NingTu Restaurant

Cheap Shanghai restaurant with a lot of old time favorites. Xlb (xiao long bao), wo teep ( pan fried dumpling), deep fried onion pancakes, sour and spicy seafood soup and beef roll are my go to dishes. If you want a bit more spicy, ask for spicy chili sauce.

Washroom are older and slightly clean. Typical older restaurants that does not really renovate.

Cash and Debit are accepted currency. No credit cards.

Parking can be found beside the restaurant. When travelling on Kingsway headed east, turn right beside the car detailing shop, down a gradient and into underground parking lot.

One of my family's goto spots of authentic Shanghai food. Family run restaurant with good service and good food and very good prices. Our last visit, we went with my aunt who did most of the ordering as she very well versed in this food (and we always get surprises!). Hate to say this, the food has gone downhill a little and this last visit wasn't as good as it used to be. I will still stick with a 4* review right now because it's still very comforting food.

Some of the items we ordered recently:
- hot and sour soup - great traditional way to start off the meal
- sweet and sour pork chops
- lions head meat ball hot pot - my mom's favourite dish
- assortment of cold cuts such as ham and marinated fish
- beef with greens
- deep fried white fish with seawood - this is a MUST order. Delicious
- puffed rice with seafood sauce - we get the sauce on the side so each person can keep it crispy or get it soggy however they like. This is a fun dish
- caramelized banana - this was a disappointment. The sugar didn't coat the entire deep friend banana so when it was dunked in water, it got soggy. So sad. I love this stuck
- glutinous rice ball with sesame in rice wine soup - this was a little bland :(

Crowded restaurant did not live up to its hype. This place is very popular, but that does not necessarily equate to great food.

For example, the beef noodle soup featured almost nothing but gristle, connective tissue and fat, and the broth had an oil slick on the surface as a result. What very little meat was actually present tasted mediocre at best. The noodles were limp and the soup lacked kick. Probably the worst I've had, and I've had a dozen beef noodle soups in the last month.

The Xiao Long Baos tasted good, but they were very small and several came out super deformed. (Take a look at my photos.) The beef wrap that people raved about tasted good, but the wrap had a crackled surface that flaked off very easily. This did not affect the taste which is what matters most, but it made for a messy dining experience.

And it was my first time ever trying Tan Tan noodles, but it will probably be my last. Why do people seem to enjoy a noodle in a peanut broth that has no meat or other toppings, yet costs as much as other noodles? The taste didn't work for me, and this dish rates very low on my bang-for-the-buck scale.

The service was as good as you can expect when the restaurant is packed like it was on our visit. Kudos to the three waitresses who were hustling to serve their customers. We spent over $30 (tax and tip) for the four aforementioned items which was a major disappointment. I've eaten more, eaten better and paid less at many other establishments.

One of my favorite Shanghai restaurants. My family likes to eat here quite a bit. It is a bit far from where I live but I do enjoy dinner here. I find that this place is made for family dinner or family lunch. Or should I say for groups (3 or more). Its better if you order a few dishes and share them with others.

there xiao lung bao are very tasty and did pass the test of having soup in them. The pan fried dumpling are yummy. Bottom not burnt. But it doesn't have any soup in them. Guess there are a couple of ways to make them.

Soup are not bad. I like the fact that after dinner I am not overly thirsty that just means they don't over do it on msg. This is a good thing.

Desert is always oranges. I like oranges. Nice and refreshing at the end.

The place has been renovated about a year ago so it is a lot cleaner and nicer. Washroom is ok. better than before.
The place can be a bit cold during the winter. So please do dress warmer when dining here.

Will come back that's for sure.

Fantastic msg-free (not that msg is bad) and authentic JiangZhe style Chinese food right in Vancouver. The immense popularity of this establishment is testament to its delicious cooking.

