Catching up on my reviews and just found out that Shanghai Garden is now closed?! My first time here was here shy of a month ago and pretty bummed they closed because I really enjoyed the food. We did family style for 5: - Deep Fried Fish Fillet with Dried Seaweed: 5/5 - Shanghai Style Sweet and Sour Pork Ribs: 4/5 - Shanghai Pan Fried Juicy Pork Buns: 3/5 - Vegetable and Salted Pork Rice: 5/5 - Pickled Cabbage with Lamb in Clay Pot: 4/5 - Mapo Tofu with Pork: 4/5 - Red Bean Cake: 4/5 (complimentary for bday) Very authentic Shanghainese food and would highly recommend this place but not sure if they will be up and running again. Portion sizes were definitely family style/shareable. Everything was cooked well, very flavorful. Service was good, workers were very attentive.
Kevin T.
As this place has regretfully closed since I last ate here, this (posthumous) review is mostly for my own records. Came here for a friend's birthday to feast at a particular local favorite of his. As is typical for Chinese restaurants there is a particularly large menu that can be rather difficult to navigate, but my friend did have a very particular set menu he adhered to that he considered of good quality (in his opinion, which I respect greatly). Deviating from this set menu led to mixed results. Of the food we ate most were fairly staple Shanghainese dishes, like shenjianbao, shepherd's purse rice cakes, braised pork. I didn't catch quite everything we managed to eat but everything was quite tasty and authentic in my eyes. It's a bit of a shame that they're now closed since the food did have legit offerings, but it seems the location has swiftly changed hands so hopefully whatever takes its place does equally good food at a good price.
X Lin
I dined there with my friend near 6:30pm and ordered beef noodles. The noodle has weird taste and the waitress kept interrupting us by asking us to pay when we were eating and insisted must in cash. This process took us nearly 10 mins.. later, the chef came, and smoked a cigarette by our table! I was worrying if the ash would drop into our bowls the whole time before we left… would never visit this store anymore!
Allen Y.
Love the pan fried pork buns and the noodles. Some of the vegetable and tofu dishes are good, too.
AntonioManzenetta
We ordered food online from another restaurant and found out it was closed when we wen5 to pick it up. This place was great, very busy but very quick service, very friendly and the food was great!
Martin Chang
The lady in charge of taking order refuses to take single orders. She randomly adds more items and force us to pay. Any single orders done through their website will get cancelled. When called in, she actually yelled at us over the phone. worst experience ever.
Tyler N.
My recollection of this restaurant involves decent food, if not above average, and large portions at reasonable prices. During my recent visit, I found their food to be slightly uninspiring. We ordered the following: Fuqi feipian - larger than typical slices make this both too much of a mouthful to enjoy and visually unappetizing Fish fillet with green vegetables - plentiful amount of fish, however, under seasoned Lamb with green onion - this dish was the standout and was the first to be finished Parking in abundance as the larger parking lot accommodates customers for all the businesses in the shopping center. Don't expect a lot of help from staff as English is not their first language. Also, they've gone with printed menus and no longer have their laminated menus with photos to help you choose. In hoping that the kitchen had an off day, I'll revisit at a later time as it's usually a good backup plan in case the more popular neighboring restaurants are packed.
M Z
Great Shanghai cuisine! Delicious. But service is so so.
Gwen D.
Good take out place for 生煎包！ I also like to get frozen 小笼包 and make it at home, been ordering once a month
Vincent C.
TL;DR: They served unfresh food. Not sure if that's intentional (for cost saving) or just an oversight, but that's unacceptable. Full review: The first impression when my family got in was bad ventilation, stuffed air. We ordered the fried juicy pork bun, xiao long bao, pork chop noodle soup and green onion pancake. We noticed a minor sour taste in the pork bun and xiao long bao, which both use minced pork. It was subtle but i confirm it wasn't my imagination when I overhear our next table mentioned the same thing. Other food was ok but my wife thought the pork chop was also unfresh but I didn't try that. Could it be the high temperate in the store that catalyzed food turning bad and the chef wasn't aware? I don't know but regardless serving spoiled meat is unacceptable.
