A Taste of Shanghai

the most enjoyable things is involved home language while you eating in that place. all the dishes taste authentic. that’s only shanghainese have rights to highly recommend other guys this place. it will never disappoint me with so many delicately dishes.

Wish I could give this place an additional .5 stars due to the fact that this dishes here are incredibly authentic to what shanghainese dishes should taste like, at least according to the parents.
anyway the place here is nothing special, your typical chinese restaurant in terms of quality, service and taste. I ordered the shanghai style pork shops, shredded pork in garlic sauce, mushrooms with fried dough, pork soup dumplings, chicken gizards in brown sauce and fish breast in brown sauce
the pork chops were too sweet and sour for my taste, the soup dumplings tasted average and didn’t really wow me at all, which can be said for most of the dishes i ordered here. The chicken gizzards, is not really gizzard at all, but rather a whole assortment of random organ meats mixed in with green peppers, which wasn’t bad but definitely not for the faint of heart as it definitely has a strong gamey taste to it. The best dish here was the fish in brown sauce, in fact its an incredible dish as the fish was incredibly soft and the sauce that accompanied the fish was a great mix of sweet and savory with a great thick consistency that definitely made this dish all the more amazing.
again maybe I just didnt get the correct dishes, but overall the menu was pretty average with the fish being the only item that was amazing

Taste like back hometown. Too much authentic dish on the menu.
meat moon cake/​xiao long bao/​san huang ji/​shan si… etc
But their dumpling is not too authentic… less flovor and nothing in the soup except dumpling.
And very weird, after I ordered, 3 – 5 minutes, the dish is coming. It might not be too fresh I guess!

Honestly, I don’t even think this place is worth one star. The service is nonexistent, waiver did not show any interest in serving. The broth in the XLB is too sweet, taste disgusting. The fillings in the wonton are so muniscule, all u see is the wrapper floating in the soup. The shanghaj fried rice cake is not edible, the rice cake has not been soaked long enough and is way too hard to chew. The scallion oil noodle is extremly oily with little flavor, bland and not worth the calories. This is a cash only place, yet they automatically add sales tax and 15% gratuity. Something fishy could be going on. There are so any great eateries in Flushing, this one is one of the worst I’ve been to. Do Not Go!

Sub-​par compared to other places in the area. All the food was a bit too salty and a bit too greasy for my liking.
The service was a mess. They brought us dishes from other tables and our food didn’t show up or went to other customers. We were served hot water since the tea «wasn’t ready.» Our waiter couldn’t care less about the service provided since his 15% tip was already included in the bill.
Overall not an awful experience, but with so many better restaurants in the area, why go back?

This place was not that great, tasted just like an Americanized take-​out and over-​priced compared to other joints in the area. Not sure why this is on trip advisor. Unfortunately, we walked in without researching this place fully.
Food was undercooked and had way too much sodium and sauce. I do not like the brown sauce base they use for everything. My friend and I ordered 2 entirely different dishes and they both came out looking and tasting the same. Service took a very long time, had to flag someone down for more «tea» (super watered down) and to get the bill.

The xiao lung bao (soup dumplings) were average to below average. The skin was a bit thick and the filling had a slightly sour taste. It totally missed the mark for me. The scallion pancakes were greasy and a bit over-​fried since they were a bit hard. We also ordered noodle soup with pork chop, noodle soup with braised beef and yang chow fried rice. My daughter said the shrimp in the fried rice tasted odd. The waiter was not friendly. We will not be returning.

U hired a bunch of waiters that is not happy to work! What’s the point for you to open a business? Food is good but their faces basically telling you take it or leave it.

I don’t expect much from Asian places in terms of service. This place sets a new low even for me…
Walking in, I was directed to a recently vacated table, plates and leftovers and all. They took their time clearing it, then left us with the menus for a solid ten minutes. During the meal, staff would be nowhere to be found when we needed something, or looking down at their feet or up at the ceiling instead of looking around to see if any customers need anything.
As for the food itself:
Bland. I don’t think I’ve ever had Shanghainese food that was such a perfect example of the word «mediocre».
I don’t foresee a return trip — Too many other options in the area available for the same type of food, with better service and more memorable offerings.
Oh, and gratuity included on the bill for a party of four… really?

Taste of the soup in the dumpling was sweeter than other dumplings I’ve tasted, which I didn’t mind.
What I did mind was the service. I usually don’t rate on service because food should be separate from service. There was a bug on the bottom of one of the soup dumplings. After several attempts to grab the attention of 1 out of 4 waiters, their apology wasn’t too sincere.
They seemed more interested in their big screen tv than the customers.

