Sunday, October 4, 2015

A Binondo Lunch at Shi Lin, Lucky China Town Mall


We wanted to try out a new Chinese restaurant during our trip to Binondo, so we had lunch at Shi Lin. I heard that they serve pretty tasty noodles and they also had some great reviews in Zomato. Little did we know that they actually have branches everywhere - a critical mistake since we wanted to eat somewhere special.

We had some noodles and dumpling, so here's what we thought of Shi Lin.



We had the Spicy Vegetable & Minced Pork Dumpling (Php 185) and the sauce was pretty spectacular. It was really delicious and I suggest you try it as well. You get 6 pieces of dumplish per order, which isn't really a lot but it does taste quite good. 



We also had the Noodles with Vegetables and Pork Wonton (Php 185), which was a very simple dish that had a clear (almost tasteless) broth. I honestly wouldn't pay that much money for a soup like this. The beauty of it, though, is in it's simplicity but it's deifintely not for me. I loved how firm the noodles were, mushy noodles are always one of my pet peeves. 


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The Braised Beef Noodles (Php 295) had so much more flavor than the earlier soup and I liked that it had a spicy bite to it. The beef was very soft and succulent, but it wasn't much. Again, I think it's an overpriced bowl of soup.  



The House Tea they gave was good but unfortunately it's not for free! I know that most Chinese, Japanese, and Korean restaurants offer free house tea to all their guests and it really surprised me that Shi Lin did not. You had to pay 40 pesos for unlimited tea.

The service was slow and the staff wasn't attentive even though the place wasn't packed for Sunday lunch. That factored in a lot in the negative score because we really had to dance around in our seats just to get their attention. 

The ambiance was very convenient since it was located in Lucky Chinatown Mall. The place was nice, air-conditioned, and had great ambiance. Definitely the best part of the experience (that's not a good thing).

Food Quality: 3.5
Service Quality: 2.0
Ambiance: 4.0

Overall Quality: 3.5

I think I might go back to Shi Lin only to try the popular Xiao Long Bao that foodies from all over have been raving about. From my experience here, however, it would be very difficult to convince me to go back for overpriced Chinese food anytime soon. 

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Cheers,
Chef Jay

Shi Lin Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Check out other Shi Lin reviews on openrice.ph.

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