Last month Jake, my parents, and I took a little road trip up to Oakland, CA. One of Jake’s bucket list items is to visit all of the Major League ballparks. A couple of years ago we went to San Francisco and caught a game at AT&T Park, home of the Giants. We tried to do Oakland and San Francisco in the same trip, but they weren’t playing the same weekend. This time we were up here to visit the Oakland Coliseum to see the A’s in action.
Our first meal in Oakland was in Chinatown at a place called Shan Dong Restaurant.
Here are links to the full menu at Shan Dong:
Menu Page 1 | Menu Page 2 | Menu Page 3 | Menu Page 4 | Menu Page 5 | Menu Page 6 | Menu Page 7
We were given hot tea shortly after we sat down at our table. It was Thursday in the early evening and there was no line and the restaurant was maybe 1/4 full. We parked nearby on the street just a few blocks from Shan Dong.
What caught my eye about Shan Dong was that they offer handmade noodles. Noodles are one of my favorite things to order so this was the main reason why I wanted to come here.
When you first walk into Shan Dong, there is a counter to your left. This is where you can watch the ladies make the handmade noodles.
Here she is cutting up the noodles and pulling them apart. Lots of flour there!
Here’s one of the dishes we ordered with the handmade noodles: the Sesame Paste Noodles [$10.95]. The handmade noodles are $1 extra and totally worth it. This dish is listed as spicy but it’s not really that spicy. You can see a few of the red pepper flakes in the dish in the photo above but I didn’t find it to be too spicy. The sauce stuck really well to the noodles. The noodles are nice and thick and have an excellent chew and consistency to them. The sesame flavor was also really nice and was well mixed with the noodles. So yummy!
We also got the Beef Chow Mein [$10.50 + $1] with Shan Dong’s homemade noodles. Dad originally wanted the Lo Mein but we were told if you want the homemade noodles, you have to get the chow mein. I liked this dish, too. There’s beef strips plus some bok choy in the mix and a nice, light sauce on the noodles. I preferred the sesame a bit more but these were also excellent. I liked the pieces of tender beef mixed in with the scrumptious homemade noodles. I could eat these noodles all the time!
Dad also order some Crab & Corn soup [$9.50]. I’m not a huge fan of crab, so I only ate a bit of this. It was hot and steamy and I liked the bits of corn in it.
Since my mom was with us, we definitely had to get a rice dish for her. She picked out the Pork Fried Rice [$9.50]. The pork was cut into slices and were really tender in this yummy dish. There’s plenty of fried egg along with green onion and bits of carrot and peas. The rice was nicely seasoned and a great compliment to our other dishes.
Jake ordered the Fried Won Ton [$8.50], thinking that it would be won ton strips. We didn’t read the menu closely to see that there was a little “10” next to the item on the menu. I think even if we had noticed we would not have ever expected fried won ton dumplings to show up at the table! It came with a dish of sweet and sour sauce for dipping.
The inside of the fried wontons had a meaty filling (most likely pork). They were crispy and crunchy and the meat inside was nice. The wrapper seemed a little on the thick side and I honestly wasn’t sure if I liked them or not. I would eat them but don’t think I would order them again. Jake was disappointed they weren’t wonton strips since he just wanted something crunchy to munch on.
Mom wanted some seafood with our meal and ordered the Sweet and Sour Shrimp [$11.95]. I thought these were over fried and the batter was very thick on the shrimp. Mostly it tasted like batter instead of shrimp. They were incredibly crispy and very crunchy. Not my favorite dish.
Our last dish to arrive was the Shan Dong Beef [$12.95]. We thought we were done with the dishes by the time this one arrived to the table; we forgot we had ordered it! This reminded me a lot of the Crispy Beef that we get at home at Wei Wei in La Mesa but with a different kind of sauce. The beef had this crunchy coating on it that I really liked. The sauce was savory with a tiny bit of sweetness to it and the pieces of beef and cut into little chunks. There’s no veggies at all in this dish – all meat, baby! I quite liked this dish, too, and found that I kept picking pieces off of the plate to munch on before I swung the lazy susan away so I wouldn’t be tempted to eat more.
And speaking of lazy susans, here’s the one at our table with what was left after our meal. You can see that the shrimp didn’t get a lot of love. Though I partially suspect it’s because Jake doesn’t eat shrimp. Ha!
We boxed up the leftovers to go so my mom could have a little snack later at the hotel, which luckily had a mini fridge and a microwave.
Thanks to Shan Dong for having such yummy food for our first meal in Oakland!
Shan Dong Restaurant
328 10th St #101
Oakland, CA 94607
After dinner we went on a little walk through Chinatown.
This cool mural was right next to Shan Dong restaurant. I stared at it for a few minutes, looking at the octopus who was having a meal with a building that was drinking tea. I noticed that there were a ton of murals in and around Oakland, as well as a lot of graffiti.
On our walk I spied this restaurant with some choice meats hanging in the window.
We also stopped into a bakery and I noticed these Taiwanese style “ham” burgers with slices of ham in them. I got a kick out of those!
More Oakland posts soon!
