Shanghai Restaurant

This is the first time that I downloaded an app for a review. This place cold and rude. We were there people ordered a soup with bamboo and ribs. 2 mins later I asked a waitress if I could have something else instead, because bases on the first side dish, we figured out the flavor was too salty for us ! Specially, the person who took our orders recommend Ed that soup! That waitress told me too late to switch. Really? 2 mins? The soup went out faster than other dishes and wasn’t hot at all! Ok, fine !!! On my way home, I felt so pain on my stomach and intestines too.
I had to drive fast and ran in my bathroom. After I let everything out starting feel better. I called my other friends they all got trouble with diarrhea! Don’t go there !! I am finishing this review on my toilet now !!

This place is a combination of rude service, bad food, and unsanitary health standards all in one place.
When we walked in, we were seated on a very dirty table where there were still leftover pieces of food from the previous patron. That’s disgusting, but I didn’t bother complaining and just wiped it off myself. I noticed that the cups and plates were dirty too, so I used my napkin to clean the cups, plates, and then the table itself. You know that feeling when you don’t trust a Chinese restaurant in giving you clean cups and plates and you can’t help but wipe them once more with your napkin before pouring tea into their tableware? This place takes the cake in that particular TFW («that feel when»).
The service was abysmal too. Upon seating down for the first minute, the waitress came and rushed to take our order. Seeing how their menu was 4 – 6 pages, I asked for a moment to look at it. After less than a minute, the same waitress came and wanted to take our order. Maybe she understood «a moment» as in 10 seconds. Whatever, I’ll let that go. I proceeded with ordering the Xiao Long Bao, but I asked for some recommendations on food. She pointed to a few items, in which case I responded, «I’d like something a little less oily.» To my dismay, she tried correcting me by saying, «We don’t use oil here! Look around the menu! There’s no oil anywhere!» What the heck? I can read Chinese, and I’m pretty damn sure you can’t make half the dishes on the menu without any oil. She’s in complete denial. I ended up ordering the 丝瓜 vegetable dish (si1 gua1, luffa /​Chinese Okra) and taking her recommendation for the crab w/​egg on top of vinegar dish (I’ve had this in many places, so I figured that you can’t screw this up).
First, the vegetable dish came, and I noticed that the vegetable was inconsistently shaved. Some of the outer skin of the luffa was left unshaved and cooked with the whole dish, creating this unpleasant hard and bitter taste. It was difficult to chew on those pieces, and half the pieces in the dish tasted foul. I rarely complain to a waitress about the food, but this was hideous and disgusting. When I complained about how unsanitary and how it tasted bitter because the outer skin was not fully shaved, she went to «educate» me about how that dish is supposed to be prepared like that! How ignorant and in denial can you be?! It was NEVER prepared like that in Shanghainese cuisine, not in the present, not in the past 5000 years, not in any region in China, no way! I’ve only been to Shanghai once, and I KNOW it isn’t prepared like that. Even Shanghainese people told me it’s not supposed to be half shaved. Seeing how frustrated I was, I let the waitress go with her ignorant ways. Another waitress came to apologize and offered to swap that disgusting dish w/​another dish. I picked the green beans for a replacement, but it wasn’t very good either.
The other dishes came, and honestly, the Xiao Long Bao was mediocre at best. The skin is almost right, but the meat inside felt stale and too thick for the skin inside. This was probably the only edible item in this restaurant. Still not over the fact that this was supposed to be the highlight. The crab egg dish was not very good. Out of all the Shanghainese restaurants I’ve been to in the entire bay area, this place makes it the worst. There were VERY LITTLE signs of any crab, mostly just egg whites to look like crab. It was just not a very good dish that I’d want to pay for. Mediocre at best, appalling otherwise.
All I can say is, avoid this place. I remember when I was in high school, someone told me that she knew about a girl who claims she can see ghosts in real life. I have heard stories about how she can see ghosts hang around outside of this restaurant, but never go in. I finally know the answer. With food, service, and sanitary standards this low, it’s no wonder that ghosts don’t even want to go in and check this place out.

Food there are delicious. We have tried the wonton soup and it was much delicious than any wonton soup I have had ever! The dumping and chicken are also good. The price is surprisingly low given its good quality of food. Maybe the environment of this restaurant is not that descent, but if you want tasty food, this is the place. Highly recommend.

