Shanghai Restaurant

This restaurant has changed owners at least 3 times in 6 years that I know of. They served Shanghainese cuisine until now. I really don’t need to know why 同福小吃 Tong Fu Snack Bar took over the operation. However, they kept the English name, phone number and this Unilocal page.
Ok. Here is my review on 同福小吃.
I was curious to see a new sign and new faces at this Shanghai restaurant. I asked about a to go menu. It doesn’t exist. So I took a picture. The menu had very few dishes that you could call meals. Half of page was filled with smoothie and spiced meats. The other half (mostly taped out) were only snacks. I asked my family member who has been to Shanghai many times. It was indeed not Shanghainese food. The closest to the truth was — these snacks could be found on the streets of Shanghai, so do elsewhere in China.
Items caught my attention were «Chinese Burger» and «Chinese Burrito.» It’s worth of trying just don’t expect anything similar to what you already know.
肉夾饃 (pronounced as Rou jia mo) — looks like a hamburger, which is a handy snack. Some minced meats with cilantro sandwiched between 2 hard toasted «buns» (textured like bagel). You have choice of meats. To me, I always find lots of fat in the meat. There is a fatty-​lips taste afterward. You can read more about this food item at
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煎餅果子 (pronounced as Jian Bing Guo Zi) — looks like a burrito, which is another handy snack. It’s made of vegetables in a pancake wrap. Surprisingly, it didn’t taste bad with 油條 (pronounced as You Tiao meaning Chinese donuts). For more info, search the word «China» at
Other than those specialties, I didn’t care to try smoothie and slushy. The seasoned meats 滷肉 were too common. Pumpkin porridge 南瓜粥, mung bean soup 綠豆湯 and soy milk 豆漿 were jokes. I never get a chance to try the shredded kelp salad 涼拌海藻絲, because it was sold out.
Be warned, ALL photos, reviews, tips & menu items you’ve seen here prior to May 2015 do NOT exist. I’m very heartbroken to see this business doesn’t care to provide customer service with misleading information on Unilocal.HQ even acknowledged the emails I sent to the business «taking longer than usual to respond.» Despite all of these, I saw quite of few customers picking up their orders and a lot of empty coolers on the floor ready for the delivery.

A collection of students came together to open up an authentic Chinese restaurant! This place has a unique collection of flavors and drinks that takes you back to the mainland. Their specialty is the deck neck and their Chinese burrito is full of authentic flavors that are hard to find these days. Don’t ask for the American version, and if you don’t know what to get, just tell them to pick something for you. Their customer service is great! They are new but I hope this place sticks around for a long time.

They’ve changed up their menu from the original Shanghai Restaurant menu; the Chinese name is now different and they’ve settled nicely into a specialized niche of spiced duck wings, necks, feet, pork hock, and seaweed. Their flavors range from mild to killa kill but I only recommend the latter for the most brutal of masochists. They have delivery to drop off locations around Chinatown but the items on the delivery menu are more limited than if you walk in. I recommend the medium spicy duck necks and seaweed and a couple of ice cold budweisers for a more adventurous snack during the Rockets game or the killa kill level wings for a painfully pleasant sloughing of the taste buds whenever you’re in the mood to sweat. The flavor is right on.

Like many restaurants in Houston Chinatown, Shanghai Restaurant has an extensive selection of Chinese dishes on the menu, but it specializes in dumplings and noodles. Here is where you will find classic dishes of northern Chinese cuisine that focuses on gluten including the famous «xiao long tang bao» pork soup dumpling and scallion pancake. At a cheap price tag of about $ 6 per order, Shanghai Restaurant offers a cheap yet fulfilling eats. Sadly, while the food was delicious, it was nothing out of ordinary.
For less than $ 25 (with tip), we got an order of the following:
1) Scallion pancake (8 pc for $ 4): You can’t go wrong with this dish, and Shanghai Restaurant did not fail to deliver a good one! Piping hot when delivered, this is the dish that you should fight the heat as it’s the best when it’s hot. With a generous amount of green onions embedded, scallion pancake will be a flavorful experience that will redefine what you think about pancakes in general
2) Red oil pork ears ($ 5.95): Drizzled with red chili oil, this strangely delicious combination of fatty meat and soft cartilage is a great cold appetizer to munch on. If you like meat, don’t be put off by the concept. It’s not as weird as you would think! (However, the pork ears here were more lean than other places…)
3) Chive pork dumpling (15 pc for $ 5.95): Solid but average
4) Pork soup dumpling (6 pc for $ 5.95): This was the dish I was most excited for, but unfortunately it significantly failed my expectation. Almost all the dumplings were stuck on the lettuce so it had to bust and drain the soup out when picked up. The only intact one I picked up had very little soup, so I felt a little better that I didn’t miss out with the other busted five. Overall, the soup dumplings were extremely disappointing.
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Bottom line:
The food at Shanghai Restaurant was delicious but nowhere near extraordinary especially in comparison with nearby competitors like Classic Kitchen, Xiong’s, and San Dong. Unless all the aforementioned three and others are closed, there is really no reason to choose this over the other better choices in the vicinity.

