Shanghai Inn

Since KowKow, our favorite Chinese closed, this is where we go for family dinners. Large servings of flavorful food with an accommodating staff. Can’t say we’re fans of the eggrolls which simply can’t compare with the large shrimp, bbq pork and vegetable ones we were used to. But, so far, this is the best replacement we have found, so far.

The food is so good. The employee are so nice. Nicest ppl in the world. I would love to come again.

Love this Chinese food! I love the cashew chicken, Mongolian beef, crab ragoons, orange chicken, empress chicken, egg foo young and their fried rice. I’m sure there is more I am not remembering. They get four stars only because they slightly burnt my take out food once. But I still ate it. I have been a customer since they used to be on Lawrence. The food is also a bit greasy but still SO good!

Incredible food. I love this place! The egg rolls are excellent, as are the pan fried noodles. Portions are great and it’s byob so it’s inexpensive.

Ordered vegetable lo mein, vegetable fried rice, and hot and sour soup. Lo mein was flavorless and not the typical noodles I had expected – very thin. The fried rice was better, but nothing too great. The hot and sour soup was way too sweet. I will try another entrée before saying no for sure, but after reading the reviews, I expected a lot more. The portions were huge though!

While the food wasn’t bad, it also wasn’t great enough to warrant the high-​for-​Chinese-​take-​out prices. I did enjoy that there were more fresh vegetables in the food I ordered than I would normally see. Is also think the portion sizes were good. When it came to the taste of my mild General Tso’s chicken and the mild Mongolian Trio, I prefer my usual go to (no longer deliver to my neighborhood) because they can remove the heat without removing the flavor.
Again for a $ 41 take out order, I’m left with an «ehh» feeling. Not sure Id order again.

Food was good. The portions are HUGE. I suggest one entrée for 2 – 3 if you can agree. Or more if you want leftovers.
Service was good.

Huge portions, great tasting food, decent prices! I am almost afraid to post this review because it is so hard to find go hidden gem like this.
We always get delivery and they always throw in free stuff (egg rolls, main dishes, etc). This place is a great neighborhood eatery. We have only ordered dinner (delivery) but the place looks nice from the outside.

Shanghai In is a good family owned restaurant, only reason i did not give them 5 stars is because of the dark chicken meat they use in there fried rice. But i was promised if i ask for white meat the next time i will get it, keep you all posted. The service is excellent and the owner (lisa) is simply amazing. Next i will try the the Mongolian beef I heard it was really
Over all, I will be going there again, I was pleased with the restaurant in the service.

This is my favorite Chinese place in Chicago. With fast delivery, reasonable prices, and the most delicious food you can’t go wrong. Not to mention the wonderfully friendly staff! We always get the potstickers, egg rolls, vegetable chow fon, and szechuan beef (we like it spicy!). If you’re looking for the perfect Chinese take out (or eat in) this is the place!

I gotta say I’m pleasantly surprised. I had no idea where to order from, so this was completely a shot in the dark. The gal on the phone was very helpful, we received the food in record time (I placed the order at 11:15, food arrived at 11:55 — exactly when they estimated) and the delivery person was friendly. To top it off, the food was excellent, considering their low prices are. Got the basics — Mongolian beef, orange chicken, lo mein, veggies with tofu — all prepared well and flavorful. We will definitely be ordering here again.

My husband and I have been looking for «our» chinese restaurant in Chicago for two years… we found it! You’d think it wouldn’t be so hard to find slightly americanized but delicious chinese food. The fried rice and lo mien is amazing. We’ve had the szechuan shrimp, egg rolls, orange chicken, general tso’s chicken, and pot stickers. SO SO delicious. The delivery was prompt and the food came to us hot! The containers were so overfilled they had to keep the lid open and wrap a bag around it so it wouldn’t fall out… talk about value. Can’t say enough good things, I want to order it daily :)

Shanghai Inn is a great place for your Chinese-​American food hankerings.
Hot and Sour soup on a winter’s day accompanied with Spicy Mongolian Beef over Rice. Can’t go wrong here. All the comfort served up by the very courteous servers at Shanghai.
Shanghai Inn really hit the spot that winter evening and the meal was rounded out with hot tea and a fortune cookie, of course!
Thanks Shanghai for all the comfort, I’ll be right back for more!

