Shanghai Garden

my mom really wanted some xlb, so we landed here. it’s one of our favorites in the south bay.
we went at 12pm on a sunday and had to wait for 30 mins to get a table for 3. they are primarily set up for big parties, so i’d suggest going with a group of at least 5, though i think 1 or 2 people could also get seated fairly quickly.
we got the fish gluten puffs as always. there’s no fish in them, but the family consensus is that they’re named as such because they’re mildly fish flavored (i do mean mildly). they’re chewy and spongy, and they kind of look like beige loofahs. they’re coated in a typical brown sauce predominately made of soy sauce and some cornstarch, and set on a bed of bok choy (which is actually cut into bite sized pieces here!!).
the xlbs here are some of my favorite in the bay area. the skin is thin enough where it doesn’t feel doughy to eat, but thick enough so that it doesn’t break with all the filling inside. the meat is tender, and the soup is so flavorful. on this most recent trip, the temperature of the filling was perfect; hot but not scalding, so you could pop the whole thing in your mouth. because let’s be real, while you can suck out the soup and then eat the rest of it, it’s so much better when you get to eat it all and you don’t have a soup bomb trying to burn every surface in your mouth.
we also got an order of shen jing bao. to me, this is xlb but in panfried bun form. you have the meat and some soup, though i’m betting it’s more meat juices than soup based on the smaller quantity of liquid in these compared to in xlb. normally these are a little eh for me, but i liked them better than the xlb on this trip. the meat was super flavorful and juicy, and i loved the bao texture. perfectly fluffy and chewy, with a crispy bottom (a lot of the time the bottom looks crispy on these but it ends up being the same texture as the rest of the bao).
solid 3.5 stars. will adjust rating next time after trying some new things.

Had a couple of dishes to go and the old cooking oil spoil all the dishes on 2÷8÷2016. They have to change it way more often.

My Chinese friends, family and I could eat here every day, and we try to regularly eat there. try comfy, quick service, often a big crowd for authentic Shanghai cuisine difficult to find outside of China. Xiao long bao, sheng jian bao, dou miao (snow pea leaves) and many different kinds of soups rarely found elsewhere.

It’s my first time eating at Shanghai Garden and I have a pretty good experience. May be because we are here early (5.20pm) when the store was not super busy yet, so the waitress was super friendly and gave us some good recommendation. They also bring their food out of the kitchen pretty quickly which was plus.
As many people stated, they do have a big portion for their food. So please don’t over ordered and stuffed yourself like a thanksgiving turkey. For our dinner service, we ordered, Xiaolongbao (小籠包), sheng jian bao (生煎包), drunken chicken (醉雞), Cabbage with meat, minced shepherd’s-purse with tofu, and some soup.
Personally I think the sheng jian bao was alright, not super good. Also they used the same ingredient for the mean as xiao long bao, just used different dough and different method to cook it. So both tasted really similar. Not a let down, but I don’t think it’s that fantastic like everyone else stated. It’s alright dish.
As for appetizer Drunken Chicken and minced shepherd’s-purse with tofu. These two are traditionally Shanghai appetizer you can find in every shanghai restaurant. The drunken chicken it’s a bit over-​cooked, therefore, the meat it’s a bit too dry. Other than that the flavor was pretty good. As for minced shepherd’s-purse with tofu, you are mainly tasting the shepherd’s-purse. To be honest, they could of minced the dishes a bit more, because the traditional way you wont see a piece of tofu or shepherd’s-purse that are bigger than they sell it in the store.
Overall, I do have a great experience at this place. The taste it’s pretty good, but I wouldn’t say fantastic. Would recommend to come here early, otherwise you might be waiting in line for more than an hour.

Hot noodle soup is pretty bad…
Qq noodle is just several block away. I feel regretted not going there
In addition the shengjianbao used to be excellent (mid of 2015) stuffed with a lot of juicy pork but now the stuffing shrinks a lot and not juicy any more… So sad… Will not visit again

Go here quite often. There aren’t a ton of shanghainese restaurants in the area, and this one is decent. The food’s pretty good, they give big portions (for most dishes aside from the shanghainese noodles), and it’s not too expensive.
The choifan is good and usually not too salty, and the sweet and sour fish is also good.

I have to say that I am slightly disappointed in Shanghai Garden. Shengjianbao is one of my favorite dishes ever and the version here did not live up to my expectations. Yes, it had a decent amount of soup inside but the wrapper was too doughy. If you’ve gotten these on the side of the road in Shanghai, you’ll know what I’m talking about.
The xiaolongbao had a good amount of soup as well but the flavor was rather bland.
We also ordered Lion’s Head Meatballs, which were ok as well.
Honestly, everything was just ok.

