"Don’t judge a book by its cover. I found Jiang Nan Spring in Eater for a family/birthday get together for 11. The exterior could use some improvement, kinda worried me since it was our first visit. They had plenty of free parking which is nice these days. When you walk in, we were very impressed compared to exterior. simple yet elegant decor. It was like walking into a nice boutique hotel. As soon as we sat down the service staff was on it with tea and water, followed by drink orders. I took on the task of ordering. Thank goodness for those pictures because when you need to order for 11 it really helps with the decision making. It may seem tacky but all we care about is whether the food is good or not. The staff came by several times while I was trying to pick things to order. Once I got a base order, the server was helpful in making suggestions and making sure we had enough food. We did pretty good, everyone was full and not enough leftovers to make it worth taking home. The food was spot on. The xiao loong bao, green onion pancakes, hot sour soup; crab with rice cake;; pork with pepper salt; lions head stew; string beans; crispy noodles; beef with onions; Shanghai short ribs; probably forgot a few. It was all good. I don’t want to call it basic but it was really good go to Chinese dishes. There have been many times we have been disappointed with the simplest of dishes at other restaurants. The service was great. The food came out at a good pace. The servers kept our drinks and tea pots filled. They even changed out our plates several times and took away the dirty plates (these simple things are not done at other Chinese restaurants, a pile of dirty plates is not appetizing). Plus, new clean plates is so nice when you have so many different dishes you are eating family style. They even had candles we forgot for the birthday cake we brought from Portos. They cleared our table set up the cake. Even asked if we were ready for staff to sing happy birthday, we said no but the gesture was appreciated. The only price I asked about was the crab with rice cake, it was $60, which I thought was reasonable and what we got was more than fair. The xiao loong bao was $14 which I think is about the same as Ding Tai Fung. Nonetheless, the restaurant deserved to charge whatever they wanted because they checked the boxes for a nice restaurant. I was pleasantly surprised when the bill came it was only $350 total including 18% tip they totaled for me. A few of us had beers and soda too. Anyways, I was ready to pay $500 and would have been happy to. I have paid more and not been this satisfied. At the end of the day, Jiang Nan Spring served tasty food at more than reasonable prices for the ambiance and great service they provided. We found a new spot and will be back. Service: Dine in Meal type: Dinner Price per person: $100+ Food: 5 Service: 5 Atmosphere: 5 Recommended dishes: Onion Pancake, Shanghai Xiao Long Bao, Hot Sour Soup 酸辣汤 Parking space Plenty of parking Parking options Free parking lot"
