Shanghai You Garden

Soup dumplings here come in colors, and the colors mean something: each skin is tinted to tell you what's inside, and there are around ten fillings to choose from. The classic is the bright yellow crab and pork, with a broth that tastes noticeably more of crab than most. Then there is the giant one, thick-skinned and served with a straw, which is exactly as theatrical as it sounds.

The rest of the menu is handcrafted Shanghainese — pan-fried pork buns with crisp bottoms, noodles, dim sum — and the room on 40th Road fills with families on weekend mornings. It is a few steps from White Bear and Old Captain's, which makes it an easy first stop on a dumpling crawl.