Notice:
Although the name is still the same, I think the owners have changed. The staff and ambiance looks different, and the menu posted on the windows is different also. Many of the reviews for this place is for the old owners. I will not rate them yet as I have not tried this place since the new ownership. Will be back with an update!
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Original Review:
1. Service — A La Carte. Seat yourself down, and the cashier will be right over with the menus. I’m not quite sure if they have a full staff here, but for the few times I’ve been here, the cashier is the waiter. The people are friendly, but not everyone speaks English. They rotate the cashiers. So for all three times, the cashier has been someone different. But the food has been consistently the same.
2. Price — They charge about $ 5-​$ 8 for an order of dumplings. A little more than other dumpling places, but it’s still a hole in the wall type place.
3. Ambiance — Dress code is casual. The restaurant is a little outdated, but it’s ok. You’re not here for the ambiance, you’re here for the food! It feels like a restaurant from the 90’s.
4. Food — I thought you would of never ask! The only reason why I come here is due to their Shanghai Soup dumplings. The best I’ve had in Houston so far. I’ve had the real thing in Shanghai, China, (Din Tai Fung) and I can’t say it’s exactly the same, but it’s delicious. Comfort food! I’ve also had the Soup Dumplings from Joe Shanghai in NYC. It’s almost the same. The experience you get when you travel and eat is quite different from when you’re eating in your hometown on a regular day. You have to support your local restaurants and deal with what you got.
The food is worth trying. I’ve ordered #10 (pork dumplings with Chives) and #16 (Shanghai Soup Dumplings). For some reason, they call #16 «dumplings with juices». But it’s actually Shanghai Soup Dumplings, as I’ve checked with the waiter in Mandarin. It is indeed Xiao Long Bao (小籠包).
The green beans here are awesome too.
5. Cleanliness — Not Gold medal clean, but it’s a typical Asian place. Can I say, Bronze medal clean?

Everything is good here. I like their ribs and their street noodles. The real reason to go here is for the soup dumplings.
It was empty. Both times went there we had to call them because sometimes they close early on Sunday if business is slow.

The soup dumplings were alright. I’m comparing these to joes shanghai restaurant in NY and those were phenomenol! These are pretty bland in comparison and the amount of soup in the dumplings is pretty small. However I would come back if I ever had a monster craving for soup dumplings!
We also ordered the scallion pancake, which was pretty subpar to other pancakes I’ve had, and we had the garlic eggplant, which was pretty fantastic!

This is the go to place for Taiwanese Breakfast. As you could imagine its a hole in the wall place with bare minimum décor not that it matters anyways. The service is pretty bad and the waitresses aren’t exactly the most polite of all but in Asian standards its actually okay i guess. I am here to eat and not be pampered so moving on. Since, I am new to Taiwanese food i cant really name everything we ordered however I will try my best.
The cold sliced beef: good stuff i’ve been looking for a place that sells this that has the mean tender and not too tough. Liked it so much ordered another helping.
Fried Bread: freshly made; its my favorite place for the fried bread in Houston. When you get it its hot and crunchy.
Mince pork w/​Egg Congee: not the best i’ve had but not bad either. I’d rate it about the average mark. But dipping the Fried Bread in it make its better so I enjoyed this dish.
Pancake with veggies: if you pan fry it ill eat it… its not too bad surprisingly. its not the green onion pancake. its one stuffed with veggies.
Pretzel looking bread: um tasted like bread. salty but not too bad i guess.
Soup dumplings: now this is actually pretty good here. I didnt even know about them having this until i read some Unilocal.I guess its known for it.
There were actually quite a few more dishes that we ordered and they were all pretty good but I cannot recall them. I would definitely come back here again even though i waited over an hour to get my tea… Bellaire service for the win!

