After having some poke from Hawaaian Style Poke in the parking lot of 99 Ranch Market, I realized it was still too early to check out my "lunch stop". So what better to do then check out 99 Ranch Market? In fact, after walk around 99 Ranch Market, I drove up the street and had a look-see at 168 Market, which wasn't around the last time we visited Vegas.
The set-up of this 99 Ranch Market reminded me of the Irvine location.
Items are a bit more expensive here as well. Love the Engrish signs as well…..
Further up the street is 168 Market, which I thought was the cleanest of the three I visited.
I left 168 and jumped into my car and headed over to the plaza that housed Shun Fat Market. On the second floor is a Shaghainese Restaurant called Three Villages that had been mentioned to me a couple of times.
The set-up was a bit odd; at least for me. The "front" or street facing entrance is locked and really is just a large sign. You have to go around the corner and fine the entrance and the place almost looks vacated.
But of course it wasn't……..the place was empty when I arrived though. I had to call out to check if they were actually in business.
Ordering was pretty simple. I'd come here for the Xiao Long Bao. I did make it a "combo" for a buck more and got some soup….a very plain soup with bean thread and tofu.
Actually this kind of plain, but hearty soup is the kind of thing the Missus likes….me, not so much. I will say that it was a pretty large amount of soup.
The XLB arrived soon after. First thing I noticed was how doughy and thick looking the wrappers were.
Still, I'm not the biggest fan of the over-worked, very thin wrappers and these ended up having a decent light stretch to them…..I still thought they were a bit on the thick side.
The filling was disappointing. Since they only have straight up pork XLB, I didn't expect a great range of flavors from the soup, but this was pretty weak, lacking in a good pork flavor and having no sweetness what so ever. The filling also had some hard bits as well.
Still better than anything in San Diego though. That's really not saying much…..
Three Villages Restaurant
5115 W Spring Mountain Road
Las Vegas, NV 89103
After lunch I headed downstairs and had a little stroll through Shun Fat Market.
Since I was headed back to our room, I picked up a couple of Suan Nai for breakfast.
Just walking through these three markets you could notice things. The cleanest and busiest was 168. Both 168 and 99 Ranch Market actually listed the origin of their seafood, SF did not. The least cleanest was SF. I also saw a woman pick up a fish with her hands at SFM, then after putting it back she washed her hands….in the tank holding the clams! As I walked to my car in the strip mall, I smelled an acrid odor that everyone knows…..I saw the pool of liquid near the stairs. Unlike the seafood in SFM, I knew the country of origin of this liquid….. "urine-nation". Yikes.