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JDS Shanghai Famous - Xiao Long Bao on Quince Orchard Rd in Gaithersburg


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JDS Shanghai Famous, or just Shanghai Famous, opened in late March, occupying two adjacent storefronts in the strip mall facing MD-124 near Criswell Chevrolet, right behind the Starbucks.  I haven't the slightest clue what JDS stands for in their name, but I'm reasonably certain this may the only time I've seen those three letters _not_ stand for Jewish Day School.

But I digress.  Photos of their XLB have been popping up all over the past couple of weeks, along with descriptions comparing them favorably to the ones from Bob's Shanghai in Rockville, so I absolutely had to check it out.  And...you should too.  At lunchtime today, the place was maybe half-full, but essentially all the parties appeared to be Chinese.  The menu is straight up Shanghainese food...no Northern Chinese, no Cantonese, no Taiwanese (hence no bubble tea), no Americanized.  While I didn't think that the crab-and-pork XLB quite rose to the level of the NYC and West Coast XLB destinations, the wrappers were good (they could be a smidge thinner, but were at least in the ballpark), the soup level was good, and the flavor was good.  I give these the edge for flavor profile, although for intensity I think Bob's chicken-soup filling is a bit deeper.  Also, porcupine will probably be a bit disappointed in the lack of freshly julienned ginger, apart from a few bits premixed into the black vinegar in the dipping bowl.

Still, a credible contender, at least until something even better comes along.

519 Quince Orchard Rd., Gaithersburg MD 20878

Here's The Menu

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Thanks for the info on this. We had XLB at Shanghai Taste during our last DC trip and liked them. We've been on the hunt for crab/pork XLB since we had them at Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao in NYC. Will definitely check JDS out once we relocate to Gaithersburg!

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I much prefer the XLB at Bob's Shanghai, for flavor, texture, broth - everything.  The thing that bowled me over at JDS was the mushroom and pork bao.  It's the first time I've ever had that kind of wrapper on a dumpling that I didn't think "hmm, Bisquick."  The filling was awesome, too, tasting equally of mushroom and pork.

We also sampled two noodle dishes, one of which was forgettable, but the Biang Biang (I think that's how they spelled it; noodles with peanut sauce) were fairly tasty.

Couldn't resist trying the beef jerky.  Though the menu doesn't say, there are two styles, sweet and spicy.  I ordered the spicy, because it's the Szechuan peppercorn that I find so addictive.  The flavor was good, but the meat quality not so much.  I prefer the jerky at Sichuan Jin River.

I don't mean to damn with faint praise.  Next time I have to go to Criswell I'll make a point of scheduling it around lunchtime so I can go to JDS again and sample more of the food.

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We actually stopped in here with a big group a month or two back. Basically everything we had was between good to great. Among other things, we tried the XLBs, some of the different big dumplings (spicy pork ones and vegetarian ones, I think), spicy beef jerk, several noodle dishes, and a rice cakes + pork dish. It's been a while so I don't remember all the details unfortunately!

I'll counter porcupine on the Beef Jerky and say I much, much prefered the jerky here over Jin River's. I love this stuff to death, and the leftovers even reheated well. The dumplings were good, though I'm not sure if I prefer them here over Jin River's or not.

When we were there the place was pretty busy, but the service was good and moved quickly. I'm pretty sure we were the only non-Chinese group eating there. Even ordering way too much food, the bill was only around $20 a person including tax and tip.

Overall, I think this place is pretty solid. It's not the kind of place you'd go way out of your way to get to, but if you live or work in the area you'll probably enjoy adding it to your rotation.

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On 5/18/2014 at 1:11 AM, ol_ironstomach said:

JDS Shanghai Famous, or just Shanghai Famous, opened in late March, occupying two adjacent storefronts in the strip mall facing MD-124 near Criswell Chevrolet, right behind the Starbucks.  I haven't the slightest clue what JDS stands for in their name, but I'm reasonably certain this may the only time I've seen those three letters _not_ stand for Jewish Day School.

