Updated: 17th Dec 2014; This restaurant is closed.

You will like Sherman … and his wife Vivian. Sherman is an up and coming Vancouver area food blogger. His blog is simply called Sherman’s Food Adventures. Suanne and I sometime find it such a chore to blog once a day but Sherman, he does it as often as three times a day!

I told Suanne that we should get to know Sherman because like us, he often goes to the type of restaurants we normally go to too. The choice of the place was easy for us. We wanted to check out the new Shanghainese restaurant.

BTW, before I go on, Arkensen had a good question. Firstly, is there such a word as Shanghainese? I think there is because I hear a lot of people use the word. Now, if Shanghainese is a word, then why is it not called “Shanghaian” instead. Help me figure out a good answer for Arkensen.

The No 1 Shanghai Cuisine is located on No 3 Road at the same spot of the now closed Also fusion restaurant. It’s at the same area where HKYK is — you’ll never miss it if you are familiar with No 3 Road.

We were not too impressed with the interiors. It does seems that they had retained the odd oval arrangement from the previous tenant. So, the round dining tables were quite haphazardly arranged and quite difficult to maneuver around. Color coordination was poorly done too — quite evident from the clash of colors from the table cloth to the curtains and ceiling. Not that it is a problem but it was just obvious that I had to mention it.

But it was really busy on the Saturday lunch time we were there. So that is a good sign.

They have a menu that covers a wide range … from simple $6 noodle dishes to $320 sharkfin soup on their menu. We decided to stick with the simpler choices (kids love them). I ordered quite randomly and at the end we had way too much food.

Their Dan Dan Noodle ($5.50) was chokingly hot … you know, the type that makes you cough if you try to eat it too fast. The peanuts were really good and added so much flavour to it. Dan Dan Noodles are supposed to be dirt cheap (we used to have one that is only $2). So, I did notice that this is rather “expensive” at $5.50.

We actually ordered two baskets of Xiao Long Baos (no pictures) but it was not very good … just OK.

The Shanghai Thick Noodle Soup was flavourful. I just love the thick soup. This reminds of the Loh Mein that I used to eat for supper in my younger days. This is just $6.50.

What Suanne and I enjoyed most was the thing called “Sticky Rice with Flavour”. We had expected this to be the normal salty sticky rice but it came in a much larger serving drenched with some sweet sticky gooey thingy. It’s more like a dessert really. I highly recommend you try this as this is not a common dish. $7.50.

It took us a while before we figured out what the above noodle soup was all about. For all I remember I did not order this until it dawned on us that this is the noodle that accompanies …

… this … Eight Treasure Spicy Noodle. This is quite salty eaten by its own but does balances the flavour with the simple noodle soup. $6.50. The prices were not bad right?

I thought I ordered Pickled Vegetables with Pork Rice but this one came with something that looked like spicy tofu. I can’t remember anymore if there are pork in that small bowl. I ordered this because I wanted something pickled but ended up not trying this at all. $7.50.

At a glance, the Szechuan Beef Noodle looked a lot like Taiwanese Beef Noodle, doesn’t it? It was not as spicy as it looked but rather sweet … sweet in an odd way. The chunky beef flank looked very inviting … just wished it’s spicier.

The Pork Chop with Rice Cake ($7.50) was kind of dry. The rice cake pieces were too big and makes it too chewy. If only they had sliced it a bit more thinner, it would have been perfect.

Total damage was $62 before tips. Like good Chinese, we fought over who to pay what. LOL! It was great meeting up with people with the same interests — food — and especially when Sherman and Vivian likes the same type of food as we do too. We do this again some time … do a joint review … for sure.

Oh BTW, if you happen to visit No 1 Shanghai, check out their washrooms. The main door to the washroom is glass and you can see through right inside … weird.