NJ Dining: Petite Soochow (UPDATED)
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Petite Soochow
607 Gorge Rd, Cliffside Park, NJ
(201) 313-1666
The abrupt permanent closure of my favorite Shanghainese-style Chinese restaurant, China 46 in Ridgefield Park, forced me into seeking out alternatives for Xiǎolóngbāo, the elusive “Soup Dumpling” or “Steamed Juicy Bun” that originates from Shanghai and is also a popular dish in Hong Kong and Taipei. It’s also served in a number of Shanghai-style Chinese restaurants in New York City’s Chinatown, such as Joe’s Shanghai, Shanghai Cuisine, and New Green Bo.
Fortunately I had recently heard of another Shanghainese restaurant, Petite Soochow, from another foodie blogger, TommyEats, on a random New Jersey post at the CNET Chowhound forums site. Petite Soochow, which has been in business for just over a year, is the second incarnation of a defunct Shanghainese restaurant in Saddle Brook, Old Soochow. Somehow this place managed to escape earlier notice, but I’m very happy I saw Tommy’s post, because Petite Soochow is probably one of the best authentic Chinese restaurants in Northern NJ.
Petite Soochow in Gorge Road in Cliffside Park.
Your Soup Dumpling supply chain is still intact. Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below for more.
Petite Soochow main dining room on a late Sunday morning.
These crullers served with hot soymilk is a popular breakfast item.
An Oyster Pancake with a tomato sauce on top.
Some other dishes on another table — a spicy fish dish and some sort of sauteed scallops dish.
Shanghai Style spare ribs, on another table.
Spring rolls. Although they look like typical Spring Rolls, things are not as they seem.
The insides are stuffed with a Chinese green, scallions and ground pork. These were truly excellent.
Owner Mindy Zhou makes every single dish of dumplings fresh to order.
Here she’s making the Soup Dumplings for us.
Xiaolongbao or Soup Dumplings with Pork. These are probably the best we’ve had in the entire area — juicy with lots of broth in it and heavy on the meat inside. We’ve also had the Crab/Pork version and they are excellent too.
Xiaolongbao closeup.
This is a “Chive Box” dumpling, which has egg, chives and cellophane noodles in it. Its big enough to share.
Chive Box cross section.
These are “Pan Fried Juicy Buns”, another specialty of Shanghai. These are stuffed with a similar mixture to the Xiaolongbao, but have a thicker dough and have more of a bun-like consistency. The inside is burning hot filled with a juicy meatball.
Pan Fried Juicy Bun underside.
Pan Fried Juicy Bun interior.
A scallion pancake, which was decent, but did not live up to the other items we had.
“Three Cup Chicken” which is a Taiwanese chicken dish cooked in an earthenware casserole. This version used chicken pieces with skin and bone on it versus boneless chicken. Very tasty, but you need to pick it apart with your fingers.
The restaurant is also known for its noodle soups.
On a second visit I had a pork with cabbage noodle soup. The broth is light and simple, and a great dish for a rainy day.
The noodles are thick and Udon-like, with a doughier texture.
Rachel got a seafood noodle soup, which has a much thicker broth with egg in it.
Her soup had thinner egg noodles in it.
One of the staff members cleaning Dou Miu, or pea shoot leaves.
We also ordered some Jiaozi, or simple steamed pork dumplings. These were also excellent.
Jiaozi closeup.
These fried dumplings that are really more like potstickers, which we got on a different visit are some of the best I’ve ever had. The skins are thin walled and have a great crusty bottom.
We were less happy with these spicy Sichuan-style dumplings in red chile laced sesame oil. These had a really bitter flavor that we didn’t like and Rachel thought they were inedible. Chengdu 1, in Cedar Grove does a much better version of these.
The Shanghai-style Chow Mein Noodles with Beef were excellent. These had a curry flavor to them, although much less pronounced than “Singapore style” chow mei fun noodles that you get at a lot of Chinese takeout places.
This is a Chinese squash dish with Golden Mushrooms. The little red things are these fruity juju-bee things that I was unable to get an exact translation of. Overall the dish was somewhat bland but it would go nice as a vegetable accompaniment to some of the other dishes we’ve had.
The real hit of our second visit was these fantastic giant heads-on shrimp which were prepared in a garlic ginger sauce. These were fried with a light batter coating.
The specials board outside, which apparently has a number of good dishes on it. I can’t read Chinese, but I can tell you that its probably a good idea to pay attention to what the other patrons are eating.
September 11, 2007 at 12:51 pm
Looks great, Jason. How would you say the soup dumplings compare to some of the places in Manhattan?
September 11, 2007 at 3:19 pm
This food looks great. Nothing beats Jersheys best though! Stephanios on LBI!!!
September 11, 2007 at 6:33 pm
Comparable or better. Definitely better than Shanghai Cuisine’s or New Green Bo’s. I think they are even better than China 46’s were most of the time.
September 12, 2007 at 4:06 pm
Went there today to try the soup dumplings. They were very good, comparable to the way Joe’s Shanghai used to be. I was trying to order those spareribs that are pictured under the title of “Shanghai Style spare ribs” but could’nt find on menu and owner was not sure what I was talking about, oh well…maybe I will bring picture next time.
P.S.: I have a small complaint. It will not stop me from going to this nice place for good dumplings but it is the principle of the matter. I read on another food blogger website(Chowhound) from someone who tried this place in the past and they commented on how they round off your bill. For instance, if your total is $25.65, they will round it off to $26. Sure enough, I noticed they did exactly that to me today. Again, not enough to lose me as customer but it seems inappropriate to me….anyways, enough of that. Go there and enjoy the dumplings!!!!!!!!!!
