Shanghai 1930

WHaT?! THis place closed? Gee I wonder if it was it the HIGH prices or the VERY small portions that lead to this place’s not soon enough demise?
Hmmmmmmmmmm

Two parts review: (1) The food and (2) the entertainment.
Dinner at the Shanghai 1930 was one of the best dining experience I had in San Francisco. Although they don’t have much of vegan dishes on the menu, the chef made us some vegan Shanghai dishes. The food did have the Shanghai «look» and «taste». We paired them with a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon «X Clones» 2006 limited release which we got from our Napa trip from Charles Krug (the oldest winery in Napa). It was just great.
Our table provided a great view of the jazz band — who were out of this world! I just love the live Jazz band. They had a Jazz trio: Woodwind and brass (he played Sax and trumpet), a pianist, and a singer. The instrumentalists are very improvisational, expressive, emotional, and highly melodic.
The reason why it doesn’t get my 5^th star is because they do not list the vegan dishes on the menu.
Overall, I couldn’t have been happier. Thumbs up to this one!
Waidy

We didn’t have dinner here as was our original plan. We made it as far as the bar/​lounge area and couldn’t stay long enough to order a drink. First of all we were waiting for over 15 minutes before anyone could even be bothered to ask if we’d like a drink. Seriously?!! There were a total of 8 people in the entire area, certainly not a «crowd» by any stretch. As it turned out it was fine we didn’t order, the chairs were HORRIBLE. Think cheap whore house waiting area. While I’ve never been to one this is what I imagine their seating would be comparable to. That and the skanky ass carpeting! Totally disgusting! Who in the hell is so chep they can’t replace a small area of carpet? GROSS.
We will make it back as the food supposedly to die for.

Had a business lunch this Monday. It was not crowded at all. Service was quite good, although the first group of menus they brought out were not their lunch menus. We had to ask if there were any «lunch specials» before they brought us the lunch menus, which had better prices on many of the same dishes (not sure if this was an oversight, or an intentional attempt to get us to spend more).
The food quality was excellent. I had a sliced beef filet dish that was served with a tasty won ton soup, and accompanied by fried rice and green beans in a garlic black-​bean sauce. The ingredients all worked well together, and the beef was prepared perfectly. The lunch was $ 15.95, which is pricey for an everyday business lunch, but very reasonable for what it was. I would recommend this place for a good quiet business lunch during the week.

I’ve been wanting to come by Shanghai 1930 for quite some time to check out the jazz. I’ve finally had the chance to stay close to that area and didn’t have to worry about parking so my husband and I took a stroll to Shanghai 1930 just in time for their jazz to start.
I am really disappointed. I wasn’t expecting much in quality for the food, but we did order some food and was extremely overpriced for what it was.
One small bowl of Hot and Sour soup $ 7 (for one person) (taste = awful, I could have gotten several bowls from Panda Express for the price I paid)
One order of the chili broth dumplings $ 14 (taste = ok)
One order of the glazed short ribs $ 15 (taste = ok)
One order of peking duck $ 38 (taste = sure, dry but ok, pricey)
One shot of lafroig $ 10 (price = average)
One shot of ardbeg $ 10 (price = average)
One glass of chandon (tasted like it had gone bad) $ 11 (price average, but think this bottle must have been opened for a while)
A total of $ 124 after taxes and gratuity for only two people.
Ambiance: dim lighting, cute booth seatings, but not definitely not Shanghai 1930’s décor. It’s not much different from PF Chang’s décor.
Multiple small flies were invading our food in this dim lighted booth. Not sure where they were coming from, but one landed in the glazed shortribs which was brown and my husband decided to smash it down with a fork which we then couldn’t find the corpse anymore. I’m pretty sure he was able to smash it as the little legs of the sucker was stuck in the sticky sauce after landing in it and I didn’t see it fly away. A bit disgusted what might be found if I took a bright flashlight and look into what’s actually in the brown glazed sauce after eating so many of these ribs before seeing the flies around us.
Waiters:
Good waiter, attended us timely and even assembled the peking duck in front of our table for ease.
The jazz: I went here primarily for the jazz. A friend once told me that she went here for lunch and the food was gross, but could be just lunch that was bad. Didn’t expect much for the food anyway. But, the jazz group playing that night kept taking breaks. Played one song for 5 minutes and took a break, a long break 15 minutes. We were there for over an hour and only heard 3 songs. I’m not too sure if this group should have been categorized as jazz music either. Playing Michael Jackson’s «Billy Jean» is not exactly jazz.
A expensive mistake on my part, but at least I can I say I’ve been there now and experienced it, although not a pleasant one.