Terrible. Service was slow despite the restaurant being empty. My son ordered tangerine chicken which the server said Yes then cook told her No then cook told server Yes again and finally in the end No. This is tough for a six year old. It took ten minutes to get our check. Food was awful we had porridge with pork and preserved egg… no flavor. The dumplings were average. Never again.

Great spot for my dumpling fix. The pork and crab soup dumplings aka XLB are my favorite! Right amount of meat and soup filling. Slurp!

We eat here frequently (about once a month for the past 5 – 6 years), and it’s one of our default Chinese restaurants when we want comfort food. The menu offers typical Shanghai dishes such as steamed soup dumplings, bottom pan-​fried buns, sweet & sour baby ribs, «lion’s head» meatballs, stir-​fried rice cakes, etc. We usually order the baby ribs since that’s my son’s favorite. Unlike other Shanghainese restaurants, they use quality ribs with lean, portionable meat around the bones. Other places tend to use cheap ribs that hardly have any meat, just tendon around the bones. We also like their mellon (si gua) with salted eggs. It’s light and not salty or oily. Most of their food are light on oil, which is why we keep coming back to this place. They have another location in Sunnyvale (same name and menu), but the food quality is not as good, and portion is smaller. We also like their sweet sesame balls boiled in rice wine with osmanthus herb. However, the taste is not consistent. When the rice wine was fermented perfectly, this dessert soup is deliciously sweet and fragrant. Otherwise, you could end up with slightly sour taste. As for the service, well, it’s a mid-​budget Chinese restaurant — that means it’s your typical family-​friendly (loud is ok), efficient (they want to churn customers quickly), and blunt (direct and terse dialogue, less emphasis on manners more on getting things done) dinning experience. Cleanliness could improve (hence minus one star), but we’ve never gotten sick eating here, just ocassionally had to ask for new bowls, plates, or utensils.

This one star is for the crappy service. We used to come to this place when the lady owner was around. The food was alright but the lady was super nice, so we sort of liked eating here.
Fast forward to present, it seems like they hired a bunch of rude kids to wait on the patrons and that was a bad decision.
Things went downhill after we got seated. I got a gross looking tiny spoon that looked suspiciously like baby’s training spoon. I tried to flag the girl down for help and was ignored. It took us a good 10 minutes to go through the extensive menu. When we were ready to order, my husband asked about the type of vegetable in a dish he wanted to order, and home girl said ‘don’t know’ and just walked off! We were trying to place our order! When we asked her to come back, she just called another girl and the other girl showed the back of her hand at us, as if we needed to be dismissed. After 5 minutes of awkwardness, with the two girls pretending that we were invisible, we got up and left.
TLDR: If you really want to be successful, train your wait staff to at least be polite to customers and not act like some zombie from Walking Dead when a customer needs something. And for god’s sake, organize the menu so it doesn’t look like a jigsaw puzzle that I need to solve.

Parking can be a nightmare so come early for lunch. We arrived at 11am and ordered 2 portions of soup dumplings and the Shanghai stir fried noodles (big type noodles). Lunch came with Jasmine tea which was nice. The soup dumplings were so so. Dumpling skin was thin and they were filled with soup but I was not wowed by the filling or soup flavors. The noodles were very tasty and I would recommend getting these. One plate is enough to share with two people. Great flavors, not too oily, had veggies and meat stir fried with three noodles. Service is alright. You will get your food and plates taken away but that’s it. And really, that’s all you need. This would be a no frills place. There are lots of big tables to host larger parties and I overheard you can call ahead to reserve a table. I’ll be back to try more dishes. They have pictures on the menus so no need to know Chinese.

Xiao Long Bao. One of my favorite things. Over the years, I have sampled most XLB from San Jose to San Francisco, but I had somehow missed Shanghai Restaurant. J and I stopped in for lunch last week and I’m glad we did. The dumpling skins were thin — like I’ve had in Asia. The broth was okay, could have been a little more flavorful. We also ordered Snow Peas with Prawns which was also very good.
I will be back

