Restaurant: Shandong Dumplings
Location: 80 N Fair Oaks Ave, Pasadena, CA 91103. (626) 578-9777
Date: October 8, 2019
Cuisine: Shandong Chinese
Rating: Great home-style dumplings
Another of these small lunch outings with Yarom and I, this time also joined by Tony L.
There aren’t a ton of Shandong specific places in LA.
And this one is in the heart of old town Pasadena.
The homey interior.
They make them here.
The menu.
Peanuts, celery, cucumbers, shredded potato. Cold appetizers.
Hot and sour soup. I love this old school classic.
Lamb with fennel dumplings. I adore this boiled kind and the lamb ones have a lot of flavor.
Dry shrimp with egg and leek dumplings. Yeah, they look the same, but they don’t taste the same.
Chicken and celery. Nice celery flavor.
Ginger and spiced cabbage juicy steamed dumplings. These were among my favorites, with very delicate skins.
Pan fried pork bun. Yum!
Pan fried pork dumplings. Pretty much the Shanghai style kind. A bit bready, but the crispy bottom is fun.
Fried chicken bones. Not to the American taste, but full of flavor.
Pork. Boney, but there was lots of meat here.
Overall, this is a tasty place. The dumplings were way better than the couple meat dishes we had, and were great for casual homestyle dumplings. I really do love all dumplings, particularly the boiled and “juicy” soup dumpling kinds.