Before I begin, I would like to say that this is the first time I have ever written a review this low.
Here goes: Absolutely atrocious chicken. We ordered the orange chicken and the sesame chicken and it was easily the worst chicken I have ever had. I had a few bites and it was either over cooked or old or something but I spent $ 12 on each chicken that I immediately threw out. It was so bad that I was very tempted to call and ask for a refund. I would love to give them one star based on that alone, but there were a few pluses.
Their egg rolls and chicken fried rice were good enough to earn them an additional star. The chicken fried rice especially was really well done and they were willing to accommodate an msg allergy so it is great for that.

I really wanted to love Shanghai Inn. Chinese food is my favorite cuisine. And, I know there are Chinese food snobs out there, who don’t like «Americanized» Chinese food. I’m not one of those people. I’ll take the authentic versions and the very Americanized versions, as long as its piping hot and tasty. Well, at least I got piping hot at Shanghai Inn.
I ordered a beef and broccoli dish and an order of egg rolls. First, my beef and broccoli had a funny taste. Not like, kitchen sink/​rag funny taste, but something equally offending. It tasted like my beef and broccoli was doused in some kind of artificial smoke flavor. That’s all I could taste. Me no likey.
Second, was the egg roll. I’m realizing now that this is a real thing in Chicago. Peanut butter in egg rolls. Growing up on the east coast, I’ve never had this experience before. Yuck. It’s gross. I like the slightly salty, slightly sour taste of cabbage and pork in my egg rolls. What the hell is peanut butter doing in an egg roll? Someone else also commented on the cinnamon like taste of their egg roll. Whatever floats your egg roll boat I guess. My egg roll boat sank like the Titanic.
I would really love to find a good Chinese restaurant in Lincoln square, but I honestly don’t think one exists. I’ll just have to go back to the east coast to eat some Chinese food. For shame!

This is for the delivery portion only. Food came really quick and was MORE than enough and piping hot. Particularly go for the fried rice, General Tsao’s Chicken, and egg rolls. Will definitely be ordering again.

Shanghai Inn is a paragon of the Chinese-​American restaurant genre with instrumental Chinese folk classics playing in the background to transport immigrant children to simpler times when mom or grandmother played Chinese music while cleaning. The ever-​popular fried chicken wings have a well-​deserved reputation, perfectly seasoned with a hint of aromatic spice, crispy skin, moist meat, crunchy cartilage and bones. We also enjoyed just-​greasy-​enough beef egg foo young in a rich brown gravy and a big plate of chicken lo mein. Shanghai Inn is graciously BYOB and staffed by a wonderful lady on Thursday night who will sweetly encourage you to not waste any food and commiserate with you about the mean things your Chinese mother has said to you about your appearance.

This place was delicious. As crazy as it sounds, there won’t really any consistently good Chinese restaurants here in the city. This place proved me wrong. The food is delicious and the atmosphere is amazing. They have really good crab Rangoon that has the filling oozing out.
This is a must try.

Awesome Chinese food on the Northside. Food is tasty, not greasy, reasonably priced and service is great! Have been coming here for years, moved to the loop so I haven’t been here in awhile since we are closer to Chinatown now.
What our party of four ordered…
Crab Rangoon
2 orders of chicken wings
Beef fried rice
Shrimp fried rice
Shrimp egg foo young
Pork pan fried noodles
I forgot the name but a chef’s special combo dish that is served on a hot sizzling platter
Crab Rangoon was crispy and it had crabs in it! A lot of places just stuff it with cream cheese!
Both fried rice dishes were great and NOT greasy!
Egg foo young had great flavor, loved the sauce and they didn’t skimp on the shrimp!
Pork pan fried noodles, noodles were crispy, loves the sauce and came with a lot of pork, mushrooms and pea pods.
Sizzling platter, this had a nice smokey flavor to it. Chick was tender, huge pieces of shrimp. Flavorful dish!
Lisa is sweet and friendly, very attentive. Food came fast! All this food was only $ 90, not greasy, salty and not dumped with MSG which is an issue I have when dining in Chinatown. Will be making trips out here more often!

3.5 stars.
Eight bucks for a lunch special, hot, fast, and pretty tasty… can’t complain. Actually, I can complain – about the lack of variety among the lunch specials. They don’t offer any of my favorites, but I can still find a couple of choices, e.g. Mongolian or Szechuan chicken. Outside of the lunch specials, their fried rices are particularly good. Sesame chicken is skippable. Egg rolls are just okay but thankfully not greasy like most places.
Value is high and the staff are always pleasant.
It’s a solid occasional option, especially for colder work-​from-​home days when I want some rib-​sticking fare.