Nanxiang Steamed Bun Restaurant

Location: Parco Bugis Junction Level 2

Competitors: Crystal Jade La Mian & Xiao Long Bao, Ding Tai Fung, Ma Lan La Mian

Décor: 6
Typical Chinese restaurant design. Not tremendously spacious as well.

Service: 2
Most of the servers looked tired, worn, whatever. And if you've never seen a service staff drag his feet, go see how sloppy it is for yourself. We were not exactly shown to our seats too. The 'captain' (I so assumed cos he was wearing something different from everyone else) simply said 'inside please'. No other waiter took over to show us our table. Horrible.

Food: 5
Most important thing, the Xiao Long Bao. The regular one wasn't too good, but throw some crab into the equation and it turns good. Slightly interesting dish in the form of toufu and a teeny bit of crab roe in deep fried spring roll skin. Unfortunately, it didn't taste any better than average. Shanghainese Spicy & Sour Soup was not spicy at all, and it's way too watery. Shanghainese Fried Rice was quite pathetic. Plainly rice fried with egg.

Value: 5.5
Half a dozen Xiao Long Baos cost $6. Half a dozen of the crab-fied version sets you back an extra 3 bucks. Horrible soup, around $6. Poor fried rice at $7. Granted not excessively expensive, but for that quality, poor value.

In essence, don't bother. Admittedly, it's main dish the Xiao Long Bao is better than the worst of the varying standards of Crystal Jade outlets but at the end of the day the name is simply too under-established to be offering sub-standard food.