Shanghai Restaurant

This place was great! Apparently it has closed, unfortunately. It had great authentic Shanghai food, hopefully they reopen somewhere else.

My friends and I have been coming here at least once a month for the past year, and we absolutely love it! This place is pretty small and never seems that busy, but I think it’s because people have yet to discover what this place to offer. The servers are always very friendly and check up on you a lot, although it may be easier to communicate with them if you know Chinese. You really cannot beat the prices here either; I don’t think I’ve ever been here and paid more than $ 7 or $ 8 a person, and that’s with plenty of leftovers!
Every time we come here we have to order the Shanghai fried rice cakes and the Shanghai vegetable rice; you cannot go wrong with these two! We also order other things off their menu such as the stinky tofu or soup to accompany our meal, and all of them have been consistently good, but our favorites are still the fried rice cakes and vegetable rice. They also give you complimentary egg drop soup at the end of the meal, which is always a nice way to end a meal.

«Eeks! Me thinks not» is an understatement! I took my mom out to lunch. Our impatience for the lunch crowd lead us to to an empty restaurant next door, Shanghai. The color photos they had displayed on the front window looked deelish but as we walked in, we noticed that there was only one person dining here. That should have prompted us to get up and leave but we didn’t want to be rude.
As we were reviewing the menu, I hear someone clipping their nails behind me. Our server was grooming behind the counter! After she saw us watching her, she put her nail clippers away. I wanted to leave right then and there but moms wanted to give them an opportunity to make it up to us with their food.
We ordered the dry sauteed beans. The price was right, only $ 5.99. It was tasty at first bite with the thick sauce and plenty of garlic (which I love!) but after the fourth bite, it was hard to eat cuz of how salty it was. We also ordered the deep-​fried yellow fish. It was a tiny fish with a lot of bones. There was barely any flavor to it at all. If you ate it with the beans, it was almost bearable. We also ordered the hot and spicy tofu, which is their version of mapo tofu. In order to spice it up, they over loaded it with spicy oil.
All in all, it wasn’t THE most horrible food I’d ever tasted but I definitely would not return nor recommend this restaurant to anyone else. If I get sick later, I wouldn’t be surprised due to their lack of hygiene.
DINERS BEWARE!!!

thatdevil’s Bay Area Stinky Tofu Hunt:
«Shanghai Restaurant»
They only have fried stinky tofu here, and boy is it good. This is closest I’ve seen to the kinds you get off street vendors in Taiwan. Very crispy on the outside and oh so tender on the inside. The tofu is airy and fluffy. The sauce is perfect (it’s the classic thick soy-​sauce with diced… garlic and onions?). Only problem is it’s a little expensive… runs about 6 bucks a dish of 10 cubes. Pricing aside, this is hands down the best place for fried stinky tofu in the Fremont/​Milpitas area. Try it out and let me know what you think!

I like the food here, but as a matter of personal preference, I prefer Shanghai Family Cuisine further down the street. However, if you like things a bit more authentically «Shanghai-​nese» — this place is more authentic. You can find more traditional Shanghainese dishes here. But I just think the taste over at Shanghai Family Cuisine is better, and the dishes are executed better.

Love this place.
Other reviews are correct about the Chinese menu — get someone who can read and speak Chinese and preferably is from Shanghai — my neighbor started bringing me here a few years ago, and it’s gotten to the point that I can now order the things we commonly get — and when she goes there without me, they say «Hey, where’s the white girl?»
:)
Dishes I love and can order: rice cakes with pork and greens, baked rice with greens and pork (sensing a theme there?), 3 cup chicken, any of the sauted greens with bamboo shoots.
super tasty, nice people.

Food here is a little bland. They did a remodel of the place… new furniture and stuff. portions for 16 is less than others that have similar deals.

