XLB Kitchen

I went with my Chinese aunties, so I knew I was in for some delicious, authentic Shanghainese food! My favorite dish was the savory nian gao, made with stir fried oval rice cakes, veggies, and pork. Tough competition with my dads recipe of nian gao, because it was that good! But everyone loved the obvious dish to get: the xiao long bao, aka soup dumplings. The star dish, and most surprising find was the smoked duck! This is my first time having smoked duck, because usually I get Peking duck or roast duck and don't know where else to get it smoked. But now I'm on a mission, and the bar has been set HIGH. The duck was out of this world amazing. It seems hard to do duck without making it dry out, but each piece has plenty of tender meat. My dad would happily devour it.The soups were as they should be. I also loved the dessert with fresh cinnamon flowers inside. I had no idea that was what fresh cinnamon looked like! It was warm and not too sweet. Wish this place wasn't too far from me, because I would be a regular!

The food here was a total disaster. Red flag number 1: if you're name is XLB Kitchen instead of the Chinese 小笼包, you already know it is going to be a rough one.Red flag number 2: if you're name is XLB Kitchen, you're 小笼包 BETTER be the the best item on the menu. But instead you are given the thinnest wrapped 小笼包 and pork with a weird taste to it. But that's not all, because everything else was just as bad. The 葱油饼 had a weird after taste, almost like it was undercooked. The Combination Fried Rice tasted really bad because it was super bland. The chicken in the Fried Rice was barely seasoned and lacked immeasurable amount of flavor. The 红烧牛肉面's noodles were soggy on arrival, and lacked spice and flavor when it came to taste. The smoked duck was way too salty and EXTREMELY overpriced for that quality. Most importantly however was the tea was in a METAL TEAPOT which messes up the tea's taste with a little metal taste. This can ruin the quality of the tea significantly and gave me and my friends an unpleasant experience. I hope you guys take this advice to CLOSE DOWN THIS RESTAURANT.

Delicious food. Nice outdoor seating. Friendly service.I was looking for a new favorite place to get war wonton soup since my old favorite place closed. I found XLB Kitchen on Yelp and glad I did.The war wonton soup was exactly what it should be. I also sampled the bacon fried rice. It was very good. I do miss the cubed pork style, but this will do.The only downside is that the patio tables outside, which are lovely, have a lattice top with openings so I spilled soup and rice all over my pants. I don't see myself not spilling anything in the future, so I'll figure out a way around that.I'll be back. Often.

saturday lunch in cupertino and wanting to try the different dumpling restaurants in the area...trying xlb kitchen...a short wait, but didn't wait too long to be seated...at xlb, so had to order the xlb (soup dumplings) $10.95 for 6...deliciously soupy and holding the soup well...very well done...taking a mapo tofu $14.95...sauced contained a higher concentration of numbing spice, so a warning....needing rice $2...it was good, but mouth numbing spicy...trying the beef stew noodle soup $16.95...again, broth was quite high in the numbing spice content...xlb kitchen loves their numbing spices...pork dumplings with chinese cabbage with numbing spice oil dip $12.95...the dumplings were quite delicious...luckily the numbing spice oil dip was on the side, so we can opt out of dipping...had enough of the numbing spice...food is good...prices are reasonable for the portion sizes...

Love the food here. Every dish is a hit. My only complaint is that the glutinous rice pork dish (served in the bamboo) is very oily and can be a little much for some people. The rest were delicious though. I particularly liked the tofu dish (see picture). I hope to be back to try their Dan Dan noodles.Service was quick and the lot was large so parking wasn't an issue.