Walked by this restaurant hundreds of times before and somehow never noticed it. Last night, we decided to give it a try. The food was excellent genuine Shanghai cuisine. The most tender and tasty pork shoulder in brown sauce I have ever had, beating out the old Tung Shing House in Forest Hills from decades ago. And we also ordered the day’s special of Fish Head Casserole which also bested that from Tung Shing House. This is now our favorite Chinese restaurant in New York City. And the price is right. The former was $ 8.95 (?) And the latter was only $ 11.95 (?). Total bill including a soda and rice, tips and taxes came to just over $ 30 for the two of us! To top it all, it was nice ambiance and decent service when we were there around 7pm. The downstairs has a two storied ceiling so it was particularly comfortable for us dining there. I cannot wait to go back again!

As a native Shanghainese, i have been there for at least 10 times. this is THE place for a quick bite of the authentic Shanghainese snacks and dishes. The place maybe crowded during busy time, neither does it’s limited space help to make a good visual impression.
However, the food is all Worth the wait and fame, and the price is VERY reasonable!
I give ¹⁰⁄₁₀!

My mom wanted me and my dad to try out this spot in Flushing. Typical Chinese restaurant… the servers just pointed to an empty table. Me and my mom sat a bit over 10 mins until the servers realize we didn’t get any menus and a pot of tea.
Dim Sum: Mooncakes with Pork (1 is $ 1.75), Shanghai Pan Fried Pork Buns, Xiaolongbao with Pork and supposedly imported Crab meat from China ($ 10.95), Half of Chicken with dipping soy sauce, and Dried Fish
Take out: Drunken Chicken
Honestly nothing special and such a waste of money! If I want Shanghainese food, I will go to King Noodle at Whitestone is way BETTER than this C rating… smh!

A Taste of Shanghai saved me on a winter’s day!
The XLB place across the street was slammed with customers and we were super hungry and cold. Maybe I was just super hungry, but I was just so happy to fill up here on soup dumplings, scallion pancake with sliced beef, stir fried sliced rice cakes, and deep fried pork chops in black vinegar sauce. Everything was slightly better than okay. My judgment is a little off because I’m from Florida, so gimme a break. We do not even have Shanghainese restaurants where I come from, so I’m tickled just to eat it.
I did not have any issue with the service. But, I tend to be a bad judge of service because I am used to being treated like crap from wait staff.
Interesting set-​up they have at ToS— There is a narrow staircase that leads upstairs to more seating. But, the upstairs seating is more like a homemade plywood loft. Underneath the staircase is the closet bathroom. Every nook and cranny is used for space, nothing wasted.
Where we sat, we could see right into the kitchen. It was so nice to see the bustle going on back there. The main chef had a white tank top with his belly hanging out— but, he was cranking out food with a sense of urgency so what do I care.

This restaurant sucked. Their waiter is texting and chatting on their phone. They got really bad attitude and their food sucked, this is the worstr shanghai food that i had ever had.
I AM TELLING MY FRIENDS NOT TO COME THIS DUMBASS RESTAURANT

Authentic shanghai food. Small but clean. My shanghainese bf invited me to eat there. He highly recommended this restaurant. We had a great time here. Shanghai food is famous for its sweet and fresh fish and vegetable. Crispy noodle and fried bun and seasoned fish.

When the wait at Nan Xiang Dumpling House was too long, my friends suggested we go for Xiao Long Bao to A Taste of Shanghai just across the street and down the block. I was game as I had never tried the place before and considered how bad could their soup dumplings be with a name like that?
Now I know. It can be a quite different experience.
Walking in to «Taste,» the first observation is how small the dining area is. Room for a dozen tables, and maybe that amount up on the rickety-​staired second floor over the kitchen room. (No thanks) The second thing I noticed was how dirty it was. Floors unwashed. Corners caked in black grunge. Plants hanging and plainly uncared for.
We ordered the Pork/​Crab Soup Dumplings and Scallion Pancakes as a snack to hold us until dinner. They arrived promptly and looked good on both plates. The dumpling skin was thin and it was easy to see the inner broth causing the pouch bottom to sag while picking each up to place in the spoon. That just added to the anticipation. Biting the twisted tip off, the steam from the soup went into my nose and directly to the brain. Nice! Sucking out the soup was fun, although the crab elements somewhat detracted from the flavor of the beef stock. I had never tried the crab & pork alternative, and found I did not like it as much as the pure pork. The fishiness did not fit with my conception of Xiao Long Bao, although I accept that many like it that way.
The Scallion Pancake was nice and crisp with a full load of spring onion to complement the oiliness of the overall gestalt. I liked it, but could only eat half the order, and left the rest.
I would not entertain returning to A Taste of Shanghai as there are many superior options in the neighborhood. I would also suggest to management that they inspect their plants for mites, as most people prefer their food without the extra meat provided by falling micro crawlies.