It’s a good place right by my home to have Shanghai-​style chow mein.
It’s a nice little neighborhood Shanghai restaurant, but it’s definitely not the best place around. I like to come here whenever I feel like Shanghai food and not wanna drive too far. As I had mentioned, I love their Shanghai-​style chow mein… but that’s about it that I love there… I really wished that the portion was bigger. I have had their xiao loong bao many times and it’s just alright, not as soupy as I have had elsewhere. Their green onion pancake is OK. I used to really like their spicy wontons too, but it seems like it had gone downhill a bit. Their sweet soymilk (available wknds only) are decent.
FYI. Their menu does not have English translation, so you either have to know how to read/​speak Chinese or bring a buddy along that does. Service is good. The waitress and busboy was pretty attentive to our needs every time we go there.

Parents love coming here because there’s a great 3 dishes for $ 16 deal. I however, prefer other Chinese restaurants, but I always must tag along.
I’m not gonna lie, for $ 16 it is a good deal, but the portions are oh so small. The food here is usually pretty legit, but nothing that amazes me like other Chinese restaurants I’ve been in the area. I guess they have dishes which I feel I can make myself and it would taste almost as good. This place is cash only also, which can be a drag at times.
Food does come rather quickly though and the service is pretty good. Oh, but the hot and sour soup here is delicious, I must say. One the best I’ve had in the area.

This place is a total hole in the wall. Came here on a random weekend and had the 3 for $ 16.50 dishes. They have an assortment of over 50+ dishes to choose from so that is quite pleasant. The food was superior, and the service was great. We ordered preserved vegetables with 3 layer meat which was a total hit. I LOVED IT! The meat was so tender and the preserved veggies were delicious with rice. We also had the shredded pork with bean curd which was also superb. The only thing I didn’t like was the bamboo. We also had the sweet and sour spare ribs, which were okay. I’m not a huge of fan of sweet and sour items, but I’m not the one choosing all the dishes ;) All in all, good food with good company. Location is in a big plaza where Lion Supermarket is.
Only con is that the menu is primarily in Chinese. The English translations were horrible with lots of spelling errors! Bring someone that can read Chinese.

Empty when we got there, now I can understand why. Horrible service. I can get same food elsewhere for the same price.
((Sweet Milk)) tasted burnt. when we told waitress, she said thats how it is: O
((Xiao Lung Bao)) not that juicy, meat ok
((Onion Pancakes)) super oily, tasted very doughy
((String Beans)) beans not fresh, oily
((Sticky Rice stuffed w/​Dried Pork)) cant go wrong, good
((Crunchy Noodles)) if youre going to skimp on noodles, at least serve it in a smaller plate.
((Potstickers)) well i dont have a review for how they tasted only because they decided to serve this ONE HOUR after we ordered it and finished everything else. i tried to cancel it twice so we could leave, but she said too late. she couldnt admit that she forgot about our order twice. ridiculous.
Con: horrible waitress, mediocre food, most menus in chinese only

haven’t been here in awhile and shanghai has added a 3 fer 16.50 menu with about 40 choices. everything else seem the same.
sampling:
–xiao lung bao (8/6.95) relatively thin skined xlb’s with juicy soup and some tasty meat within. one of the finer northern cal xlb’s around.
–hot & sour soup (4.95) very big bowl with tofu strips, black fungus, etc. … not as tasty as before cuz i found a new favorite in the ‘dro, still pretty decent though.
-«nian gao» rice cake with shredded pork (5.85)tender sauteed rice cakes
3 fer 16.50
–braised bamboo shoot with pork: fresh crunchy bamboo sprouts from china, interesting and tasty dish.
–kung bao chicken: fresh small pieces of chicken with cornlets, bell peppers and onions. fresh but not very spicy.
-«tang chu xiao bai gu=sugar vinegar small pork riblets»: large boned spareribs deep fried and covered with sweet sauce: not so great
desert (gratis) mini glutinuous rice balls in sugared soup base. typical chinese deseert. nice.
leftovers:
–saw menus only in chinese, conversed only in mandarin, they probably speak english also.
–cash only
–single waitress on duty, aided by speedy hispanic «busperson».
–3 fer menu worth checking out. some items list for 7.95 on regular menu.

