It was a Saturday night and we wanted to have dinner at a different place. Since we were around the Pasay area, we decided to try Modern Shanghai in MOA. It was easy to find. It was located on the By the Bay side, on the 2nd floor.
We were curious with MS, it is part of the Bistro Group and I have read a review on a newspaper that it was a good resto to try.
When we got inside, we were greeted warmly by the receptionist. All our requests were granted, without much persuasion from us. I loved the modern feel and ambiance of the resto! It was so different from other chinese restaurants we’ve been to.
When it was time to order, the server patiently answered our queries about their dishes. We wanted to try their bestsellers but not those heavy meaty dishes!
First in our list was their house specialty, the Signature
Xiao Long Bao. It’s a dumpling that has soup inside. Here’s my 1st and they have an instruction card on how to eat it.
Here’s how I ate my Xiao Long Bao, I hold my chinese spoon. Put some ginger and black vinegar on it. While holding the chinese spoon, I get a piece with my chopsticks and put it on the vinegar. I sip the soup from the dumpling’s opening. Once sipped, I consumed the whole dumpling together with the sauce. A taste of heaven! Just the right amount of meat inside perfectly steamed dumplings.
This dish is best eaten while hot. But you have to let it sit on your spoon for a while to avoid getting your tongue burned as the soup inside is hot.
We also ordered Pan Fried Shanghai Pork Buns. As the name says, these are buns with ground pork inside. What I liked about it, the sesame seeds under the buns. It made it more fragrant and tastier. Watch out for oil when biting the bun. It really tends to be oily because it is pan fried!
We tried a very expensive bun dish, fortunately, it didn’t fail us. It was a bun folded in half, filled with a slice of smoked ham, a piece of tortilla chip and sprinkled with lotus nuts! Right combination of crisp from the tortilla chip and softness from the bun.
Their Deep Fried Pork Ribs with Spicy Salt & Pepper is also a must try. The meat is very tender and the juice just comes oozing out when you take a bite.
These 4 dishes are our bets for the night. The other dishes we ordered were just so-so. Fried Rice was normal. Noodles we ordered tasted bland despite the color of soy. Same thing with the noodle in double boiled chicken soup and the dumpling soup, both do not leave a taste.
The worst thing we ordered was the Home Style Eight Treasure Rice. It was supposed to be our dessert, but we weren’t able to enjoy it. It was hard, like it was cooked ahead of time. We didn’t know if it was supposed to be that way. We just left it there. The good thing was, when we told the manager about it, she gladly took it off our bill. That’s super plus points for good service.
For a group of 4 adults, a 3yr old and a 7month old baby, our bill was kinda expensive. It reached Php 2800.00. Good thing we had the Bistro Privilege Card (which we availed at Krazy Garlic, another fave Bistro resto), we used the 40% off discount coupon included with the purchase of the card. After discount, our bill was only Php 1600.00. Isn’t that the best deal?
As I was writing this review, me and hubby are already planning our next visit, and this time, we definitely know what to order. (Xiao Long Bao steamed, the Shanghai Buns) And there are more items on the menu to try! (Pan Fried Xiao Long Bao, Pan Fried Dumplings, the drinks)
I rate Modern Shanghai at 9 out of 10. Perfect ambiance, very cozy. Good food (just need to know which dishes to order) and most especially, accommodating staff.
Sassy Biatche Mom's World 