I came here mainly for the xiao long bao. On the menu, it’s called Shanghai style pork dumplings. In the past they offered 8, but now it’s only 6. I found it to be quite tasty and delicious. The skin was thin enough just enough to hold the soup in it. The amount of soup for the delicate dumplings was decent as it was enough to fill the entire large soup spoon if you poked a hole and drained the dumpling. The soup in it was hot and savory. Lots of good flavor from pork. I loved it, my wife didn’t care for it. We tried the Shanghai fried noodles. Tasted ok. Can’t tell if we didn’t like it here or we don’t like these noodles in general. Next time I’ll skip it and get more soup dumplings instead.

My first time trying the Shanghai Steamed Dumplings and it wasn’t that great to me. There were 6 in the order for $ 8 and they were kind of small. People call these «soup dumplings» but honestly, it’s just pork fat with cooking wine… I think. The smell for me was unbearable but my boyfriend was able to finish it.
The stir-​fry noodles (#5 under Noodles section) were extremely greasy and the white onions smelled pretty bad as if they were old. Other than those two downfalls on the noodles, it was eatable.
If you’re Asian, they will assume you speak Chinese even if you’re not. As much as I was trying to say things in English, every time she came by, she spoke to us in Chinese and I keep staring at her asking her WHAT?!
Oh, there was a lady sleeping at a table by the front door… kind of weird.

I went here for the soup dumplings (xiao long bao) and they were really good! They had really flavorful soup and met inside of them, and I was very pleased. My standard for good soup dumplings is Shanghai Café in NYC (on Mott Street), and I think that Houston’s Shanghai Café’s soup dumpling can very much compete.
I also had the pan fried pork and cabbage dumplings, and they were very good. I will be returning.

Best best best pan fried pork buns (the ones with the sesame seeds on top). I need to try their famous soup dumplings!
Warning: service is exceptionally terrible, even for Chinatown standards!

The best thing this restaurant offers is the soup dumplings — fresh and savory — order 2 and call it a meal. I would give this restaurant a 3.5 if I could.
We also ordered Schezuan Beef Noodle Soup, Shumai, and the curry dumpling. The noodle soup was worth a taste — enjoyed the schezuan peppercorn undertone, the beef was tender and the broth was flavorful. The Shumai and Curry Dumpling were not impressive; the curry dumpling was basically a flaky empanada as opposed to the traditional steamed or fried dumpling you would expect, and the Shumai offered a lot of meat but just did not have the flavors that I have enjoyed at other dim sum places.
Stick to the soup dumplings or maybe add on the other traditional style dumplings!

Came here for lunch on a Saturday, which meant inattentive service (surprise me), a loud atmosphere (strange, eh?), and seemingly no A/​C (although they did have fans).
So while none of those attributes are particularly astonishing when describing a typical Chinese restaurant, I had hoped that the food would be its saving grace. But I left disappointed.
Yes, they serve soup dumplings, which many other places also have. Yes, the waitress spoke Shanghainese, which brings a sense of authenticity. But just because it’s authentic doesn’t mean it’s good. As, the food was quite mediocre. For a party of 6, we ordered quite a bit of food (soup dumplings, meat buns, wontons, mini wontons, you tiao, savory tofu soup, hong sao fish and more). The meat in the shumai looked kind of questionable.
Really, there are better options in Chinatown.

So my parents told me that chef from Sarah Place decided to expand — his daughter runs this restaurant. The concept is dim sum and szechuan dishes.
Shanghai soup dumplings (³⁄₅) — okay. better than fufu’s. order them first because they take longer.
Boiled fish w/​vegetables in a spicy sauce (shui zhu yu pian) (⁴⁄₅) — a common szechuan dish. One of my favorite dishes — it is oily. Great for people who like heat.
Green beans (³⁄₅)
Eggplant w/​garlic sauce (yu xiang qie zi) (⁴⁄₅) — I like how the eggplant is really fried. Tougher skin, but a little less oily than normal. The sauce is on the sweeter side (which I don’t mind :)).
Seems to me like the dim sum is underwhelming, but I would recommend trying other dishes.