A random mixture of themes… Chinese food with Jazz music, an underground entrance, a blue bar (the wall is lit blue) and a private cigar lounge off to the side.
I ordered dim sum off the bar menu which ranges in price from $ 5-​$ 13 per choice. I liked the dim sum, but it was rather weird eating it to jazz music… the moods didn’t mix for me… too much going on. I would go back, but probably just for drinks.

Two words: Beggar’s Chicken
My boss had been raving about the Beggar’s Chicken at Shanghai 1930 to our mutual client and I for two years! We finally finally caved and decided to try the Beggar’s Chicken after an afternoon meeting.
The Beggar’s Chicken has to be pre-​ordered at least 24 hours in advance and a credit card has to be put down as a deposit.
The chicken is cooked in a clay-​type dough shell and stuffed with herbs and spices. When the chicken is served, you are given an amulet to break the shell open to get to the delicious chicken. The chicken is so tender, it melts in your mouth. The flavor is fantastic! Mmmmmm I want some now! I believe the chicken is so tender because it is steamed in the shell for hours and thus all of the moisture is trapped inside.
The Beggar’s Chicken was FAR from a disappointment. It is a fun item to order as you get to break open the shell to reveal the delicious dish.
We all loved the Beggar’s Chicken. All of the hype was true!

This is probably the BEST Chinese food we’ve ever had. (My husband is Japanese and he LOVES it!) They have amazing dim sum, and the chicken with black bean and lotus is our fav. GO FOR DINNER, WEEKEND NIGHT (But not Sundays, they are closed) You’ll get the dimly lit, Raiders of the Lost Ark dining room feel with live jazz-​way more fun!
The dining room is totally cool, totally jazz club with the 1930s décor and the red booths. Service impeccable, food outstanding-​it may actually be one of our favorite restaurants in the US!
Been several times and will be back.

The Shanghai 1930 Restaurant & Jazz Lounge was founded in 1997 & aspires to be a cosmopolitan restaurant, evocative of Shanghai in 1930, hence the name. They serve fusion dishes w/​the tastes of the East & West.
W/​almost 12,000 square feet of space, they offer several intimate rooms & areas, including their Blue Bar & members-​only cigar bar, the GuanXi (connections, in Mandarin Chinese) Lounge.
The Blue Bar was featured on Cocktail Kings, an internationally syndicated show on the Discovery Network.
The GuanXi Lounge is separated from the restaurant proper & provides three separated sitting rooms.
Live jazz is played everyday sans Sunday. Showtimes are Monday through Thursday 7pm to 11pm & Friday & Saturday 8pm to midnight.
Some of the menu is definitely an East-​West amalgam w/​dishes like Neptune’s Hot & Sour Soup & Primavera Chicken Soup. The décor is nice & intimate, but a bit «oriental art museum-​esque».
The food is moderately expensive, but is outstanding in taste. I especially liked their ironically named Beggar’s Chicken (which required 24hr advanced ordering), which cost $ 38.00. Maybe they had wealthy beggars (like bankers & executives looking for bailouts) in mind… :O
Santa’s Unilocaler sez: «Cool but loud music, yummy food, & nice waitress!»

