Shanghai Garden

As this place has regretfully closed since I last ate here, this (posthumous) review is mostly for my own records.

Came here for a friend’s birthday to feast at a particular local favorite of his.  As is typical for Chinese restaurants there is a particularly large menu that can be rather difficult to navigate, but my friend did have a very particular set menu he adhered to that he considered of good quality (in his opinion, which I respect greatly).  Deviating from this set menu led to mixed results.

Of the food we ate most were fairly staple Shanghainese dishes, like shenjianbao, shepherd’s purse rice cakes, braised pork.  I didn’t catch quite everything we managed to eat but everything was quite tasty and authentic in my eyes.  

It’s a bit of a shame that they’re now closed since the food did have legit offerings, but it seems the location has swiftly changed hands so hopefully whatever takes its place does equally good food at a good price.

My recollection of this restaurant involves decent food, if not above average, and large portions at reasonable prices. During my recent visit, I found their food to be slightly uninspiring. We ordered the following:

Fuqi feipian – larger than typical slices make this both too much of a mouthful to enjoy and visually unappetizing

Fish fillet with green vegetables – plentiful amount of fish, however, under seasoned

Lamb with green onion – this dish was the standout and was the first to be finished

Parking in abundance as the larger parking lot accommodates customers for all the businesses in the shopping center. Don’t expect a lot of help from staff as English is not their first language. Also, they’ve gone with printed menus and no longer have their laminated menus with photos to help you choose.

In hoping that the kitchen had an off day, I’ll revisit at a later time as it’s usually a good backup plan in case the more popular neighboring restaurants are packed.

Good take out place for 生煎包！ I also like to get frozen 小笼包 and make it at home, been ordering once a month

A lot of Chinese restaurants start out really good, then they got complacent, then quality and service go down.  Unfortunately this restaurant also falls into this category.  Today I called to order something for takeout, the lady who picked up the phone hang up on me three times, and when she finally picked up, she was rude.  A big probability is that she is busy, which is quite understandable, but she is also impatient, which is not a quality to have when taking phone orders.  So here is the one star and I hope their management can pay some attention.

I haven’t been to Shanghai Garden for some time with the pandemic, so I was looking forward to coming with my friends.  One of my Chinese friends had never been here and said she was very particular.  The food was even better than I remembered, and the portions were very large.  We had a feast!  We got both of the juicy dumplings, sweet and sour spareribs. General Zhou tofu, green beans, and fried fish with seaweed.  I would recommend all of them and am looking forward to going back soon!

It was a Saturday night, and they allowed me to make a reservation for 4 which they haven’t done before.  The restaurant wasn’t crowded and I didn’t need the reservation.  Please visit them and support them!