Popular hawker stall Zhang Ji Shanghai La Mian Xiao Long Bao opens mall outlet

There are restaurants famous for xiao long bao, but Zhang Ji Shanghai La Mian Xiao Long Bao is one of the relatively few hawker stalls in Singapore specialising in it.

Since opening in 2011 at Alexandra Village Food Centre, it has been attracting long queues and made it to the 2023 Michelin Guide.

Customers load up on handmade dumplings and legit Shanghainese food whipped up by the stall’s Nanjing-born husband-and-wife owners, who recently opened their first full-service restaurant outlet at nearby mall Alexandra Retail Centre (ARC). 

Instead of a chaotic hawker centre setting, you get air-conditioned comfort at this 70-seat space. Though not super spacious, Zhang Ji’s new outlet looks reasonably upmarket like a typical mall restaurant, a significant upgrade from their hawker stall.

It’s also run by the hawker-owners themselves, Zhang Youzhu, 56, and Zhao Guilian, 56, who moved to Singapore from Nanjing in 1998. Both of them worked as chefs back in Nanjing, with Zhang starting his culinary career at just 19. 

Zhao told 8days.sg that they decided to open this new branch because their son “wants to inherit the business now that he’s old enough”, adding that “it’s quite tiring (for Youzhu) to run Zhang Ji as he’s getting older”. 

As such, the couple and their son, Zhang Liangchen, 28, currently shuttle between both shops, with father-and-son typically helming one shop each. Though they have hired cooks to help out at their restaurant, Zhou said she and her husband remain the main chefs at both outlets.

SLIGHTLY UPGRADED MENU

Compared to the hawker outlet, Zhang Ji’s eatery offers four new soup dishes and three new cold dishes.

All the dishes at the hawker stall are offered here, albeit at higher prices. While we haven’t tried it ourselves, patrons rave about Zhang Ji’s steamed mini buns (aka xiao long bao), which is S$6.80 here instead of S$5, and crispy pan-fried dumplings, which go for S$9.80 instead of S$7.50.

These include pork ribs noodles (S$7.80), plain soup noodles (S$3.80), as well as dumpling soup (S$8.80) and wonton soup (S$8.80).

Meanwhile, new cold dishes include cold beef (S$13.80), a Chinese-style beef salad, popular Chinese appetisers like cold fungus (black fungus salad) (S$4.80), and cucumber salad (S$3.80). Zhou also shared that her “husband will come up with new dishes when he has time after the Chinese New Year period”.

You can get the stall’s signature la mian (pulled noodles) offerings here too, like beef noodles, priced at S$7.80 here (S$5.50 at the hawker stall), and Szechuan spicy noodles, which is S$6.80 a bowl instead of S$5. 

Zhang Ji Shanghai La Mian Xiao Long Bao is at #02-23 Alexandra Retail Centre, 460 Alexandra Rd, Singapore 119963. Open Mon - Sat 11am - 3pm, 5pm - 8.30pm (Closed on Sun). 

This story was originally published in 8Days.