapm商场3楼L301号铺(近陕西南路) – 3F/iapm, 999 Middle Huaihai Rd near South Shanxi Rd (徐汇区 Xuhui District)
Date visited: 2014.03 for dim sum brunch
Total bill: RMB¥192 for two people
Will return: Yes
What to get:
– Fried Turnip Cake with XO Sauce XO酱萝卜糕
– Shumai 南粤烧卖皇
– Crystal Shrimp Dumpling 稻香鲜虾饺
– Char Siu BBQ Pork Bun 叉烧局餐包
– Custard Bun 香滑奶皇包
– Durian Pastry 榴莲千丝酥

Allow me to translate what people talk about on Foursquare at Tao Heung: “这么多人” = so many people. That pretty much sums up Tao Heung (pronounced “Dao Xiang” in Mandarin by the way). Lunch time, dinner time, weekdays, weekends–there is always a crowd of people standing outside Tao Heung waiting for their ticket numbers to be called. We came on a Saturday at 2pm because that was when my friend decided to get up. Even so, there were 10 tables ahead of us but the line went by quickly. For the record, there was a time when I waited with 30 tables ahead of me to eat here. I suppose you can take a scroll around iapm while you wait and casually pick up a Balenciaga bag.

Tao Heung is a Hong Kong chain known for hotpot but I don’t like hotpot so that is not why I am here. Tao Heung is also known for dim sum, most notably in colorful rubber dim sum baskets, which are apparently no longer a thing here as we got our dim sum served in traditional wooden baskets during this last visit. This is a decent dim sum place in Shanghai by my standards (current standards being that I have not had dim sum in HK yet for comparison).

Fried Turnip Cake with XO Sauce XO酱萝卜糕 (RMB¥18)
Recommend: yes
We started off strong with this very tasty turnip cake. The turnip cake was thoroughly fried and seasoned with chili and XO sauce. One of my favorite dishes for dim sum!

鲜虾菜肉云吞 Shrimp Pork Dumpling Soup (RMB¥23)
Recommend: no
A disappointing wonton soup as the wontons were soggy and overstuffed (yes, too much can be a bad thing sometimes). Didn’t like the wonton skin, didn’t like the bland soup, didn’t like any part of it.

Shumai 南粤烧卖皇 (RMB¥20)
Recommend: yes
Shumai is a dim sum staple and the one here tastes just right.

Crystal Shrimp Dumpling 稻香鲜虾饺 (RMB¥23)
Recommend: yes
Another well-made classic dim sum dish.

Chicken Claw 酱汁蒸凤爪 (RMB¥18)
Recommend: I don’t eat these lol

Char Siu BBQ Pork Bun 叉烧局餐包 (RMB¥16)
Recommend: yes
This is actually more delicate than it looks as the BBQ pork filling is enclosed inside a fairly thin bun covered with a sweet, sticky glaze. If you prefer something thicker, there is another option with white fluffy bun.

Sharkfin Dumpling Soup 鱼翅灌汤饺  (RMB¥23)
Recommend: no
I am speculating this might be imitation sharkfin because I didn’t taste sharkfin. 90% of the dish is comprised of a giant thick dumpling (again, I’m not into overstuffed large dumplings or wontons). The soup was bland. It seems like the soup-based dim sum dishes here are not great, which is a shame because soup is like the essence of a Canto meal and a Hong Kong restaurant should be able to pull off soup. Maybe their hotpot broth is good but I probably won’t find out since I don’t really eat hotpot.

Custard Bun 香滑奶皇包 (RMB¥12)
Recommend: yes
This has sweet yellow custard inside and is one of my favorite dim sum sweets. Be sure to eat this hot or else the custard might settle after cooling.

Durian Pastry 榴莲千丝酥 (RMB¥23)
Recommend: yes
My favorite durian dim sum is still the version at Shanghai Tang Cafe 上海滩 but this is a worthy competitor stuffed with plentiful warm durian filling. My friend let me have two of the three.

All dis dim sum for two. Shoutout to this Asian girl let the lights dim sum.

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