Merry Christmas my Unilocalers! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
so it’s Christmas today n we did not want to eat the leftovers in our fridge so we rolled to the Chinese plaza on Wolfe Road in Cupertino. (Chinese ppl don’t rest just cuz it’s Christmas. :)) so we decided to eat at Shanghai Restaurant. since we haven’t been back for a while, we thought we should dine there again.
let me explain that I am VERY picky about Shanghainese food just cuz my whole family is from there n we know our Shanghainese flavors n textures. like we r BORN knowing that sh – .
the food at this restaurant is pretty legit. the employees all seem to speak Shanghainese fluently. there r a good many dishes on their menu. most of the items on the menu r pretty authentic. (except maybe the new item which is a Roasted Duck cooked 2 ways.)
I really can’t bring myself to give them 4 stars cuz the service isn’t good. (except when u ask for the check!) we waited for our eggplant entrée for 30 minutes. I’m pretty sure they forgot all about it til we asked about it. then the waitress brought it out in 2 seconds flat! seriously?
Shanghai Style Sautéed Shrimps: overcooked for sure. they r supposed to b tender. I wouldn’t order this again here.
Eggplant Beancurd: very flavorful n the quantity is huge for the price.
Shanghai Pork Dumplings (XLBs): this is a MUST ORDER here. their xlbs come very close to the famous ones in Shanghai. the skin is thin n the juice pours out in one bite. even the knob on top isn’t too thick.
Deep Fried Shredded Daikon: I couldn’t believe this is on the menu! I eat this whenever I go visit Shanghai. it’s such a tasty street food. so crunchy on the outside n soft on the inside. I would eat this just for a snack.
Baked Steam Rice w/​Salted Pork n Vegetables: this is always a good authentic dish to order. this is the Shanghainese equivalent to fried rice. it’s a bit watery here, (don’t know y) but the portion is big.

Went on a Saturday afternoon and ordered the Shanghai rice cakes and Chive Turnovers (韭菜盒子).
Rice cakes were alright but we ordered them without the pork that it usually comes with so I’m going to blame that on its slightly bland flavor. Will try them again with the pork.
Chive turnovers (jiu chai he zi) were really great! Eggs, chives, and wood ear. Plenty of filling and a crispy outside.

Their specialty is the Shanghai spare ribs… Unlike the mom makes (she is from Shanghai)… It was overlooked, dry but over powered with a heavy thick sauce. No vinegar zing to compliment too.
Worse it was pre cooked and the center was frozen cold with the outside hot. Meaning a quick wok fry for a few seconds… Unacceptable
Xlb was good but not like xlb standards I know.
When ding dai feng comes to Cupertino… Places like this will have to step up their game

I would say that this place is more accurately 3.5 stars, but taking the customer service into account I can’t justify giving 4 stars; the food wasn’t spectacular enough to warrant a boost.
~ Customer Service:
Pretty bad for 2 major reasons. They were nice people but were strange and just generally unpleasant to deal with.
1) When we were ordering (and we weren’t umming or ahhing, we knew exactly what we wanted) a new group of people came in. Instead of motioning to them that she would be with them in a second, or calling another waitress over (we were the only group there so far aside from that new family that just walked in), she literally WALKED OFF ON US WHEN WE WERE MID-​SENTENCE. My Dad was still ordering off the menu talking to himself before I told him «Dad the waitress is gone she walked off» LMAO. Eventually, she came back and finished taking our order but wow what an awkward experience that was.
2) I think the owner (or at least someone close to the staff) got a new puppy. As we were walking in we say some of the staff playing with the puppy outside, which was fine. Then later they actually brought the puppy INTO THE RESTAURANT to hang out! Talk about unprofessional to be honest. I love dogs, but a live animal shouldn’t be running around a restaurant while people are trying to have their food.
~ Food:
I would say that food itself is 4 stars quality. Everything came at a great price I thought and was all cooked to a decent level. I came for the Xiao Long Bao, intending to go to Shanghai Dumpling initially but unfortunately it was closed.
– Xiao Long Bao –
XLB is actually my favourite food and I’ve ordered them every single time I’ve seen them on a menu. The XLB here were decent, but not spectacular. One positive is that they had plenty of soup in them and the wrappers were thin yet didn’t break. However, I didn’t really like the texture of the meat. It wasn’t very tender at all; it was a lot more dense and chewy. The broth was good though and the meat was bearable. I would give these XLB a rating of 3 stars.
– Wontons in Chili Oil –
Another one of my favourite dumpling dishes as a fan of spicy food but this dish also just gets a standard 3 stars from me. I felt there wasn’t much flavour at all in the chili oil and they put way too much peanuts in the dish. I tasted more of a peanut flavour and the chili flavour I love. Still, it was a tasty dish; it just didn’t live up to my expectations.
– Sheng Jian Bao –
Great dish that exceeded my expectations! 4.5 stars! The bun was perfectly crispy at the bottom and had great flavour. Plus, the ratio to bun and filling was perfect, with plenty of juice on the inside too!
– Beef Dumplings –
The homemade wrappers were thicker and doughier than I normally like, but the beef inside had great flavour and there was plenty of delicious juice for me to savour. 4 stars!
—
Overall, the food was great I can’t deny that. If I had to judge on just food alone it would be 4 stars. But taking the whole experience together, it was generally unpleasant dining at this location so I have to knock a star off I’m afraid.

