Shanghai Lee

Secretly fantastic, this place is underrated. Not like your standard Chinese take out. Plus once you get to know them, the people who work there are really nice. When I had a bad cold they gave me soup that seriously cured me.

Best in the area. Crispy tofu and broccoli with garlic sauce is a slam dunk.
Hot and sour soup is good, as are the staples like chicken/​broccoli and sweet and sour chkn. They also serve beer which is a nice option.

I wont bother writing a second review. I already did one and somehow its gone. I wont go here again.
Score 1 – 10 1 being the worst, 10 being the best
Service: (2011 – 2012): 8 (2013 – 2014) 2
Food Quality (2011 – 2012) 9 (2013 – 2014) 3
Price (2011 – 2012) 8 (2013 – 2014) 8
Dont know what happened. My last experience was so bad. Both on food and maltreatment. I will never again step foot in here.

Good food, big portion. Dinner special was 9 dollars and some cents and it comes with soup and a spring roll and rice and main. I definitely recommend this restaurant.

Flushing it ain’t but it’s the best Chinese delivery we’ve found in southern LIC. If you’re in the Vernon/​Jackson area I recommend giving it a try. I’m pleased to report that I’m very glad we did. We’ve had it twice in the past two weeks with solid success on both occasions. It’s not cheap but portions are pretty big (see photos) so we felt the prices are justified.
Fried Chicken Wings $ 4.50: Really just like regular fried chicken wings which is to say that if you like fried chicken, they’re quite tasty. I’m still not sure what makes them Chinese, though, but I don’t really care. Crispy, crunchy, salty and not too dry or greasy.
Crispy Sautéed Shredded Beef $ 15.95: I loved this dish. It says spicy but it’s not really. A sweet — but not cloyingly so — sauced is added and it’s just enough to counter the salt and spice yet not ruin the crispness of the beef.
Crispy Dry String Beans $ 9.25: This dish is awesome. Roasted string beans in garlic with salt. Virtually no oil keeps them crunchy and the garlic isn’t overwhelming. A heads up though: salt sensitive people might find it a little too salty but we did not.
House Special Lo Mein $ 9.50: Good, if not unremarkable. The noodles arrived a bit soft but hey, they’re coming from Greenpoint so who am I to complain? Good flavor.
Shanghai Duck Roll $ 3.75: Good but not great. I’m going to try other apps before I return to it.
Crystal Shrimp Dumplings $ 5.25: Good. Dipping sauce had less rice vinegar than most places making it a touch sweeter. We liked it.
Delivery: Once on the phone and once on Seamless. No hiccups either time. 45 minutes or so delivery both times and the food was piping hot.

The delivery guy was really nice, but otherwise the sesame chicken and general tso chicken was really bad and really overpriced and we were picking it apart to see how stringy it was instead of eating it. but they can make soup alright apparently.

Would love to be leaving a review their food but it hasn’t come yet. It’s been over two hours. We’ve called twice. The second time all we got was «sorry, I don’t know» and hung up. You’ve been warned.

This place is a hidden gem. I try Chinese food every where I go and this is hands down the best. I have been eating here for over 30 years. The food is delicious and affordable. This weekend I brought friends from out of state and they too agreed it was the best Chinese food they have had. Definitely beats anything in China Town. It’s a must go for anyone in the area.

Now this place may not be your typical «5 star» restaurant, because it’s not. It’s a 5 star Chinese take out. Chinese take out here in ny is basically glorified hangover food and they all pretty much taste the same like they’re all part of a franchise just with kinda different names. This place in comparison is kinda like whoa… best way I can describe it. Service was nice too as bonus. Now it does take slightly long than your normal take out but I’ll totally wait another 5 minutes for better food. This place is better than the reviews it’s getting. Some people will never get it I suppose.

Not sure what happened, but I received inedible General Tso’s Chicken. It’s supposed to be crispy but my order must have been fried six times. It was nearly impossible to cut with a knife, let alone my teeth. The broccoli was ok though?

It’s taking forever to get here!!! Better be good. Honestly never ordering from here again. That wonton soup Better be on point bc I am mad hungry and this is crazy. Where could the delivery BOI be???

The interior is too dark for my taste but the food is great. I just had a hot and sour soup and it was the best I ever had. The prices are a bit higher than other Chinese restaurants but Shanghai has a larger variety on the menu. I will definitely go back and try other dishes.

Come on, folks, this isn’t SUPPOSE to be real Chinese food.
But it’s pretty darn good Chinese take out. I order from here all the time. Food is pretty consistent, deliciously greasy, and comforting. Brown rice here is the bomb.
Delivery takes a while but they’re always really nice. Then again, the delivery guy might be nice to me ’cause I’m Asian. I only use seamless and never give my order over the phone. This is how you avoid rude servers at the restaurant. If you eat Chinese food regularly (real or not), expect to have terrible service. I apologize on behalf of my people. I suppose if you left your family to live on minimal pay in a dirty city that doesn’t speak the same language as you, you’d be pretty grumpy, too. Cut immigrants some slack. They aren’t as fortunate and damn they make yummy food.
Some of my go-to’s:
beef and broccoli
general tso’s
kung pao chicken
crispy green beans (mmm, fried veggies)
I would advise against ordering non-​Chinese items at a Chinese restaurant. Specifically, thai, curry, and other weird american items like chicken wings and calamari?