Cheap Chinese breakfast/​brunch. What else do you need?
For $ 15, my friend and I were able to fill our tummies to the max, and it was awesome!
FOOD:
1) Fermented egg and meat porridge: this was not on the menu, but they made it for us. It came out pretty bland, but you can just add a little bit of salt and pepper.
2) Pumpkin bread: this was a dessert, and it came with 4 little bread buns. It was delicious!
3) You tiao (crullers): yummmm. I’d suggest getting a sweet dou jiang with it though because you tiao can get a bit dry.
4) Soup dumplings: Apparently what they are famous for. It was $ 7 for 8 dumplings. Pretty pricey… but it was REALLY good.
SERVICE:
Bad, and they just assume you speak Chinese. Haha.
PARKING:
Plenty of parking in the lot.
I’d say overall it’s a nice place to get some cheap and filling food. Everyone here is Chinese, so you know it’s authentic :)

This is for Dim Sum and regular entrees
Hearing the wait staff speak Cantonese to each other I had slightly higher expectations for the food since the inside won’t be wow’ing anyone. After trying a few dishes I know that next time I would rather go to Fung’s Kitchen.
Recommended:
Malay cake: was probably the best thing we had that day.
Decent:
Dry Beef noodles: average but not enough bean sprouts
Ying yeung fried rice: decent
Fried rice with shrimp and chinese broccoli on top
Turnip cake
Not Recommended:
Har gow
Sui mai
Chicken feet were over cooked and the sauce that it came in was not the right kind of sauce with an overload of black beans.
Pork lo mein

Mommy… please bring me back here! Please, please, please, please, please!!!
So yes, my mom brought me here the other day to try their «xiao long bao.» I was shocked when she ordered 3 of them (and a plate of noodles). I was thinking «ummm… are they really that good?» AND THEY WERE!
«Xiao long bao» is basically dumpling with soup inside the dumpling as well. You’re thinking «wtf is Sandy talking about??» — let me describe it for you: it’s a dumpling that’s steamed and inside the dumpling… there’s the usual meat filling with soup/​juices. Trust me, it’s very juicy and you should eat it with a soup spoon. Also, make sure you don’t pierce the dumpling skin while getting it out of the platter or you will lose the juice! This type of dumpling is difficult (I think) to achieve. A lot of other places have xiao long bao on their menu, but it’s just like any other dumpling (and no soup!).
I recommend coming here for the soup dumpling. I have yet to try other items, but I will be back (and bringing the boyfriend) to eat our hearts out :)

I believe it’s a new joint in the greater Chinatown area, as I can’t remember seeing it in visits past. Shanghai Dumpling King is in a pretty prolific space, nearly adjacent to the Golden Foods Supermarket in the upper right corner of the strip.
The first thing I noticed upon entering was a «People Love Us On Unilocal» sign, so naturally, I looked them up on Unilocal.Color me surprised when I saw they had but one review (now two) on the Unilocal.Apparently, the restaurant is a spin-​off of a popular San Francisco joint. See here (
).
It’s a place that could garner some notoriety fairly quickly. With the appearance of the trendy E-​Tao onto the Galleria scene, China’s world famous xiao long bao (soup dumplings) could finally be making waves in the Houston foodie community.
I’ve never been a huge fan of xiao long bao for two reasons. The first is that I prefer to smother my dumplings in my personal dumpling sauce (a soy-​vinegar concoction) and the soupy part of xiao long bao waters down the taste. The second is that I’ve never seen xiao long bao made of anything other than pork, which I generally avoid. The pork is thought of as a necessity – the gelatinous pork stock liquifies during the heating process, thereby causing the enclosed soup to form. And apparently, ground chicken, turkey or beef doesn’t quite cut it.
Anyways, if you ever make it here, order the xiao long bao. I believe it’s coded as «Shanghai dumplings» on the menu (which displays both Chinese and English). There’s the straight pork variety, as well as the fancier pork plus crab meat kind.
We also got a few other mostly forgettable dishes, including dan dan noodles, vegetable chive dumplings, and some sort of chicken concoction.
We generally leave ordering to the 1GP (first generation parentals), and they came away unimpressed. The xiao long bao were low in soup content, looked kind of dingy, and lacked requisite flavor. The skin was decently thick enough, not quite as well-​made as regular dumplings (jiao zi) at, say, Doozo or San Dong. The filling was fine, if small. The biggest complaint was by far the lack of soupy goodness, an absolute Asian travesty when it comes to xiao long bao. The general consensus was: why, oh why, couldn’t they have franchised Din Tai Fung instead?

BEST soup dumplings in Houston Texas!!!
and the service is so friendly, you’ll want to come back over & over! (we do)