The ambience feels comfortable, like a ordinary Shanghai food place. If you sit facing inwards, it might just as well be a place like the 90s’ in Shanghai.
The dismal appearance of the dishes is not important since the food are suppose to be family cooking. The blandness of the small buns, the burnt bits, dry vegetables and salty soup just show how much the chef cares– none. It is better than eating at McD or BK, the serving speed is just as fast. It is not a terrible food place, but it has great potential to become one.

I still prefer Cooking Papa xiao long bao…
Three simple steps:
1. Order a few dozens of xiao long bao
2. Carefully use your chopstick to dip it into some ginger/​vinegar and use the spoon as a support.
3. Then take a bite at the corner of the dumpling. Wait for the juicy hot soup explosion in your mouth!

A random find when wandering in the plaza. We got the salted egg & chinese squash and twice cooked pork, sort of on the two ends of heaviness. Twice cooked pork was alright, many fat parts (though as expected) and pretty greasy. The squash, on the other hand, was light and tasty with the nice mix with salted egg yolk.

I wasn’t a fan when this place was «HC Dumplings» and I’m still not a fan now that it’s «Shanghai Restaurant».
Had their cold chicken appetizer, pork XLBs and crab XLBs the other day… It was pretty bleh:
— the chicken was dry and tough
— the soupy juice in the crab XLBs was sweet and didn’t taste good
— the pork XLBs were ok but wasn’t anything memorable
The service was subpar too. Instead of clearing our dishes from the table, the worker came and pushed in our empty chairs (that didn’t need to be pushed in). She saw the empty plates but walked away like it ain’t no thangg –_​_​_​–
The best thing about the place was the extensive picture menu. Too bad their foods no good.

3.5 stars for this Shanghai restaurant in good ol’ Cupertino Village!
I came here for dinner and ended up ordering their duck plate, an eggplant dish, some fish dish, and claypot rice with veggies and pork. I don’t exactly know the names of the dishes my boyfriend ordered because I don’t speak Mandarin and the people working there mainly spoke Mandarin. The food was pretty good! We initially came here for dinner because my boyfriend really enjoyed the duck. After having a taste, I must say it is really good! A different take on the regular peking duck I usually order. Everything else we ordered was pretty good but I wouldn’t say it was outstanding. Worth a try if you’re in Cupertino Village though!

Service was surprisingly good for a Chinese restaurant! :/​I have really low standards for Chinese restaurants, especially in Cupertino Village, so this is definitely refreshing.
Appetizers are from the fridge, so you can take a peek at the options available easily. Portions are pretty generous :)
I love the crab meat xiao long bao! Skin is not too thick, soup was hot (but not scalding), meat was just nice (not too fatty/​lean). Love it!
We had the lion head in claypot which was a tad salty, but goes well with rice.
The shrimp and tofu was pretty good too.
Definitely coming back here again!

#179. No.
Everything we ordered was really salty: the rice cakes, xiao long bao, and pork stuffed buns. Hell, the rice cakes were BROWNED OUT (
). That’s not how it’s supposed to be. The previous restaurant that closed down was way better than this. I never had to drink so much tea to quench my thirst.
The pork stuffed buns weren’t as bad as the other two. It looked nice (
) until we saw the bottom. They were burned. And we definitely saw charred black pieces stuck to them. Pretty sure that’s from the skillets they used… which leads me to another question: Are those cooking pans cleaned well? How often are they even cleaned?
There wasn’t much service, but the service we did have was kind of rude. When the xiao long bao came, they used that dish to push the rice cakes over, which pushed into my cup of tea, which… spilled my tea. Good going. Never coming back here again.