A lot of Chinese restaurants start out really good, then they got complacent, then quality and service go down. Unfortunately this restaurant also falls into this category. Today I called to order something for takeout, the lady who picked up the phone hang up on me three times, and when she finally picked up, she was rude. A big probability is that she is busy, which is quite understandable, but she is also impatient, which is not a quality to have when taking phone orders. So here is the one star and I hope their management can pay some attention.
Alice I.
I haven't been to Shanghai Garden for some time with the pandemic, so I was looking forward to coming with my friends. One of my Chinese friends had never been here and said she was very particular. The food was even better than I remembered, and the portions were very large. We had a feast! We got both of the juicy dumplings, sweet and sour spareribs. General Zhou tofu, green beans, and fried fish with seaweed. I would recommend all of them and am looking forward to going back soon! It was a Saturday night, and they allowed me to make a reservation for 4 which they haven't done before. The restaurant wasn't crowded and I didn't need the reservation. Please visit them and support them!
Eva L.
I have been a customer of Shaighai Garden since they opened. The food is good, the price is reasonable. What is not to like? Today, we ordered five dishes and the sesame pancake for takeout. After we got home, we realized there were only four dishes. A cold appetizer of bean curd with vegetable was not in the bag. We called them right away, they told us they don't have that special vegetable today. But they defintely charged us for that dish. They told us they will give us that dish next time when we visit??? My husband was talking to them on the phone, I couldn't understand that ridiculous suggestion. What do you mean by that? What do we provide in order to get that dish next time we visit? First of all, they didn't appogize for not telling us that the dish is not available, then they didn't appologize for charging us for the non-existing dish. Then they offer the ridiculous option of giving us the dish next time visit? After I my husband put down the phone, I asked him to call back, and demand to have the money returned to our credit card. After we insisted, the returned the money. They should have done that in the first place. Do they understand how to do business in America? I am not sure I will go back to this place ever again.
Yongchong Mao
As a native shanghainese, I am disappointed with the three dishes I ordered - yes there is supposed to be a sweet element in some shanghainese dishes but absolutely not all. To be fair, it's not the worst I have tried. But as a shanghainese, this is a big disgrace and complete torture of people's perception of Shanghai dishes.
Joyce L.
Many great dishes. Our favorites are still their fried pork buns and XLB, one of the best in the Bay Area.
Catching up on my reviews and just found out that Shanghai Garden is now closed?! My first time here was here shy of a month ago and pretty bummed they closed because I really enjoyed the food. We did family style for 5: - Deep Fried Fish Fillet with Dried Seaweed: 5/5 - Shanghai Style Sweet and Sour Pork Ribs: 4/5 - Shanghai Pan Fried Juicy Pork Buns: 3/5 - Vegetable and Salted Pork Rice: 5/5 - Pickled Cabbage with Lamb in Clay Pot: 4/5 - Mapo Tofu with Pork: 4/5 - Red Bean Cake: 4/5 (complimentary for bday) Very authentic Shanghainese food and would highly recommend this place but not sure if they will be up and running again. Portion sizes were definitely family style/shareable. Everything was cooked well, very flavorful. Service was good, workers were very attentive.
As this place has regretfully closed since I last ate here, this (posthumous) review is mostly for my own records. Came here for a friend's birthday to feast at a particular local favorite of his. As is typical for Chinese restaurants there is a particularly large menu that can be rather difficult to navigate, but my friend did have a very particular set menu he adhered to that he considered of good quality (in his opinion, which I respect greatly). Deviating from this set menu led to mixed results. Of the food we ate most were fairly staple Shanghainese dishes, like shenjianbao, shepherd's purse rice cakes, braised pork. I didn't catch quite everything we managed to eat but everything was quite tasty and authentic in my eyes. It's a bit of a shame that they're now closed since the food did have legit offerings, but it seems the location has swiftly changed hands so hopefully whatever takes its place does equally good food at a good price.
I dined there with my friend near 6:30pm and ordered beef noodles. The noodle has weird taste and the waitress kept interrupting us by asking us to pay when we were eating and insisted must in cash. This process took us nearly 10 mins.. later, the chef came, and smoked a cigarette by our table! I was worrying if the ash would drop into our bowls the whole time before we left… would never visit this store anymore!
Love the pan fried pork buns and the noodles. Some of the vegetable and tofu dishes are good, too.