This place has good food, good prices, big portion sizes and the typical Chinese restaurant service. We especially like the Shanghai-​nese noodles (上海粗炒麵), fried fish fillet with seaweed (苔條魚片), soup dumplings (小籠包), and fish gluten (魚麵筋) — which is a horrible translation, but its consistency is like fish-​tofu and is really good! Overall, the food is authentic and tastes good, and we typically end up with quite a bit to take home as well.
Service is hit or miss — one of the ladies (who seemed like the boss) was very attentive and helpful, some of the other waiters were apathetic and prone to forgetting what you asked them for.
The restaurant itself is not particularly clean (the tables and chairs can be sticky or stained), and is super cramped. They even have seats where you basically have to climb over other people to get to, but I guess whatever works to get as many people seated at once?
If you want to avoid the long wait (be diligent about which place you are on the list — they like to call out party sizes instead of the name associated with your party), you can call ahead and order take out. I’ve also seen people say they have a reservation, but I don’t know if they have any limit on that or how far in advance you would have to call.
Overall, a great place for Shanghai-​nese food at a great price. It is a very popular location, especially on weekends, so expect a wait.

Location:
This is on Homestead in the complex with the McDonalds.
Décor:
It has a few small tables and a couple of big tables. It gets very crowded and there is not a lot of space. I would suggest coming early.
Food & Drinks:
This place USE to be very good. This year I went with my mom, like I do every year, and it just seems to get worse and worse. We usually order the eel in brown sauce and the gluttonous fish balls with veggies. Each year the order of these two gets smaller and the taste gets worse. The eel is super salty and oily with not much flavor. The fish balls get smaller and the taste of this one gets more bland. Both dishes are also getting smaller! The only saving grace for me was we ordered a fish cold dish that was really tasty. I am not sure if we are going to come here next year, but my mom really loves Shanghai food. I will check next year to see if anything else pops up.
Be careful what you order here my friends!

Tl;Dr: Authentic Chinese food in an (authentically) noisy and busy restaurant.
Food: There are a couple things we always get when my family comes. Their sheng jian bao are nice and juicy on the inside and the skin is crispy on the bottom. Anything with the fish gluten is good. The Dong Po Pork is tender and flavorful. Those are the go to things we always order. Other than that, most of the other menu items are also solid choices.
Store: They’re always crowded because their food is amazingly good. If you don’t make a reservation and you want to come during peak hours, expect a little bit of a wait.
Service: a lot of Chinese places aren’t known for their service but that’s not a point of contention for me. They are busy so people tend to find their service lacking. They have a lot of customers so they typically only stop by for taking your order, ladling soup, and at the end.

My go to place for takeout! We probably order from here once or twice a month. I love the Shanghai noodles as well as the rice cakes they have here. I clearly love carbs…
Standard Chinese/​Shanghai food as well as others that cater to the western palette. The mapo tofu, Mongolian beef, pepper beef (forgot the exact name), eggplant in garlic sauce, green onion pancake, with the Shanghai style noodles is our standard order. We usually never venture out from these few dishes because we love them!
I’ll be sure to try something new next time! I’ve never actually eaten here, just take out.

This is for their dinner banquet service/​menu.
We made a reservation for 18 people on a Friday night to celebrate my brother’s graduation. We were seated on time and were given good service throughout the night, which isn’t easy for a party of 18 at any restaurant, especially a Chinese one.
As far as the menu goes, I thought the price was very fair and the food was tasty. Most of our guests enjoyed the food and had plenty of leftovers. The standouts were the Soup, the veggie rice, the braised pork belly, the tofu, and the pan fried baos. I would love to go back and order a la carte so I can try more casual dishes.
The restaurant was extremely busy on that Friday night and there was a long line from the time we got there (7PM) to the time we left a few hours later. I would definitely make a reservation if you can.

Probably my favorite Chinese food in the South Bay. Pan fried soup buns are hard to find anywhere else and they do them really well here. Dragged a friend here and he says he likes them better than the soup dumplings; I’m inclined to agree.
Soup dumplings are all the rage, but sheng jian bao are secretly better. Plus you can actually take some home and they’ll still be 90% as good.

The dishes here are quite tasty. From dan dan noodles, pan fried dumplings, lamb soup, fish with wine sauce, fish gluten, to chicken tail greens (bok choy sprouts) the selection is good and always satisfies. Solid four star restaurant!

Shanghai Garden, where the customer is always… secondary to what suits us.
I went in at 1:50 PM for lunch which seemed perfect because their stated hours are until 2:30 PM.
I stood waiting to get seated for a few minutes. Workers were visible at one of the dining tables preparing beans and doing a very good job of ignoring me. «The hostess must be someone else. Be patient and wait for the hostess» I commanded myself, still doing a decent job on my New Year’s resolution to give people the benefit of the doubt.
Suddenly one of the bean snappers looked over, seemed annoyed, and shouted across the restaurant «Only 1?» Yes, I nodded. She waved in the general direction of a two top.
Before I got there she said «Cleaning kitchen now. OK to wait 15 or 20 minutes?»
No, I nodded. Turned around and left.
Why two stars? Hey, I give them credit for letting me know there would be a 15 — 20 minute wait, at least, before they even started my food. Even though it was well within their stated hours. I actually appreciate the fact that they were upfront about it.
Doubtful I’ll go back and give them another chance because I can’t stand blatantly bad customer service; I could have overlooked any one of those things… taking several minutes to greet me at the door… while workers were visible… yelling across the restaurant to wave me to a table… then not actually being open during normal business hours… but all happening together tells me this is probably an inherent problem that starts at the top.