Okay, food first:
Honestly, I wasn’t that into Chinese until after I had my son. My mother ate Chinese the night she came home with me, so I decided to continue that tradition.
This led to a very intense shirt love affair with Shanghai Lee. Their crab rangoon is perfect, their brown rice is superb, and I always got sesame chicken with extra veggies — always hot, fresh, crunchy, great meat.
Sadly, we moved to Kensington where nothin has even come close! We no longer have chinese in our rotation, though I did drive up there last night and was reminded just how amazing and top notch they are!
Now to the hostess/​co-​owner: Stephanie is such a sweetheart! She was so supportive during my pregnancy, remembered our order, would always ask about the baby — this is a neighborhood place that I hope continues to prosper and grow.
If they ever wanted to come to Kensington, I would throw parties there to drum up business. I would learn how to make web sites and make them one. Whatever it takes.
I miss you, Shanghai Lee!

I’m actually one of those people who NEVER write reviews, but I was so compelled to after my horrible experience. The order took OVER TWO HOURS to be delivered! OVER TWO HOURS! When I called the restaurant to check the status of the order (at this point it was already over an hour), I was told the delivery person was on the way. Wrong. It was only another 1 hour and 15 mins that the person arrived. When I called the restaurant again, suddenly the phone was off the hook and I could not get a hold of anyone at the restaurant.
I don’t even want to give this restaurant 1 star. I’m required to give at least 1 star. If it were up to me, definitely a –1 in terms of customer service and transparency.
I was so fed up that I just called a pizza place and it took them 10 minutes to turn around my order and of course, the Chinese food was still MIA.
Please do yourself the favor and do not order from here.

Terrible service, terrible food and terrible stomach ache.
The meal started off fine. I ordered Pad Thai w Tofu and spring rolls. My boyfriend ordered beef lomein with white rice.
The waitress brought us our spring rolls, soup and such while we were waiting for our entrée.
It was all fine until the entrees came out.
The beef lo mein was typical Beef lo mein and my boyfriend was fine with that.
As for my entrée (Pad Thai w Tofu) the tofu was fried to oblivion. It was a leathery greasey stick. a top of pale noodles. Either way I decided to dig in and was met with a spicy noodle. Since when is Pad Thai with Tofu spicy!!! I looked at the menu and there was no indicator saying it was a spicy dish.
Instead of complaining I drank some tea and tried again. It was just still too spicy! I usually enjoy spice but for a noodle dish that is normally not spicy– my stomach was instantly not pleased.
I asked politely if I could possibly have something else since this was just not normally a spicy dish and my stomach was not happy. The waitress said absolutely not. I asked her if she could then try and make it less spicy. The waitress scoffed at me and said there was nothing she could do about it. I explained to her I would gladly pay for something else I just wanted to get the Pad Thai taken away and off my check (like almost every restaurant does). Instead of helping– she storms off to the kitchen and literally starts screaming!
She then comes out and gives us the check. Since I was not in the mood to argue with such a person, we paid for an barely touched meal. I am NEVER going to this place again!

I don’t think there are any fantastic Chinese restaurants in Greenpoint. However, this place is good. We only get Chinese food from here and Great Wall #1 — they both have their strengths and weaknesses.
We usually get delivery and it’s pretty fast. Standard but good Chinese-​American fare. We stick to the chicken, lo mein, mu shu dishes.

They had a really cheap lunch special. For $ 7, you get soup, a spring roll, and then rice with a protein. I got myself a General Tso’s tofu dish. Admittedly the food is just okay, and the General Tso’s sauce had this slightly off-​putting non-​Newtonian fluid quality about it, but I’d come here if I were jonesing for some cheap Chinese food, I guess.

This place is not terrible, but is the quintessential americanized chinese food take out place. Super greasy, salty and loaded with MSG. This may be the only chinese place in the area and for that, I was forced to try it. Trust me, I won’t be making that mistake again. Why have crappy chinese food when you can have exceptional food of almost any other cuisine?
Also, I felt compelled to write this review because of another review comparing this place to eat-​in places in chinatown and Flushing. It’s not even close. I eat in either Flushing or Chinatown at least once a week and this place pales in comparison. I was appalled to read that. I really struggled to understand where that statement came from and would love the chance to understand where she was coming from. And yes, I’m Chinese as well.

Don’t order from here. I have not eaten all day and was looking forward to some
Chinese food. My order took over an hour to be delivered and I am only 2 blocks away. Once I opened the food my garnishes (lettuce) were brown and wilted. My actual meal was disgusting. Had the curry noodles and calamari. I took two bites and was done with both. I tried a third bite of my noodles just because I was so hungry but could not do it. Such a disappointment and a waste of money.