September 17, 2007 at 8:57 pm
Went there this past weekend for breakfast. It was very good. Had the crispy fried cruellers w/sesame bread, soy milk. Didn’t have any room for dumplings, but will try that next time.
BTW, our check was not rounded off.
September 19, 2007 at 1:36 am
I went back to eat for sit down meal(not take out this time). They did not round off my check but perhaps that was because I was not paying cash. Harder to do with credit card statement. Curious to see what happens when I pay cash???????
September 28, 2007 at 9:24 am
Thankyou Jason. You put us onto China 46 which as you know we loved and I do believe that we will now be going to petite soochow instead and gladly. We had an excellent meal there last evening and the staff could not have been friendlier. Their dumplings (and the lovely lady who makes them) were perfection. A very good sign was that the majority of the clients were all Chinese and I am wary when we go to an ethnic restaurant and everyone is American.
October 2, 2007 at 6:14 pm
Can anyone translate that specials board?
October 3, 2007 at 1:41 pm
Jason, this is a great review of a restaurant that deserved more attention from Chinese food lovers.
I will try to translate this menu but keep in mind that this is not a “standard” special menu.
Some of the dishes are not “standard” dishes and the names are more poetic than descriptive.
So, with that in mind, here is my translation:
1. Fish sliver sautéed with yellow leek.
2. Tofu and Beef in Black Pepper Sauce.
3. Heart of Bok Choy and Gluten Puff in Earthen Pot.
4. Red-Braised Flounder (whole).
5. Fragrant-Spicy Beef Tendon.
6. Sliced Scallops in Puck-Ma Sauce.
7. Fresh Pepper with Beef Tripe.
8. Red Fish in Five Willow Sauce.
9. Red White Tofu (???)
10. Hot-And-Numbing Fish Fillet
11. Young Chicken and Wanton in Earthen Pot.
What is interesting is that some of the dishes on the special menu are Sichuan inspired
(5, 6, 7, 10), instead of all Shanghai dishes.
Dishes #1,#4, 5 8 and #10 are variation on classic dishes and I have no idea what #9 is about.
All this talk of Chinese food is making me want to go back and try some of these dishes.
October 8, 2007 at 12:51 pm
Took out food on saturday. Everything was great. These are the folks from the Old Soochow restaurant in Saddle Brook. I couldnt find the Shanghai style ribs either…maybe they are the ribs in brown sauce? The three cup chicken is not to be missed.
October 9, 2007 at 2:09 pm
Those red jujube like things in that one dish are probably goji berries. They’re great antioxidants!
October 11, 2007 at 11:39 am
I have eaten their soup dumplings numerous times and they are consistently fabulous. However, I have tried a few of their shanghai style dishes and they werre not up to par with the former China 46. Especially the salt and pepper pork chops!!!!!!!! Oh how I miss China 46’s Salt and Pepper Pork Chops!!!!!!!! The were the benchmark.
* Anybody know where I could get a great Salt and Pepper pork chop dish? I am calling all my fellow foodies to please help me in this endeavor. Jason? You know anybody who does a comparable (to China 46’s) version? Anybody? HELP!!!!!!!!!!
P.S.: I will keep you all updated if I find anything as well………..
November 21, 2007 at 1:04 pm
hey guys. petite soochow and old soochow are the same owners…. They just relocated to the cliffside park area.
January 29, 2008 at 11:05 am
We went here about a week ago and everything was great. I have two newbe questions.
1} How do you eat a soup dumpling ?
2} I saw a lot of TENDON on the menu I was fearful of ordering it. Can you compare it to anything?
Remember I and my wife are new to this style of food please be kind
January 29, 2008 at 4:45 pm
1) You lift up the underside of the dumpling with a Chinese Soup Spoon and sort of “flop” it onto the spoon. Bite a small hole into the side of the dumpling and suck out the juice. Then dab a little bit of the vinegar condiment they give you on the dumpling and eat it.
2) Rubber Bands.
January 30, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Thanks, We must have been great entertainment to the staff and the regulars eating there. I was trying to lift the whole thing into my mouth with the chop sticks HA HA ha a ha.
We will be going back that is for sure.
Thank you for your review.
February 10, 2008 at 8:07 pm
I went there with my girlfriend. It was decent, but I ordered the seafood noodle soup, expecting what I saw above.. Instead, I got some lousy instant-noodle soup version. aside from that, experience was good enough to go back
March 7, 2008 at 8:59 am
Thanks so much for posting about Soochow’s. I’ve been eating at their restaurant since I was a child, when Mindy’s father ran it in Chinatown, . We then lost track of it for a long time and then when I was in my 20s, I found out it had reopened in Saddlebrook. And when it closed there, I was lost for a while. And then last year I finally heard it had reopened even closer to me in Cliffside Park. So now we go there several times a month and my son loves to watch Mindy wrap the soup dumplings through the plastic partition. We were just there this week and my husband ordered the kung pao chicken and we were surprised how good it was. Not overwhelming heat and I wasn’t tasting much sichuan peppercorns, but it left an enjoyable warmth in your mouth and throat. And the sa cha noodles is very tasty too and a bargain. The squash dish photo that you have above is known as silk squash or Chinese okra and I only see it at Northern style Chinese restaurants, but for some reason, it’s very bland and sometimes watery here. But most of their other food is delicious.
March 7, 2008 at 9:02 am
I forgot to mention that the crab soup dumplings is surprisingly good. I’ve ordered them before at restaurants and you can never taste the crab and they’re often dry, but Mindy puts a generous portion of crab in each dumpling and it’s still very juicy.
May 4, 2008 at 3:36 pm
[...] I’ve been to, and this includes the very good local newcomers such as Chengdu 1 and Petite Soochow, which I recommend heartily. I thought I had moved on until I had this dish recently at China [...]