Shanghai Reviews Summary

Food Quality

Pros:

• "The food is 5* and the outdoor dining area is cute."
• "High quality authentic Chinese food prepared from scratch with the freshest ingredients."
• "Love their spicy chili fried Szechuan chicken. Has that addicting spicy kick."
• "Very fresh n authentic food. The best Chinese food I ever had."
• "Every single dish is 5/5."
• "The soup dumplings are super flavorful, juicy and HOT!"
• "One of the best and most authentic Chinese restaurants in the area. It also has the best soup dumplings I've had on the east coast."

Cons:

• "This is the worst Chinese food I ever ate in my life."
• "The ribs and the white rice aren’t fresh (overnight rice taste, ribs was probably being frozen for too long)."
• "Honest below par soup dumplings. We went later and I think the soup dumplings weren't great."
• "The house tofu was very bland, almost like they forgot the sauce they was shown in the picture."
• "Chicken dishes are all very dry, kung pao sauces are horrible."
• "The crab steamed soup bun was not meeting my expectation. Skin too thick, meat and crab isn't too fresh."
• "The meat part of the soup dumpling tasted a bit funny."

Service

Pros:

• "The service was spot on and the outdoor seating set-up is charming."
• "The service is fast and accurate."
• "The man who owns the restaurant is lovely and nice. He takes care of the customers very well."
• "The waiter came by often to refill our teapot and our food came out in a timely manner."
• "Great kind service."
• "Simon and his staff are amazing. They always give phenomenal customer service."
• "The staff was attentive and friendly."

Cons:

• "Nowadays the service has gotten a little less quality."
• "Please be considerate of delivery drivers time. We don't get paid to wait for order to be prepared when we arrive."
• "This place is not the best service restaurant (especially when they are busy)."
• "Came in with my partner, got served my food within 10 minutes, he waited 40+ minutes to be served."
• "Maybe the regular chef was out or something but we won’t be going back. Very disappointing."
• "Unfortunately we won't be back any more as they decided to place a 5 person group ahead of our group of 4 (even though we were there first) without as much as an apology or explanation."
• "The take out from this restaurant left me with an severe case of food poisoning."

Ambience and Decor

Pros:

• "It is not an elegant Chinese restaurant like Aquarius and it’s not a take out place either. It is in the middle decor wise."
• "Cozy atmosphere and super clean."
• "The restaurant is always clean, staff is very friendly, and the food is delicious."
• "Small, cozy restaurant that's best experienced eating family style."
• "Great food, friendly service and cozy atmosphere."
• "Finally, the ambience is cozy and the service is courteous and very professional."
• "The setup is like a small mom/pop shop and very clean."

Cons:

• "Dont expect ambience though...this place is tiny and looks like a Chinatown takeout place."
• "But it's gone, hopefully not forever. the best sauteed stringbeans on earth. Tiny, amazing food. But closed."
• "Only one complaint is the very small dining room area."
• "The food was pretty unrecognizable from the pictures."
• "Love this restaurant, but it has closed down. Am surprised that the website hasn't been updated. But it's gone, hopefully not forever."
• "The crab steamed soup bun was not meeting my expectation. Skin too thick, meat and crab isn't too fresh."
• "The meat part of the soup dumpling tasted a bit funny."

Value

Pros:

• "While many other restaurants in the area have reduced portions and raised prices recently, Shanghai has kept everything just as before the pandemic."
• "Everything here is fairly priced and 100% authentic."
• "Another plus is the price of the food (got 7 dishes for ~$50!!!). Can't get better than that."
• "Simple ordering, great menu with lots and lots of nice food, good service and a REASONABLE PRICE."
• "Your money is going to be so much better spent here than any other bigger place."
• "Super tasty, quaint little place, excellent value, good sized portions."
• "This little restaurant is a gem! Very competitive price and real authentic food."

Cons:

• "The amount of a dish is too little, we ordered 7 entries and 3 appetisers, and we feel we did not get enough food that night."
• "The food is pricey."
• "We ordered delivery from here and we were given food that we could tell was already eaten and repackaged."
• "For the price, the portion is rather small for $13 dishes."
• "The shrimp dumplings were disappointing, stiff and lukewarm."
• "But don’t order anything spicy - it leaves your mouth tingling and takes away the entire flavor of the dish."
• "My food did NOT look like the photos from other reviews. My chicken tasted stale and dry."