delicious Shanghai pan-fried dumplings

Those of you who frequent this blog probably know I avoid talking about restaurant service most of the time. I guess some of this can be attributed to the fact that I grew up eating at Chinese hole-in-the-walls, where the service is often brusque due to the high volume, and a less prevalent (and, in some areas in Asia, non-existent) tipping culture. I don’t really care to rant about the service at Northern Dynasty on my blog, but if good service is an integral part of the dining experience for you, I can point you towards some reviews of this restaurant, and tell you I’ve experienced the same unpleasantness here. Brusque service is one thing, but rude service is another all together.

decent chili oil wontons

So with that disclaimer out of the way–we can move onto the more important details: THE FOOD! Northern Dynasty is a restaurant who won Gold in the fine-dining category of this year’s Vancouver Chinese Restaurant awards, and though my family has eaten here on numerous occasions, we decided to revisit to see if the food was markedly better than what we remembered it to be.

fried tofu with pork and garlic sauce. I liked this dish a lot.

The menu at Northern Dynasty is certainly extensive, with more offerings than some of the restaurants my parents like to frequent. Also, there are a number of innovative dishes I’ve never seen before, such as the fried sticky rice squares. Most of the dishes served here seem to come from one of two regions in China: Sichuan (e.g. chili oil wontons, fu qi fei pian, dan dan noodles) and Shanghai (the pan-fried dumplings, xiao long bao, and flaky daikon pastries).

tofu with vermicelli in soup

If I were to urge you in one direction, stick with the Shanghainese offerings. All the Sichuan offerings we ordered–the dan dan noodles, and the fu qi fei pian, in particular–were terrible. The noodles were over-cooked to the point of mush, and arrived drowning in a watered down sauce. The fu qi fei pian (one of our favorite dishes–marinaded miscellaneous meats, including tripe, tendon, shank, and tongue, tossed in a fiery, oily sauce) was tame, dry and barely spicy. (A tip for Seattlites: head to Spiced in Bellevue for a nice rendition of this dish. It’s available in the cold refrigerated case near the entrance of the restaurant.)

above average xiao long bao

The xiao long bao were quite nice, and certainly better than anything we have available in Seattle, though a small step down from places like Shanghai River,  or Long’s Noodle House. The dough was rolled out a little thicker, like the XLB you find at Shanghai House, but the broth lacked that unctuous full-on porky flavor that makes the ones at Shanghai House crave-able. Still, these were pretty good.

yummy fried sticky rice squares

The best dishes on the table, though, were the Shanghainese pan-fried dumplings pictured at the top of this post. The dough on those golden dumplings were thick, and crisped in a good amount of oil. The filling was juicy and contained a vegetable my mom said is imported from Asia. (I forget what it was called.)

“fu chi fei pien” (basically various meats, including tendon, tripe and shank). I do not recommend this dish.

dan dan noodles (Don’t recommend this either.)

wonderfully flaky daikon pastries

The meal ended on a high-note with these delicate daikon pastries. The pastry was flaky, the filling sweet with daikon and grated carrots. They were excellent and totally grubbable.

I would recommend Northern Dynasty if you’re in search of great pan-fried dumplings, daikon pastries, and fried tofu with pork sauce. Some of the food this restaurant serves is certainly delicious, though considering how terrible the Sichuan dishes were, I would hesitate to recommend it whole-heartedly, unless you plan on ordering only Shanghainese dim sum for lunch.

Northern Dynasty is located at 8391 Alexandra Road in Richmond, BC; 604.303.1192