Don't be fooled by the plain exterior and interior of this small restaurant. This is the place to go for no-nonsense good Chinese food. There's additional seating outside on the patio and it's decorated with pretty lights!Garlic Cucumbers: 4/5Portion is large! I was very surprised to see that it wasn't covered in chili oil like most cucumber dishes at Chinese restaurants. However, you can ask them for chili oil and it's great with the cucumbers!Chongqing Spicy Fried Chicken: 3/5The numbing, tingling spice is definitely there and is the best part of this dish! However, the way they chop up the chicken leaves a lot of small pieces of bones in the chicken so you have to be careful when chewing. Also, some of the pieces of chicken are just pieces of skin, bone, or fat that's been deep fried, so it's not all chicken meat. XLB: 5/5 My favorite dish here! The dumpling skin was not too thin and not too thick. There was plenty of delicious broth inside and the pork was juicy and flavorful!Shanghai Style Rice Cakes: 4/5These are rice cakes stir fried in a delicious, savory sauce with a few small pieces of pork. Very fun to chew!Dan Dan Noodles: 4/5These dan dan noodles came in a broth/sauce (?) that was peanutty, creamy, and spicy. The noodles were thin and on the softer side but still kind of chewy. The noodles and the sauce paired well together and you get some of that numbing, tingling spice too!Overall, the food was good but nothing mindblowing. If you go, you must try their XLB because they're well known for it!

I've been here 2x and it's definitely a place that I would return to just for their XLB's. I've come here during lunch and for dinner. XLB soup dumplings - 5/5 - would come here for these only, but the other items on their menu are also pretty tasty. Pan Fried XLB's - 3/5 - they're a bit on the thicker side with no soup insideSzechuan Dan Dan Noodles - 1/5 - it was underwhelming and wasn't as spicy as I expected it to be. It was also made with a flour noodle which was soaking up the sauce too quickly. ~~Parking: The restaurant is located at the end of a plaza so it's a shared parking lot but both of the times that I've come here I've been able to find parking, but I did arrive on the early end of lunch and the early end of dinner. ~~Service: Fair. The servers are very nice. I just wished they wrote down the items we were ordering or had a tablet to put the orders in to make sure they're correct before sending them to the kitchen. ~~Worst Part: The second time the waitress accidentally put down the wrong order for us. We had ordered the Szechuan Chicken and what had arrived was the Szechuan Beef. I was trying to understand with my very elementary chinese skills and finally understood that she had misplaced the order, which makees sense because I noticed that she was not taking note of the 4 items we had ordered. ~~Return: yes.

One of my favorite places in the bay for some no nonsense Chinese food. There are some places that may do certain dishes better like xiaolongbao but this restaurant's menu is pretty well rounded and has a decent price point. Some classic favorites include xiaolongbao, eggplant (very savory and goes well with rice), water boiled fish (good for sharing!), garlic pork belly, and malan tofu.

We came here on a Tuesday night at 6pm and there was no wait. The inside of the restaurant is quite small so we chose to sit in the outdoor patio. The patio is nicely shaded with umbrellas and decorated with lights. I'd recommend making a reservation here if you're coming with a large party because I can see this place filling up quite easily. The owner and servers are so sweet here.Our favorite dishes were the chicken wings, glutinous rice with bamboo, sautéed green beans, xlb, and lion head meatball soup. None of the dishes were overly salty or oily. The only dish we probably wouldn't order again are the pan fried buns with pork. The bun had way too much breading and the pork was mushy. The XLB was good though. There was a sag to the dumpling and the juice was flavorful. This is a great spot for a homey and casual dinner.

Obsessed with the dan dan noodles. Admittedly, I haven't had many types of dan dan noodles, but have had enough sichuan flavored food to be obsessed with this place. Also tried the chili oil wontons which were equally delicious, but if I'm going to be honest, I'd choose the noodles over the wontons. Noodles had a great balance of creaminess, a slight numbing spice, and peanut-y taste. PARKING: There is a decent sized shared parking lot on this plaza. Came on a weekday so can't say how busy it is during the weekend, but seemed fine for lunch. There is a fairly large covered patio for comfortable seating. SERVICE: Staff was friendly and helpful. Nothing spectacular, but overall a good experience. Will be coming back!