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Bob's Shanghai 66, Shanghainese Cash-Only Xiao Long Bao with a Taiwanese Chef in Rockville


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Cumin lamb here is different than HKP in Falls Church. The lamb itself is better, not "desiccated" as someone described HKP, but the flavor is different. The back end of the taste is almost sour. Not bad or good, just different, but certainly better lamb.

I have very few experiences with XLB, but when I've had it in the past, the dough wasn't as thick. It was soft and thinner and it made the soup come out more ... explosively? Here, it was good but not amazing and that's the only reason I had come (on the way home from some mediocre PA skiing). The broth was very gingery. I still liked it.

The spicy wontons were actually really good.

Service is good in here. It was slammed, yet they were nicer than a slow night at HKP.

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We had a short wait at 12:30 today.  In addition to our usual order, today we tried the Basil Squid.  The basil and the squid themselves are unremarkable; the basil is stir-fried rather than flash fried.  However, the dish also comes with a very generous portion of sliced fried skin-on ginger and some roasted garlic cloves.  They make the sauce better than the squid.  The ginger is particularly addictive; I suspect it was briefly simmered in syrup prior to frying. 

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After eating what one friend described as the best xiao long bao in San Francisco this past Saturday, Mr. P and I went to Bob's for dinner tonight.  And guess what?  Bob's are better.  The wrappers may not be as thin as you'd like, but there's plenty of broth, and it and the meat are intensely flavorful.

Also, I think they keep tweaking the recipe for the spicy fried tofu, which is better every time I order it.

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We were up in Rockville at Montgomery College so decided to give this a try for the first time, especially since Peter Chang's hasn't opened yet.

Basically ordered a very dumpling and noodle centric meal of Xiao long bao, potstickers, shiu mai, wonton soup, noodle soup with pork chop, and snow pea shoots.

Snow pea shoots were actually the highlight for me. Huge plate of greens sauteed perfectly with garlic. Perfect in quantity and cooking.

The xlb were as described by everyone here, a nice pocket of meat and broth that burst open when you bite into it. For the kids cut them up on the plate which is not so great because then you can see how much fat is in there as it congeals on the plate. I'm sure that fat has something to do with how good they taste. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

Potstickers were very good with nice amount of meat and good flavor.Shiu mai were huge, but that's about all I can say. Wonton soup was also good, but not the best I've had though the kids liked it since we don't often get wonton soup. There were a generous number of wontons in the soup. The pork chop was a little scrawny and dry as if it spent a couple minutes too long in the fryer. Noodles were generous and the soup was good with lots of bok choy Noodles were a little over cooked.

We finished with dessert of shaved ice which surprisingly the kids did not really get into that much. This was the one time communication broke down as we wanted just the red bean and jelly and she put everything on.

Overall a decent meal, and a lot of food for $70. I think the table next to us was in disbelief at how much we were eating without a doggy bag. Would like to go back and explore some more of the menu.

Place was packed.

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Recently I had a discussion going with friends about XLB.  Someone had recommended we go to Din Tai Fung while in Seattle; others thought it overrated.  Then I found a local place that sounded like it was better and went there for lunch on Monday.  Their XLB, I reported to my friends, were way better than any I'd had on the east coast and second only to the best I had in Richmond (BC, that is, not VA; it's a suburb of Vancouver).

Tonight Mr. P and I dined at Bob's Shanghai 66.  Those were the best XLB I've ever had.  Ever.

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Recently I had a discussion going with friends about XLB.  Someone had recommended we go to Din Tai Fung while in Seattle; others thought it overrated.  Then I found a local place that sounded like it was better and went there for lunch on Monday.  Their XLB, I reported to my friends, were way better than any I'd had on the east coast and second only to the best I had in Richmond (BC, that is, not VA; it's a suburb of Vancouver).

Tonight Mr. P and I dined at Bob's Shanghai 66.  Those were the best XLB I've ever had.  Ever.

Just to remove any hint of ambiguity, you're talking about Bob's XLB, right?

I *just* ordered from Mala Tang, and am now wishing I ordered XLB.

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In DC, I don't understand why there's any debate.  I've had Shanghai Taste, JDS, A&J - they're not anywhere near as good as Bob's.  

Eric, I'm with you. Shanghai Taste and JDS are good (I love A&J for other things, but their XLB never have any soup), but they are not as good as Bob's.

Porcupine, glad to hear that Bob's stands up against some of Seattle/Vancouver's best!

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Second visit today at lunch.  Better than my first time but the XLB didn't have quite enough liquid and weren't hot enough.  Maybe they thought I didn't know what I was doing and served them a little cool.  No risk of popping these (a little thick but still very good).

The fried leek dumpling was outrageously good though, and the cold spicy beef and tripe was too, although not particularly spicy.

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On 5/22/2015 at 8:16 AM, DanielK said:

Eric, I'm with you. Shanghai Taste and JDS are good (I love A&J for other things, but their XLB never have any soup), but they are not as good as Bob's.

Porcupine, glad to hear that Bob's stands up against some of Seattle/Vancouver's best!

Agree - for XLB, Bob's is second to none. However, Shanghai Taste's weekend-only fried buns are easily worth the long journey out to Maryland, inconsistent XLBs notwithstanding.

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We had lunch at a packed Bob's on Monday, January 2.  Our new menu discovery is the pickled wood ear mushrooms.  They are tossed in a coating of garlic, ginger, sesame oil, salt, vinegar, and I suspect some rice wine.  They're addictive.  We briefly thought that some of them would come home with us to become a breakfast over a bowl of rice, but that sure didn't happen.  

 

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Picking dim sum from the weekend menu here today was a good choice. The duck dumplings (or whatever they would be called; they were like a ground duck dumpling wrapped and then fried in a pink rice flour) were interesting, as were the shrimp rolls. The congee was very good, perhaps saltier than I expected, but a nice complement with the fried buns. Off of the regular menu the pork wrap with long horn peppers is a favorite, and was as good as always. We hadn't been to Bob's in a year, perhaps, and it was nice to see that it is as good as always.

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Happy to report that Bob's has transitioned well to Pandemic restaurant survival.  They have a big table up front full of insulated bags keeping hot items hot and a freezer case for frozen XLB.  We remembered that they offer large quantities of XLB frozen at a good price so I called on Thursday to see if I could order some for Friday or Saturday pickup.  Picked them up yesterday along with a double order of the pan-fried pork dumplings, the pickled  wood ear mushrooms, shrimp dumplings, and the pork with dry noodle.  We ate the fresh items after a 35 minute drive home to Herndon (other than the one hot pork dumpling I ate in the parking lot as the driver's tax) in my own insulated bag and had some of the XLB for our New Year's lunch today.  The XLB survived freezing beautifully; each is separate.  Bob's kindly included both sauce and steamer basket paper in the package and they had some ice cubes in a baggie inside the bag with the XLB to help them stay fully frozen.  In our case they'd gone right into their own insulated bag with cold packs for the drive, but that's some smart packaging.   

We had 12 of the XLB today and they were outstanding.  We had one round of some XLB from H-mart and they weren't even close in quality.  

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