As a Shanghai native, this is one of the best (if not the best) Shanghainese cuizine in Flushing. Everything is authentic and homey.
I highly recommend the Zha Jiang Mian and pork noodle soup.
I only wish they had more high-​end entrees.
On the flip side, I cannot help noticing every time I go there that the waiters would drop F-​boms loudly talking to each other in Shanghai dialect.
It feels awfully awakard, sometimes comical to hear all of those curse words in Shanghai dialect, but not when kids are around…

This place is ok for certain dishes. It’s not my go-​to restaurant for Shanghainese cuisine (that’s Nan Xiang, without a doubt), but they do have some classic Shanghainese dishes that NX doesn’t have and when I crave those, I go here. I’m not a big fan of their soup dumplings cause no one does them better than NX. If you want soup dumplings, go there.
This place is really quite good for the following dishes, however:
(1) Mung Bean Noodles — My mom made this dish all the time when I was growing up and this place makes them in exactly the same way. Well seasoned but still light. I am very surprised that they have this on their menu since it’s a traditional shanghainese dish that you don’t normally see in restaurants in the US. This just goes to show that this is a restaurant that doesn’t shy away from being 100% authentic. All the staff members are also Shanghainese, which is always a good sign. They know what they’re doing! :) (It’s also nice to be able to speak to them in your own dialect if you’re Shanghainese. They treat you like family if you do.)
(2) Ji Cai Wonton (Shepard’s Purse Wonton) — This is how wontons are traditionally made in Shanghai and they do a fantastic job making these. If you’ve never had Shepard’s Purse wontons before, you’re in for a treat!
(3) Shanghai Cold Noodles — This is the reason I frequent this place in the summer (since this dish is seasonal). They make some of the best and most authentic shanghainese cold noodles I’ve had in the nyc area.
(4) Chicken in Wine Sauce (cold dish) — Another traditional Shanghainese dish that they make quite well. I’ve had better versions of this in Shanghai but so far in the US, this is the best rendition.
So all in all, it’s not the best Shanghainese restaurant in town and not the place you want to go to for soup dumplings but if you’re in the mood for other traditional dishes, ones that are quite impossible to find elsewhere or taste «Americanized» when served elsewhere, you’ll want to come to this place. I really do love the fact that they don’t shy away from pure Shanghainese cuisine here. No attempts at making the stuff palatable to American tastebuds! So if you do come here, be in the mindset of trying authentic Shanghainese cuisine, not in the mindset of «General Tso» or «lo mein.»
(Also, they serve really yummy barley tea instead of your usual jasmine or green tea.)
Food: ⁴⁄₅ — really quite yummy depending on which dishes you order
Service: ³⁄₅ — attentive and helpful most of the time
Atmosphere: ²⁄₅ — a bit dingy (especially upstairs) and cramped but not terrible
Overall: ³⁄₅ — good

Ugh! The recent reviews on Unilocal are accurate. Service is SOOOOOO bad. I’m patient, but YEESH, this brings it to a whole new level.
We waited about 10 minutes to receive the menus.
There were 2 waiters. One waiter is more concerned with his hair and looking cool. He combed his hair at least twice during our meal. *TRUST ME* The guy was not good looking. The other waiter doesn’t understand what water is (in both English and Mandarin Chinese). I had to ask for water 3 times and asked for coke 2 times. I finally got my water about 45 minutes into my meal. I received my coke about 30 minutes after my initial request. I got charged for 2 cokes on my bill when I only received 1 coke. We ordered 1 order of soup dumplings and received 2 orders. We got charged for 2 orders of soup dumplings.
Food is definitely not as good anymore. Pork shoulder had entirely too much fat on it. Where is the meat? Their Beef Noodle Soup is horrendous. There’s no flavor whatsoever. No beef broth flavor, just water and soy sauce flavor. Seriously?
I left the restaurant angry and pissed off. It was my bf’s birthday. Enough said. ARG!