Taikang 泰康汤包 @ Shanghai (2023)

At Taikang, they popularised another variation of the Xiaolongbao – the giant soup dumpling called Guantangbao 灌汤包.

At first look, the 泰康汤包 Taikang soup dumpling looked an oversized xiaolongbao. The waiter will bring it to your table in the bamboo basket that would normally be used for the xiaolongbao, but now it can only hold one instead of the usual 6.

The waiter, wearing a glove, would pick it up and place it on your plate. Amazingly, it did not break. Of course, oversized is an understatement, only when your dumpling filled the entirely serving plate, you know you have a whopper.

And when you were done with the soup, there’s the delicious pork dumpling to consume with a bit of vinegar and shredded ginger.

They serve the regular sized xiaolongbao too. Xiaolongbao can generally be called to all soup dumplings from the Shanghai and Wuxi area, but Taikang’s more of Wuxi version. Hence, they were a bit sweeter than the Shanghai version, too sweet for my taste, so I order their crab roe dumpling 蟹粉汤包 instead.

Besides the restaurant on the second floor, they also have a very good fruit stand on the ground floor that served fresh pressed juices. Plus the store sells a lot of local tit-bits and sundries, so it is nice place to visit.

Taikang Dumpling 泰康汤包
768 Nanjing Rd Pedestrian St, NanJing Lu, Huangpu Qu,
Shanghai Shi, China, 200000
Tel : +86 21 6360 3252

Visited Dec 2023