My parents been coming here for years when they visit from the US. Was expecting it to be really good. The food was all pretty good, good sized servings but what was horrible was the service. Place wasn't even that busy but took so long to get anything. Asked the same waiter twice for my soda which never came and they even charged me for it. Sent that bill back to remove it and they seemed bothered that I did that. Then we decided to get 2 ice cream desserts before heading home but we should've just went home. Took over 25 minutes...for ice cream. I wouldn't come back here with All the other choices they have read more

To avoid confusion with other establishments in Manila, what is known in Beijing and Shanghai as the Bellagio is called Lugang Cafe here. We patronized the place in order to take advantage of their Feast All You Can promo which, for less than six hundred pesos, allows you to order one House Specialty and as much as you want of most everything else on the menu. Now, it bears mentioning that I'm not exactly a fan of buffets--often, ninety percent of what's laid out is a half-baked concoction of chefs that don't exactly have the time to develop and focus on every single dish they have to pop out come the dinner rush, and not everything is worth the calories--and while the food at Lugang isn't really served buffet style, I was hesitant. I was willing to try it though because I figured if I was ordering from the menu anyway, then those dishes probably did go through better development procedures than buffet food. For my House Specialty dish, I ordered their crispy fried chicken (but only because everyone else at my table had already ordered their Hainan chicken). The chicken that they set down in front of me was a healthy brown color (very promising), and the skin definitely looked crispy. It tasted pretty good, too! I was happily surprised that they did not commit the fried chicken sin of uneven cooking and underseasoning. The rest of what I ate was mostly their Xiao Long Bao. There were other dishes on our table, but I couldn't stop eating the Xiao Long Bao. It was THAT GOOD. I liked that the wrapper wasn't fragile (like in other places), so the soup wouldn't pour out at the slightest touch of your chopsticks. Another homerun was their mango dessert thing. They serve it with ice cream and shaved ice, and it's a simple-looking bowl of yellow stuff, but it was surprisingly REALLY REALLY REALLY GOOD. I'm a chocolate-is-the-only-real-dessert kind of gal, but let me tell you, they must lace their mangoes with some sort of aphrodisiac because everyone at our table loved it! So much so that we ordered several more bowls to share. I was surprised to find how much I loved Lugang Cafe. For a while now, I've been too suspicious of it to patronize it, but now I think of it as a go-to for indecisive and hungry moments. read more

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This looked like a typical Chinese Restaurant. But I don't know If I haven't been to enough Chinese Restaurants or that this Chinese place definitely has something new. It was my family's first time to have lunch at this Restaurant. It was a Sunday and there was a queue to this restaurant. We had to wait for a about half an hour or so, but this was when the place just opened up. My advice is to eat here not on Sundays and the rush hours if you hate waiting in line. Also, the less busy restaurant has more time to carefully prepare your meal and they can also serve you better. Anyway, we ordered their salad, soup, dumplings, fried siopao, and their delicately made and amazing Xialongbao. The Xialongbao is like a dumpling stuffed with meat inside it, the wonderful thing about it is that there's broth/soup inside it. It's really like a soup ball with meat inside. As soon as you take a bite of the Xialongbao, the hot soup will flood your mouth with flavor while you proceed to chew the whole thing. Yum. It was a bit expensive though, and the servings were relatively small but nonetheless, it was really something I've never heard or tasted before. The fried siopaos were also really good. They're siopaos (literally means steamed buns) that are somehow fried making the outside crunchy and the inside a bit soft. I have no idea how they made it. I just know that they're really good. Aside from the texture of the fried siopao, the filling was also tasty. The soup was okay for me. The salad we ordered consisted of some kind of beans and nuts. The dumplings were better than what other restaurants would serve. If you're eating at this place with a limited budget. I'd say the first two on your order should be the XIalongbao and the fried siopao. If I would be coming back at this place, then they would be the first or the only dishes I'd order. read more

I came here for a relatively late dinner and walked into a very busy restaurant. We didn't order much since only 3 of us were dining. We started with the soup dumplings. Size wise, the dumplings were decent...average size compared to what I've had in the past. Upon eating one, I wasn't exactly amazed but kind of meh. This is mainly because I am accustomed to burn your mouth hot dumplings where the soup is still steaming. This one was not and I was a little disappointed. It was very warm but not hot so I didn't find the soup part as enjoyable. The garlic prawns were tasty and so were the green beans (even though they were a little over cooked as they weren't as crisp). The service was ok but you can tell they were getting ready to close since one two items (beverages) was missed/forgotten and we had to follow up a few times. I would probably try this place again another time but at an earlier part of the day. read more

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Their pork xiao long bao satisfied my dimsum craving. I also tried their shrimp with mayo...to die for ! read more

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Having lived in Singapore for a few years, sometimes I just crave good chinese food. Lugang satisfies these cravings for me. They have an attractive storefront with the chefs preparing dumplings, similar to Din Tai Fung in Singapore and HK. Of course there dumplings must be great then, and they are. Other than your usual favorites, try the steamed Kimchi Xiao Long Bao, which is a Korean inspired dimsum that contains a mix of pork and kimchi. What I also really enjoyed is the chicken topped with scallions and ginger, there is just something about that combination that just goes so well with steamed rice or if you wrap it in lettuce. Another chinese comfort food is the Szechuan Dan Dan Noodles with Peanut Sauce. It has a spicy side because of the chili oil and spicy pickled vegetables but because of the peanut sauce the aftertaste is very earthy and savory. The service is a bit slow, but the food with it's balances flavors makes up for it. read more

I came across Lugang Café when I was stuck in traffic at Connecticut Street and wondered what the heck was going on since it wasn't normally traffic at that area. My questions were all answered when I passed this newly opened Chinese restaurant Lugang Café that caused all the traffic since cars were lined up to park and dine there. I just told myself well it must be worth it so might as well give it a try. The place looks like a high end Chinese restaurant with high ceilings and well-lit chandeliers same with their other branches. During that time I was on the hunt for really delicious XLB or Xiao Long Bao and so far Crystal Jade won my heart. Lugang Café stole that title after trying their Xiao Long Bao and I was convinced this was the best so far. If Xiao Long Bao is one of your favorites, Lugang Café is your place. read more

Disappointed. Siao long bao not hot enough and don't have much juice. Chicken salted fish fried rice doesn't come up to par with other chinese resto. read more

I was surprised to see this was a chinese restaurant while walking along the SM Aura mall, the decor had more of a European look and feel to it. The service was excellent as our waitress checked on us a few times to ensure we got our food and everything was correct. The Xiao Long Bao is why I really stopped here, you can see people making them in the front of the restaurant. We ordered the crab ones and I was really excited when they came out but was pretty disappointed with the soup quality and texture of the pork inside of them. It tasted very coarse and lacking in flavor. I looked hard and could barely find any crab meat. The spicy wontons were a little better but not spicy and more oily. The flat noodle chow fun was pretty good but the dish need more heat from the pan (hawker style) for me to really like it. We enjoyed the variety of frozen drinks though. I would recommend trying this place if you're craving for Chinese food while shopping but wouldn't consider this a destination place for Xiao Long Bao... read more