But I digress.  Photos of their XLB have been popping up all over the past couple of weeks, along with descriptions comparing them favorably to the ones from Bob's Shanghai in Rockville, so I absolutely had to check it out.  And...you should too.  At lunchtime today, the place was maybe half-full, but essentially all the parties appeared to be Chinese.  The menu is straight up Shanghainese food...no Northern Chinese, no Cantonese, no Taiwanese (hence no bubble tea), no Americanized.  While I didn't think that the crab-and-pork XLB quite rose to the level of the NYC and West Coast XLB destinations, the wrappers were good (they could be a smidge thinner, but were at least in the ballpark), the soup level was good, and the flavor was good.  I give these the edge for flavor profile, although for intensity I think Bob's chicken-soup filling is a bit deeper.  Also, porcupine will probably be a bit disappointed in the lack of freshly julienned ginger, apart from a few bits premixed into the black vinegar in the dipping bowl.

Still, a credible contender, at least until something even better comes along.

519 Quince Orchard Rd., Gaithersburg MD 20878

Here's The Menu

 

I haven't had a chance to visit, but my co-worker says this is the best place in this area for XLBs. The answer to the question above is that JDS is the abbreviated initials for their Chinese name: Jin Ding Shan.

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When I asked my 7 year old what she wanted for dinner last night she said "soup dumplings!"  We headed to JDS.  I haven't been here in several months.  It seems they are always changing up the menu.  Now, they hand you a menu and a paper menu and ask you to circle on the paper menu what you want.  We got one order of dumplings, and I got the dry saute seafood hot pot.  Brooke loved the dumplings, and ate almost the entire order.  I am not soup dumpling junkie, but they were very good.  I was most impressed with the dry seafood hot pot.  It had lots of shrimp, breaded and fried fish filets (likely founder), squid, and imitation crab for the seafood offering.  This was punched up with bean curd sheets, lotus root, potato slices, soy sprouts, and cilantro.  It was all coated in a red slick of chili oil, with sliced garlic and ginger, flecked with a ton of dry chili and szechuan peppercorns.  The fish was bite sized, breaded and fried, and added to the top of the pot to keep its crunchy texture.  It slowly absorbed the chili oil.  The flavors of this pot were really good, and perhaps better than at Big Wang's (I often wake up at night thinking about this dish at Big Wang!).  It was both spicy and flavorful, with enough numbing to make it impossible to stop eating.  I was definitely a pig and ate the whole thing.  At the end I was sweating profusely.  While it is true that I am a heat head, I will not take heat over flavor, this dish really hit the spot, as everything was in delightful balance.  I would take this any day over the dish at Big Wang, if you got to customize the dish like you can at Big Wang.  For this reason, the dishes are very closely rated, with JDS getting a slight nod for the complexity of flavors.  

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JDS is a rustrating place. I went by myself one time and was raving. So much so we gathered together a group and had a very uneven meal. The XLB were forgettable but some of the cold plates were quite good.

The other day, I went back.  I thought the black fungus salad probably the best version of that dish. Perfect balance of vinegar, garlic and hot peppers.  The fungus itsel was particularly smooth, supple yet toothy.  Then I moved onto spicy XLB. The wrapper was quite ok, not too thick and nicely moist. But it wasn't quite as good Bob's and Shanghai Taste but good.  The filling was spicy and I mean spicy.  It was all I could take and those who have enjoyed spicy foods with me know that's hot.  There was a mall level of soup abut the meatballs inside were incredibly juicy.  So a confusingly mixed bag.

I really wish I ordered the regular XLB and I will go back to try them based on the juiciness of the filling and the cold plate.  Would love to go with 4 or more so a wide variety of small plates can be sampled.

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16 hours ago, deangold said:

JDS is a rustrating place. I went by myself one time and was raving. So much so we gathered together a group and had a very uneven meal. The XLB were forgettable but some of the cold plates were quite good.

... 

Would love to go with 4 or more so a wide variety of small plates can be sampled.

We have the same issue. If we're up that way, we'll go, but the inconsistency means we don't have it in our regular rotation.

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My 5-year old loves the steamed pork bao here, and usually eats one or two XLB--last night he finished off an order of each by himself. The spicy seafood hot pot was really top-notch. This is one of our go-to dishes when we go to JDS, and while we always like it, it seemed even better--the numbing nicely combined with the spicy to make just the right balance.

We visit JDS about once a month, and are almost never disappointed--the bao are generally worthwhile, and the other dishes well-prepared. We have had a few of the beef wraps that were nothing special. Service has always been very friendly and prompt (a nice extra with a 5-year old in tow).

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