Chicken Chestnut Claypot, Shanghai Pork Belly w/​spinach and rice wine, Peking Ribs, Spicy Fish Fillet, their seasonal veggies are also tasty.

Had quite a lunch feast for 3 people here.
Started off with Hot and Sour soup. The spiciness was interesting. It gave me the hiccups the entire time I was drinking the soup, so that was slightly unpleasant. The soup was also not very thick, but it was tasty. ³⁄₅
Then came my order of stewed beef noodle soup (spicy). This was by far my favorite. The beef, oh so tender and copious. The noodles, perfect in texture. The soup, spicy, steaming hot and not exceptionally greasy. YUMYUM!
The Xiao Long Baos were alright. I think there were 8. I liked the filling, but there was barely any soup inside. I bit into my first one expecting a gush of burning soup to singe my throat, but instead, I was just tortured (albeit happily) by the very very hot and delicious filling.
Got a Green Onion Pancake. No likey. Hella thick and just not that great. Plus it should have come first. If it came first, it would have probably tasted better as my tastebuds wouldn’t have been excited by all the spicy stuff ahead of time.
Also couldn’t resist ordering some «Hollow Vegetables», stir fried. I like them Cantonese-​style better, but whatevs, veggies are veggies :)
All of this food for $ 27 buckaroos, not bad Shanghai Restaurant!

Xiao lung bao FTW.
Order it.

Wow, I must now echo the sentiments of many others, and say that Shanghai Restaurant has become wildly inconsistent. Since I work around the corner, I come somewhat frequently, and haven’t had a bad stint yet… until now.
So, some of my family members had some time off from work, and wanted to take me out to lunch at the HK Villa dim sum in City Square. Upon arrival, we were greeted with the sight of windows all plastered up, with the obligatory «Closed for remodeling» sign aka the Chinese code word for «We are no longer in business, and have lost face, but cannot admit to this.»
In any event, we were left scrounging for another place to dine. In this plaza filled with such gems as The Porridge (
) and South Legend (
), choices were aplenty. Since we all hadn’t had any XLB in awhile, we ended up here. Big mistake.
I noticed off the bat that the wait staff was not the usual, and the joint was rather empty (not that it’s usually packed, but more so than today). We ordered our typical serving of XLB, Shanghainese Yearly Fried Rice Cakes, with Lion Heads and some Four Seasons String Beans with Chicken. Sounds good, right?
Put it this way. By the time I was done with my portion, the plate I was using looked like I had poured half a jar of Crisco on it. The rice cakes and chicken were simply doused in grease, and the string beans were charred to boot. To their credit, the Lion Heads and XLB tasted the same as usual, but certainly not good enough to cancel out.
Wow, how could they have fallen off so far from the usual? The rice cakes are typically more dry, with minimal sauce, let alone mounds of grease. At that moment, I then realized what was so different. This was actually the first time I had come during the middle of the week, since I typically don’t eat big lunches during the work week (Froyo FTW!). I guess they save their good chefs for the busier days, which makes sense.
So, long story short, avoid Shanghai during the beginning and middle of the work week, but Fridays and weekends, it’s a dandy. For now, I’ll have to deduct one star, but I’ll probably be back soon to test my theory.

My friends introduced this authentic Shanghainese restaurant a while back. Service can be hit or miss. Sometimes the main waitress is a little grumpy but hey, you came here for the food right? They also always give you some free sweet soup dessert thingy in the end that is very refreshing to the palate after eating so much other tasty dishes.
Things that I tried:
Pork Bamboo Spare Ribs — 5!!! This is my favorite dish.
Chou Doufu (Stinky tofu) — 5
Wine Chicken — 4
Dumplings — 4 (so soft and watery — very authentic)
Braised Pork Belly– 4 (if you don’t care about eating so much fats.)
Some curry beef vermicelli hot pot thing (sorry i forgot the exact name) but this was also awesome. — 5
Some of the dishes are not on the English menu, so if you can’t read Chinese, ask one of your Chinese friends to probably write the dishes for you in a piece of paper and then just show it to the waitress/​waiter when it’s time to order. I did that a long time ago before I started taking Chinese classes and no, the waitress did not laugh at my face. Hey, you gotta do what you gotta to do.