I really wanted to like the restaurant, but it just gave me the heebie jeebies.
The emptiness at noon. The strange music. The The ultra-​westernized menu (primavera chicken soup? savory chicken breast deluxe?). The non-​Chinese server that couldn’t explain the difference between «hot» and «spicy» items listed.
I had the set menu of potstickers and red chili prawns with wok-​fired leeks. They were served with eggplant and fried rice. I’m not about to lie – the food was solid. The shrimp and pork potstickers were big, juicy, and flavorful. The prawns were well-​seasoned and well-​cooked (not as in overcooked but as in beautifully shaken in a lightly-​oiled wok). They were, however, not worth $ 16.
Granted this isn’t a lot of money but it’s lot of money vis-​a-​vis Panda Express for dare I say the same kind of Chinese of slightly higher quality. I’d take R & G Lounge (
) over Shanghai 1930 any day – it’s western-​influenced, not western-​wannabe.

Came back last Friday for a repeat. I ordered the exact same thing because I’m too afraid to stray. Food is still good the second time around.
$ 3 for a soda. Holy moly. But only because I think in HH prices where $ 3 can get me a beer.

I’ve been here several times and every single visit has been consistently good! My first visit here was with my husband and mother-​in-​law for happy hour. We ordered a few drinks and appetizers and our bill came up to over a hundred dollars…
I had so much fun during my first visit especially since they had a jazz band playing.
I’ve been back several times for lunch during the work week. I love that they have a $ 13.95 lunch special which includes an appetizer or soup and a main entrée with steamed or fried rice. Today, I ordered the firecracker chicken with fried rice and it was delish as always! It was also way too much food for me which means I won’t have to cook dinner tonight! yay!
I will def be back! As a matter of fact, we’re hosting a work event here next month. Parking is OK — they have metered parking during the week and a few parking garages close by.

This is hands down a great experience. Great bar, and excellent food. The key like any Chinese restaraunt is knowing what to order. Having read the other reviews, I would say based on what they ordered, I would have the same experience.
Order these items and you cant go wrong
egg white fried rice
ma po tufo –this is spicy
firecracker chicken
shalombo dumplings-​soup dumplings-​ask the server how to eat or you will burn yourself
peking duck is awesome
Excellent place if you know how to order. Give it another shot.

Last week, we went to this place with a large group of co-​workers for dinner, and it was quite a treat! I recommend the Dragon Tea mixed drink — yummy! We ordered an assortment of appetizers, and I highly recommend the calamari (big pieces lightly and perfectly fried) and the short ribs (tender and very tasty). We had a large group so we ordered in sections for our main courses and shared, but what was most memorable was the scallops (soft and perfectly cooked) and the garlic noodles with prawns (tasty!).
When all was said and done and we all split the bill, our total came out to $ 62 each which was quite reasonable for all that we ate and all that we drank. The service was quick and our meal was well-​coordinated and timed. For a future special occasion or out for dinner with a large group again, I would definitely come back.

This is the Chinese food I’ve dreamed of. Seriously. Getting good Chinese food in Portland is impossible. Even the good places or just ok. But this place was amazing!
Great cocktails. Great staff. Wonderful atmosphere. It felt like an old 1930’s club. Hence the name?
They also had a really great live Jazz band playing.
But the food was awesome. Tons of options. Interesting choices and it was all soooooooooooo wonderful. I’m probably overstating a bit simply because I was so happy to have such great Chinese food!

