If you love authentic Chinese street food fresh out of the markets in Shanghai or even Szechuan, then boy do we have a treat for you.
Newly opened Mr Sheng Jian located along Liang Seah Street dishes out a myriad of Shanghainese-inspired food with a modern touch. Their sheng jian baos are just the perfect little tummy fillers and come in a variety of innovative flavours such as cheese and kimchi. Their noodle dishes, on the other hand, although not the best we’ve come across, do give you a sense of warmth from the spicy broth.
The menu here is straightforward and primarily focused on a variety of sheng jian bao and noodle dishes. Prices are kept fairly affordable while portions are huge—a combination we absolutely love.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with sheng Jian bao, they are essentially a doughier, pan-fried cousin of the much-loved xiao long bao. A popular Shanghainese snack, these bad boys are filled generously with a flavourful pork filling and subsequently steamed and shallow-fried.
Combining the textural elements of crispy, chewy and soupy, we can see why their signature Mixed Sheng Jian (S$12.50) receives such a wide appeal.
Featuring 3 different flavours—Classical, Cheese and Kimchi with Prawn—the skin of each respective bao was neither too thick nor too thin, just enough to keep the filling from spilling out yet delicate enough to allow you to bite into it with ease.
While all of them were delicious in their own way, the main standout for us was the Kimchi with Prawn (S$8).
The filling comprises two small prawns with a fair amount of kimchi. It was a beautiful marriage of tastes and textures from the crunchy prawns, crispy bao skin and the sharp hit of spice and tang from the kimchi really did well to make this bao stand out among the rest.
The restaurant prides themselves on making their baos fresh daily—none of the frozen stuff.
The eatery’s pride and joy, their signature Sirloin Noodles (S$7.50) comes with a generous portion of noodles as well as a few chunks of tender beef brisket. While the entire dish was pretty delicious on its own, we found the noodles a tad too mushy for our liking.
The beef was fork tender with notes of warm spices, but more importantly what we loved about it was the intense beefy qualities that it lends the soup. The soup was spicy with the same numbing quality you would typically associate with mala and was tasty.
Mr Sheng Jian
8 Liang Seah Street
Singapore 189029
Daily: 12pm – 8.30pm
Nearest Station: Bugis
Good recommendation, tried it, it is nice.