Service here is so-​so but the food’s delicious. They’re generally busy at dinnertime so be sure to get here early (esp during the weekends). They have large round tables which can accommodate a group or family outing. A few favorite dishes worth coming back for:
+ pan fried juicy pork buns (生煎包)
+ shanghai noodles
+ pork/​veggie rice cakes
+ vegetable salted pork rice
Despite popular demand, I’d pass on the Lions Head meatballs next time (aka extra large meatballs); they didn’t have much flavor IMO. But all in all, good food, a lot to choose from in their menus, and they take credit card! I’ll be back!

I came here with some friends for some good Shanghainese food. My knowledge of Shanghainese is limited apart from the soup dumplings (xiao long bao) so I got introduced to a lot of cool dishes thanks to my knowledgable friend.
Dishes we ate:
Rice cakes: they were made differently than the ones I’m used to. They were covered in some sort of oil sauce and had greens on them. I actually quite liked this dish since it didn’t just taste like the usual brown sauce.
Squash with egg yolks (?): there was this different type of squash that had these yellow particles on the squash. Quite good, added a little bit of crunch and saltiness to the dish.
Pork belly: I’m not a huge fan of pork belly in general but this dish seemed a bit more meaty than usual. It was also on the sweeter side.
Cold chicken: I also usually don’t like this dish but I thought the sauce that came with it made it all better. I think the sauce had sesame oil in it which was why I liked it.
Fried rice: there was a BUG in this dish. UGH. When we confronted the waitress she gave us a lot of attitude about it. She thought the bug must have nested with the vegetables but she made it seem like it was no big deal. Eventually we got them to comp the rice but it was a lot of arguing back and forth in Mandarin.
Soup dumplings: pretty tasty, one of the better ones we’ve tried in the area. They’re fat and juicy.
They tend to break pretty easily though so be careful.
I thought overall the flavor profiles were quite good. Nothing spicy. The bug in the rice was a bit unfortunate. Also in general service is non existent.

How this place only has 3.5 stars overall, I don’t know. But I really did enjoy my meal here with a friend, considering the restaurant seems like a hole-​in-​the-​wall kind of place. Everything we had was tasty!
The two of us ordered and shared:
*Shanghai Dumplings (Xiao Long Bao): I’ve had XLBs in SoCal, and I have this say, Shanghai Garden hits this one spot. on. Just trust me and order this one when you’re here. You’ll like it.
*Shanghai Thick Noodles with Pork & Cabbage: I was craving some sort of soy-​sauced noodle dish, and this hit the spot. The noodles were udon-​like, and the pork was well-​seasoned and oh so very tasty. My mouth is watering from recounting this dish as I draft their review. Highly recommended.
*Shanghai Pan Fried Pork Buns: A variant of XLBs in that the exterior dough is pan fried and similar to Vietnamese banh bao. The inside is stuffed with the same pork mix as the Shanghai dumplings. I wasn’t really a fan of the exterior dough (too doughy for me), but my friend really likes this dish, so it really comes down to personal preferences. If you’re on the edge, I’d say order it to check it out for yourself and see if you like it. Personally I just think the XLBs were superb, and this pales in comparison.
Parking is in a small private lot. Lunch/​dinner rushes do exist, so plan accordingly to wait. Good place for families and groups though, as they do have traditional round tables there.
Do not expect any service. It’s your standard sit-​order-​drop food-​take bill Chinese restaurant.

This Wednesday, we drove to the South Bay for lodging before our early morning flight. Along the way, we stopped @ Shanghai Garden of Cupertino for some juicy dumplings.
Don’t let the Unilocal rating fool you! Shanghai Garden is real deal Shanghai fare! The XLB were fairly large and, aside from the giant XLB of San Gabriel, were the juices dumplings I’ve ever had.
The pan fried pork buns (sheng jian bao — pictured at the top) were also quite memorable balanced… not too crispy or soggy on either side.
The perfect California send-​off for a three week out-​ofbody experience that is Japan.

This place has always been packed when I come for dinner.
I order the Sheng jian Bao, which are a must try if it is your first time. The soup was quite hot and the skin is really thick. I also love the string beans with pork here. They are never over fried and retain the perfect amount of juices although they are slightly oily. The rice cakes here are quite chewy and filling.
We sat right next to the cash register so our service was excellent. They won’t really check up on you unless you wave them down, so don’t feel shy if you want a refill on your water or if your dish hasn’t come out yet.