The service here SUCKED.
For one, they only gave us the set menu menu! We sat around (first time) and didn’t even know they tried to trick us on the expensive set menu first!
After seeing that there was a variety of food on other tables, we asked and behold, there was an actual lunch menu. ASK FOR THE LUNCH MENU.
Two. The waiter was kinda of a jerk — really condescending and when my friend asked if she could substitute one of the appetizers for a spring roll, the guy literally rolled his eyes and sighed. Wow!
Three. When my other co-​worker was asked «white or fried rice» and responded with «a little of both?» the waiter almost had a cow — sighed, shook his head and with a touch of being reluctant, did so. c’mon, you’re going to patronize a patron on rice? You’re already charging us $ 13.95 for a real boring lunch combo. App and rice plate lunch. Nothing super special — not even a free drink or dessert.
But I will say some of the dishes that came out were good. My black bean chicken actually was authentic and good. It came with a side of stir-​fried eggplant. That was tasty. Others that looked good were the sweet and sour pork (above par) and the firecracker chicken. The fish pillows — I heard — were doused with too much white wine and not burned off, so there was a hint of bitterness and lunch hour buzz.
To be honest, there are a lot of places that serve great Chinese food. But at that price, one would expect way better service. The service really turned me off and yeah, in recognition of the theme, it wanted me to Shanghai the heck outta there.
Boo. Not coming here again.

Big drinks, great live music, good ambiance, and decent food.
Food:
We went in a group of 14 and pretty much got 2 of a bunch of entrees to split. For appetizers, we started off with minced duck in lettuce petals (couldn’t really taste the duck, overpowered by celery and olives), the shaolung bao which was ok, the peking duck which was ok, the thousand year old egg with roasted peppers which was good, and the thousand layer bread steamed and fried. The fried version tasted 100x better than the steamed.
For the main entrees, we got something chicken (ok), black pepper steak «kow» (tender), fish pillows (couldn’t taste the fish), three coins in a fountain scallops, and the garlic prawns marco polo and noodles accompanied by white rice and the fried rice. The scallops were good and the garlic prawns and noodles were really good and garlic-​y (and I wish it didn’t come out last as we were stuffed by that time). The fried rice I found bland and really oily.
Overall the food was decent. I liked the scallops, the thousand year old egg, and the garlic prawns and noodles best. Service was good, always there to refill water and ask if we wanted another drink.
Drinks:
They had an interesting drink menu with the likes Dragon Tea with wasabi vodka to Absinthe. Overpriced? yes. Big? most. Tasty? some.
Live Music:
The live music was pretty good. It started off at a decent volume then got louder and louder as the night went on. People were dancing on the dance floor too.
I give it a ³⁄₅ because I thought for the price, the food could have been better and because of the cold air blasting from who knows where. No, it wasn’t coming from outside through the doors because it was warmer outside. I think the cold air would have been nice if the place was completely filled with people dancing, and not eating.
Good for groups if you want to try a lot. Good for dates if you want a nice ambiance and a not so packed place to dance.
Went on Aug 8, 2008

Awesome… if you have money to burn. And don’t mind paying triple the price for overpriced dim sum you could have gotten for less than $ 3 at the shop down the street. Or – if a company funds your entire meal :)
The food is pretty tasty, so 3 stars, but nothing that you couldn’t get from a standard Chinese restaurant. Sure, the décor is nice. But if you’re looking for an ambient dining atmosphere, I’d recommend Roy’s or Chaya Brasserie (see my other reviews).
TIP: You don’t need to subject yourself to overpriced Chinese food when you can get it elsewhere. Remember that authentic Chinese food is all over San Francisco!