The dishes we tried were average, but the food is authentic Shanghainese (my father’s from that area). They might have English menus (I’m not sure; we received Chinese menus and the posted specials were in Chinese). Just about everyone dining there was Chinese.
Since I can’t read Chinese, I’m not sure of the names of the some of the dishes we had or the prices (sorry). It looks like the typical authentic Chinese restaurant, not much effort made in terms of décor (which is a good thing), pics of the dishes posted in the window. I’m sure it’s reasonably priced and the portions were generous. I noticed they had fresh soy milk — maybe they have Shanghai brunch items?
* XLB: not bad but not great either, juicy but the skin was too thick especially on top, no ginger provided
* Beancurd sheets stuffed with ground pork casserole: came with tiny scallops and salted sliced pork bits in a light broth. I liked the broth but thought the pork tasted a little off.
* Lion’s heads in wintermelon soup: a healthy item with no MSG, it was okay, the lion’s heads were small loose meatballs, tender but not as tasty as true lion’s heads, the broth was light and lacking in flavor
* Fish filets in wine sauce: Tender mild fish pieces in a thickened, light, sweet rice wine sauce, no veggies, good flavor but I did miss the veggies.
* Braised pork belly: not from the healthy menu, comes in a rich brown sauce (soy sauce based) with preserved vegetables, the sauce was really deep and yummy. I didn’t eat the fatty meat
* Sweet rice cakes: not made with rice flour but with sweet rice, pan fried, nice and golden on the outside, chewy on the inside, served hot, with decent but boring flavor; this would be better with flecks of pork or sausage. You don’t see this on the menu too many places.
They have dishes that are relatively uncommon and hard to find and their recent new dishes are healthy and free of MSG (a modern take on traditional Shanghainese classics).

My boss was born and raised in Shanghai the first two decades of her life and highly recommended this place. I got to try this place first hand today.
The place is dumpy inside, with minimal décor, but I’ve come to expect that from mom and pop joints. The service is quick and friendly and at 1:30pm there were many patrons dining at the restaurant. Most looked like seasoned diners.
#70 Fish filet in wine sauce $ 8.50
Not bad, but it really was JUST pieces of fish in wine sauce. An abundant amount, but I’m used to a little foliage in my dishes.
#62 Braised fish head casserole, $ 9.95
More like fish head soup, delicious! Reminded me of what my family would prepare at home. I could taste the fish bone flavor in the tasty light broth. Eating this soup was surprise after delightful surprise! There was a fish head, cubes of tofu, fresh chopped garlic cloves, clear green bean noodles, and strips of pork.
#99 Mixed vegetables $ 6.95
Not too oily or salty. Round spongy-​textured tofu, fresh bamboo, and shitake mushrooms were a perfect marriage of flavors.
Generous portions, low grease, and no overpowering flavors. I would definitely come back to try one of the other 155 items. They also have a lunch menu with items ranging between $ 4.95−5.95.

Food I liked from the $ 88 Chinese dinner which serves 8 – 10 people, relatives picked the menu and paid so can’t complain too much:
green onion pancake-​ordered separately, not on the special menu. Very thin and flakey. good.
fresh fish filet dish-​good flavor, lots of gravy. good.
good xlb-​very juicy. Didn’t come with vinegar sauce though.
other dishes were average and I ate most of it. We had lots of leftovers after feeding 7 hungry ppl.
— — — — —
Update 6÷16÷07
Had a family lunch again here. I think the meal was just ok, nothing special.
xlb — not good
hot soup w/​lots of seafood, egg dumplings — just ok
Still don’t care much for this place! Wasn’t satisfied w/​this meal or the last one.