RESTAURANT REVIEW: SHANGRI-LA RESTAURANT - BELMONT, MA

natebaekupel
Feb 13, 2015
2 min read

Sunday dim sum in Boston's Chinatown used to be a routine for my partner and I. She and I would go almost weekly to talk schedules for the week and enjoy char siu bao, fried turnip cake, fried noodle rolls, chicken feet, and a number of other goodies.

And while we don't get out to Chinatown nearly as much as we used to, we still try to get out as much as we can for brunch on Sundays. This time we decided to give Shangri-La a shot for Lunar New Year weekend in Belmont, Massachusetts.

A few friends had told me that it was pretty good and after one visit, I would wholeheartedly agree. Shangi-La features Taiwanese style dim sum and doesn't skimp out on the portions. The photo to the left shows a fried pancake with shaved five spice beef and scallions a hefty bite for even one person.

The menu is reasonably priced and not five pages long like some of the larger dim sum menus I'm used to seeing in Chinatown. But what they lack in variety, they make up for in quality and quantity. Every item we ordered came out wonderful.

What we ordered: five spice beef buns (photo), green bean starch, Chinese donuts with hot soy milk, turnip cakes w/a chili sauce (one of my personal favs), pork soup dumplings.

My only complaint is that they don't have a whole lot of vegetarian options and very few fresh greens. Don't expect to find steamed yu choy or Chinese broccoli on the menu--it's mostly noodles, buns, dumplings, meat, and starchy goodness.

I personally thought it was really good and will be going back soon. If you go, prepare to go early though. It's a small restaurant boasting only maybe a dozen tables at the very most and it fills up fast (so does the line).