Anyone remember Nancy Kwan? …No, not Michelle Kwan… Nancy Kwan
She’s still quite alive, but back in the sixties — man oh man — she was like a Chinese Ann-​Margret, a sex kitten who enjoyed being a girl in front of that three-​way mirror in «Flower Drum Song». In that movie, she worked in a Grant Avenue nightclub where she memorably showed off her ta-ta’s with a couple of folding fans that closed up in quick succession…
«In the ice box, you’ll find in a can
Some leftovers of Moo Goo Gai Pan.
Fan Tan Fanny has found a new guy.
His name is Manny, He’s good for Fanny,
So goodbye Danny, Goodbye!
Bye bye! Bye bye! Bye bye! (…and the fans flip up to show off her breasts on the last ‘Bye bye!» as the ching-​chong music plays in the background)
Why am I bringing this up? I haven’t a clue. Oh yeah… because Shanghai 1930 needs a bikini-​clad Nancy Kwan-​type to lead a bevy of Chinatown kewpie dolls high-​kicking to the strains of «Fan Tan Fanny». That’s my long-​winded way of saying the place has gotten a bit stale. When it first opened, I loved coming here because of the novelty of the place… walking down the curving stairs into what looks like a fancy, darkened opium den. It’s still the same set-​up nearly a decade later, and maybe the lack of change is what gets to me here.
Newcomers may like the blue-​light atmosphere, and the bar is nice-​size for larger parties with the appropriate umbrella drinks to wet your whistle. I came here for lunch today with my friend Debbie after a long absence. Without a reservation, we still got seated at our own booth since we were early for lunch. One of their dependable stand-by’s is the $ 12 Triple Steamer, which are three stacked baskets of dim sum dumplings, a total of twelve in all. They take ten minutes to prepare and come piping hot. Their hot mustard adds a nice kick.
We also had the $ 12 Minced Duck in Lettuce Petals, which is a savory treat that includes bits of water chestnuts, celery, shiitake mushrooms and Kalamata olives, all scooped onto an iceberg lettuce leaf and accompanied with a not-​too-​sweet plum sauce. Finally, we shared a plate of the $ 13.95 Hong Kong Pan-​Fried Noodles which was mixed with slices of chicken breast, snow peas and mushrooms. Pretty tasty with a surprisingly light sauce. The best part is that It came with three fried chicken wings. Even the steamed rice was good.
So why the long face? Maybe it was the predictability of the menu after all these years. Maybe it was the server who refused to acknowledge Debbie’s desire for a bun browned on the top (too much to ask… I guess). Maybe it was the busboy who filled my empty glass of Diet Coke with iced tea. There’s just something a little too by-​the-​numbers about the place now. Nothing that Nancy couldn’t fix with her fan dance. Bye bye! (zing…zing)
FOOD — 4 stars… the food is good, just kinda ho-​hum after such a long run of the same dishes… they need to freshen that menu
AMBIANCE — 5 stars… this is their key distinction still… they even have a jazz combo play in the evenings and a private cigar lounge for the exclusively invited
SERVICE — 3.5 stars… by-​the-​numbers
TOTAL — 4 stars… tough call, but 4 stars barely… shake ‘em up, Fan Tan Fanny!

So, is this a Jazz Bar or a Chinese restaurant? Both.
ATMOSPHERE: The entire restaurant is in the basement floor, so there are NO windows. After going down the stairs, you will see a good size bar area with live music. The dining space is in the other half of the restaurant with many comfortable booth seats. I’ve never visited Shanghai in 1930, but the atmosphere here is supposed to reflect a night scene during that era.
SEATS: I like the bar seating area, where there are many full size tables. You could order anything from the menu and you get a pretty good service, too. While the music may flow into the main dining room, you need to sit in the bar area to really appreciate the performance.
Happy Hour: Until 7 PM. $ 5 bottled beers. $ 6 glass of wine. $ 7 drinks. Happy hour food deals aren’t that great.
FOOD: Hit and miss. I liked their Three-​Layer Steamer ($ 12.50), which came with 3 types of dim sum items. Chili Calamari ($ 9) was average. Potstickers ($ 7.50) were also average. I really did not their Twice Cooked Pork ($ 14) which I felt used really bad quality pork with lots of fat. They also charged $ 2 for each bowl of rice. For most of the dishes, I felt that the portion size was small.
PRICE: Since the dishes were so small, prices are on the high side. However, if you consider the entertainment and ambiance, it’s not too bad.
This place is not a bad place to know. Yoshi’s in Oakland has famous performers with the full band on a real stage charging money in a separate room from the restaurant. At Shanghai 1930, performance is free. Music wasn’t too laud, so we were able to hold a conversation and eat a full meal while enjoying the music in the bar. I was surprised to see this unique place receive so many poor ratings My guess is that real Chinese food fans get upset when they see high end places charging $$$. Why is it always a crime to provide good ambiance with Chinese food?