Let's start with the cons:
- this place is cash-only so be prepared
- there is no parking lot for the restaurant so you'll have to be adept at parallel parking
- decor is ur typical 30 year old Chinese restaurant, so greasy bathroom floors and dilapidated walls. The chairs are also some of the hardest 'cushion' (which is literally just a piece of cloth at this point hah) chairs I've ever sat on in a Chinese restaurant.
-Tables are pretty close together so get ready for loud asians

Ok now that we have that out of the way. Let's talk pros:

-Every dish was extremely refined and delicious. Note this is JiangZhe style so the tastes are not very spicy and a tiny bit sweet. More on the mild side without compromising taste
-The hot and sour soup was literally THE BEST I've had in my whole life. There was also shrimp, bringing a whole new dimension of flavor into the soup. Perfectly balanced 10/10.
-There was absolutely no msg so you won't feel thirsty afterwards. The dishes were bursting with the authentic flavor of the ingredients.
-they serve large portions! No need to order extra
-our waitress was amazing and quick to clean up. She even gave us new plates for the complementary oranges at the end of the meal.
-no corkage - completely free (just in case right?)

(Migrating old reviews from my account on another review site to here)

Surprisingly good! We had wanted to try out the Japanese place around the corner, but they were completed full for the night. So we decided to try out NingTu- so glad we did!
They have Peking duck for a very affordable price (duck prepared 2 ways; 1 Peking duck, 1 lettuce wrap: $30 ish).
Their hot and sour noodles were actually decently spicy, and their xiao long bao wasn't bad. Juicy!
Will come back :)

Huge portions for good prices! Everything is family style so we were very surprised when we ordered a small hot and sour soup which could have fed at least 8 people. We ordered the ginger beef which had celery and carrots. This was delicious. The beef was crispy and the veggies were cooked perfectly. On recommendation, we also ordered the sweet and sour cod - this was huge! Everyone really enjoyed this fish. We also ordered the sweet pea shoots which was a nice equalizer between also the rich flavors. This is my first time eating authentic Chinese food and you can automatically tell because the menu items aren't the "traditional" ones you see in America. The servers happened to be sister - both very nice. A lot of regulars seem to come in later in the evening. No doubt a great restaurant!

Impressive Shanghai restaurant on Kingsway.

What I liked right away about this place is that I don't have to drive to Richmond for Shanghai food. YES! The food was surprisingly good since we were off to a rocky start. Service wasn't the best, the wait was long and the chopsticks given to me were dripping wet. However, by the time we were mid way through our meal, service was getting better, food arrived in a reasonable amount of time and the dishes were good.

We ordered XLB and each one was placed on top of a thinly sliced carrot to prevent sticking. Not the best XLB I've ever eaten, but it wasn't bad. The pan fried noodles were piping hot and had enough meat and veggies as well as sauce. The green onion pancake were crispy and light with tons of green onions.

Note - they do not accept reservations unless you have 8 or more people.

Ningtu is a small Chinese restaurant that's been around for over 2 decades on Kingsway, on the same block as Happy Family Restaurant. The interior has an odd L-shape with the restaurant frontage smaller than it is in the back of the establishment.

The Peking Duck ($38.95 for 2 courses) was pretty solid. While super thin, the duck skin was very crisp and had a modest amount of duck meat attached to it. I really appreciate the nice wrappers that they have here... instead of stacking them like pancakes (which sometimes makes it difficult to pick up and separate), each wrapper was folded and laid out so it was easy to pick up.

As it turns out, while the duck skin had very little meat attached, the second course of the Peking Duck (the duck lettuce wrap) was quite meaty. Overall, a pretty good 2 course Peking Duck iteration but I did miss the shrimp chips.

For our veggie dish, we ordered the Egg Tofu with Broccoli, Enoki, and Shiitake Mushrooms. There's something about how silky egg tofu is that makes it so pleasing.

Last up was the Sweet and Sour Rock Cod ($28) which is deep-fried with tomatoes, peas, and onions.

Fairly solid eats here, which must explain why they're still in business after all these years.

This is old Shanghai style restaurant on Kingsway. They use plastic table cloth and china tablewares are chipped (tea cup and side plate) on our table.

We went there for lunch and apprenately we ordered too much food.

Salty soy milk - it has some chinese donuts in it, but, no chili oil and preserved veggie.
Green onion pancakes - Hot and thick pancakes, pretty soft coz full flour and salt
Tan tan noodles with pork chop - Quite soaky of noodles and pork chop so fatty.
Woton in chili oil - the pork was quite dry inside
Pan fried dumpling - OK not impress at all.
XLB - HOT but not juicy, the meat wasn't fresh.
Chives dumpling - Greasy but quite tasty.

Service was fine. The food were below aveage and won't border return soon.