One day while roaming around glorietta, I was craving for xiao long bao. I passed by Modern Shanghai and saw the chefs making xiao long bao from scratch. The price of the food seemed reasonable and the place looked classy so I decided to give it a try.

The front of the house lady led me to a booth and told me a waitress will be coming to assist me. The waitress handed me the menu and took my order promptly.

This is where the good service ended.
I was really hungry and I ordered the jelly fish with aged vinegar and xiao long bao, expecting both to be served quickly since there weren’t a lot of people dining in at thy time (3 tables, the jellyfish wouldn’t have to be cooked and the xiao long bao would just be steamed. After fifteen minutes, I followed up the order. Twenty minutes passed, still no order. Thirty minutes passed and I was getting pretty pissed and was tempted to walk out of the establishment. They served the jelly fish around this time. Forty five to fifty minutes later, the xiao long bao was finally served. Was it worth the wait?

The jelly fish was good, the serving wasn’t that big, but with the amount you’re paying, not bad at all, but also nothing special. It wasn’t mind-blowing enough to make it worth the long wait though. Good appetizer, lousy service ruined it.

The xiao long bao is a different matter all together. I will never eat xiao long bao from here ever again! Aside from the impossibly long waiting time (though they said they had technical problems), the xiao long bao just wasn’t good. The wrapper broke upon getting a piece from the steam tray so the soup spilled out. I tried using my fingers to get the next one, gently lifting it off the paper, but it still broke. I had to resort to putting the spoon right beside the piece I was going to get so when the wrapper tears open, the soup will spill onto the spoon instead. Aside from the terribly made wrapper, there wasn’t enough broth, not to mention it wasn’t even tasty. The consistency of the meat wasn’t good as well, kind of dry without much taste. I’m never having this xiao long bao again!

I know I really shouldn’t judge a restaurant by two dishes but the experience was such a bad one and the food didn’t even make it better. All in all, I don’t think I’m eating in Modern Shanghai again. I’m glad there’s a newly opened competitor in glorietta. At least this way, maybe Modern Shanghai will try to improve.

Queenie

Modern Shanghai is located at 3rd floor, Glorietta 2