We ordered food online from another restaurant and found out it was closed when we wen5 to pick it up. This place was great, very busy but very quick service, very friendly and the food was great!
The lady in charge of taking order refuses to take single orders. She randomly adds more items and force us to pay. Any single orders done through their website will get cancelled. When called in, she actually yelled at us over the phone. worst experience ever.
My recollection of this restaurant involves decent food, if not above average, and large portions at reasonable prices. During my recent visit, I found their food to be slightly uninspiring. We ordered the following: Fuqi feipian - larger than typical slices make this both too much of a mouthful to enjoy and visually unappetizing Fish fillet with green vegetables - plentiful amount of fish, however, under seasoned Lamb with green onion - this dish was the standout and was the first to be finished Parking in abundance as the larger parking lot accommodates customers for all the businesses in the shopping center. Don't expect a lot of help from staff as English is not their first language. Also, they've gone with printed menus and no longer have their laminated menus with photos to help you choose. In hoping that the kitchen had an off day, I'll revisit at a later time as it's usually a good backup plan in case the more popular neighboring restaurants are packed.
Great Shanghai cuisine! Delicious. But service is so so.
Good take out place for 生煎包！ I also like to get frozen 小笼包 and make it at home, been ordering once a month
TL;DR: They served unfresh food. Not sure if that's intentional (for cost saving) or just an oversight, but that's unacceptable. Full review: The first impression when my family got in was bad ventilation, stuffed air. We ordered the fried juicy pork bun, xiao long bao, pork chop noodle soup and green onion pancake. We noticed a minor sour taste in the pork bun and xiao long bao, which both use minced pork. It was subtle but i confirm it wasn't my imagination when I overhear our next table mentioned the same thing. Other food was ok but my wife thought the pork chop was also unfresh but I didn't try that. Could it be the high temperate in the store that catalyzed food turning bad and the chef wasn't aware? I don't know but regardless serving spoiled meat is unacceptable.
Restaurantji Recommends
A lot of Chinese restaurants start out really good, then they got complacent, then quality and service go down. Unfortunately this restaurant also falls into this category. Today I called to order something for takeout, the lady who picked up the phone hang up on me three times, and when she finally picked up, she was rude. A big probability is that she is busy, which is quite understandable, but she is also impatient, which is not a quality to have when taking phone orders. So here is the one star and I hope their management can pay some attention.
I haven't been to Shanghai Garden for some time with the pandemic, so I was looking forward to coming with my friends. One of my Chinese friends had never been here and said she was very particular. The food was even better than I remembered, and the portions were very large. We had a feast! We got both of the juicy dumplings, sweet and sour spareribs. General Zhou tofu, green beans, and fried fish with seaweed. I would recommend all of them and am looking forward to going back soon! It was a Saturday night, and they allowed me to make a reservation for 4 which they haven't done before. The restaurant wasn't crowded and I didn't need the reservation. Please visit them and support them!
I have been a customer of Shaighai Garden since they opened. The food is good, the price is reasonable. What is not to like? Today, we ordered five dishes and the sesame pancake for takeout. After we got home, we realized there were only four dishes. A cold appetizer of bean curd with vegetable was not in the bag. We called them right away, they told us they don't have that special vegetable today. But they defintely charged us for that dish. They told us they will give us that dish next time when we visit??? My husband was talking to them on the phone, I couldn't understand that ridiculous suggestion. What do you mean by that? What do we provide in order to get that dish next time we visit? First of all, they didn't appogize for not telling us that the dish is not available, then they didn't appologize for charging us for the non-existing dish. Then they offer the ridiculous option of giving us the dish next time visit? After I my husband put down the phone, I asked him to call back, and demand to have the money returned to our credit card. After we insisted, the returned the money. They should have done that in the first place. Do they understand how to do business in America? I am not sure I will go back to this place ever again.
As a native shanghainese, I am disappointed with the three dishes I ordered - yes there is supposed to be a sweet element in some shanghainese dishes but absolutely not all. To be fair, it's not the worst I have tried. But as a shanghainese, this is a big disgrace and complete torture of people's perception of Shanghai dishes.
Many great dishes. Our favorites are still their fried pork buns and XLB, one of the best in the Bay Area.