Sarah C

in the last week

"We didn’t make reservations at Little Alley, just showed up around 7:30, but with just a short wait we were able to grab a table. The hostess and our various waiters (they all seem to assist all diners) were all very friendly and welcoming. We love to try new things so we had to check out the Little Alley Pig Ear appetizer, and I also wanted to try the Shanghai Crispy Eel. For entrees the husband ordered the Eight Delicacies in Chili Sauce and I got the Soft Shell Crab with Rice Cake. Pro tip- their appetizers and entrees are hefty, with two apps and two entrees we were stuffed at the end. The food! The pigs ears were our favorite thing we tried- they well seasoned and so unique I’ve never had anything quite like it. We didn’t read the menu carefully and were surprised it was a cold dish- I imagined the crispy was from being fried but it’s just the texture of the cartilage! It’s probably not for everyone but I really enjoyed the new experience and the flavor and spice were great. The crispy eels were also tasty, though with such a large portion split between just two people I found the sweetness of the sauce a bit much. I started dipping them in the chili oil from the ears and enjoyed that, but I’d still only get the eel again with more than 2 people to split it. For entrees the 8 delicacies was tasty, all the meat was nicely cooked and tender, and the sauce was pleasant. I wasn't super wowed by this dish compared to some of the more interesting things we tried but it was a solid well-cooked entree. The fried soft shell crab over the rice cakes was delicious and again a very unique experience. I found the sauce a tad sweet but I think I was still a little over the eel dish so I may have been extra sensitive. That being said, it was fun and delicious and I’d eat it again! I can’t remember the cocktails we bought, I know they were good but the food definitely distracted us! Little Alley was great overall and I’d love to go back to try some dumplings; sadly we were just too full at the end of the meal!"

Isabelle J

a month ago

"Overall great experience with all the dishes tasting pretty good; a few of my favorites were the whole steamed fish (great flavors from the soy sauce and ginger on top), salted egg fish fillet, the oxtail soup, all the dumplings. They also serve Sichuan dishes like Mapo tofu but given its a Shanghainese restaurant theres zero spice level to those dishes (still taste good though). Enjoyed dining in the old Shanghai vibes and ambiance"

Nilima Shet

a month ago

"Came here for dinner a few weeks ago and thought it was pretty good overall. We unintentionally got to the restaurant still within dim sum happy hour pricing so got a variety of little things like soup dumplings, scallion pancakes. Overall, solid choices. For main dishes, I really loved the prawns and would definitely recommend. The menu is fairly extensive and we tried a few things but I feel like there's much more! While nothing stood out as truly stellar, it was all fairly good and reasonably priced."

Jimmy Lee

2 months ago

"It's a nice place with premium priced dishes, OK quality food. The smoked carp has a strong earthy taste (土腥味）and overcooked; it doesn't deserves a premium price. The Xiao Long Bao (pork soup dumplings) are not my type since their wraps are too thick. A surprise is that the restaurant offers a curry fried rice where it's difficult to find among other Chinese restaurants."

Hayli Bazan

3 months ago

"Decent but no wow factor. Out of the 4 dishes we got, my favorite was probably the ribs. The poached dumplings in chili oil were good but not spicy at all. The curry chicken dumplings were a generous size but didn’t have a lot of flavor. The crab was a bit too briny for me. Service was really good though and prices are decent."