John’s Shanghai

Restaurant is very definitely closed — no signs of moving, nothing to indicate restaurant was ever there.
The only problem is that their website lives on, without any mention of the closure of the restaurant. Don’t get fooled, the place is not open and not there.

HORRIBLE service.
We ordered peking style pork chop and the waiter served us salt and pepper pork chop. When we said that we didn’t order this, he aggressively told us that this is what we ordered. After arguing back (not sure why we even needed to argue, if we didn’t order it then we didn’t order it), he finally took the plate back to get it replaced. He comes back a few minutes later with the peking style pork chop. We realized that he just put the sauce right on top of the salt and pepper pork chop and called it a day. We left paid and did not tip. The wait comes our chasing us that we didn’t tip him. Ridiculous.

I haven’t eaten here in a long time but every time I have its been delicious. I usually get sweet and sour chicken and crab rangoon. My family likes the sweet and sour soup which is not made with pork which is a bonus for them. They have brown rice too.

Closed!!! Used to have good soup dumplings and was good Chinese food.
It was a great place for a quick lunch or bite before a show. Too bad it is closed. I hope it comes back.

Tried to go to dinner at John’s Shanghai on Friday and found out it is closed, empty and some of the fixtures ripped out.
Does anyone know why? It was one of our favorite restaurants before going to the theater.

Grossest food ever. Boneless ribs were strips of God knows what, Crab rangoon was two nachos put over a slab of God knows what, and the egg roll was more like an egg ball… of God knows what. tossed everything. it also took forever to get here. Gross!

We went there during my first trip to NYC, service was fast and the food was good. The spring rolls were very tasty, but a little bit greasy. I ordered the chicken and broccoli, good size portion and very good tasting.

The meal was fresh and sizzling when it reached my table. Great environment, loved the lighting. Finished it off with an optimistic fortune cookie after the dish. Good vibes

Presentation is ½ the game even with a takeout order. Im not a fan of their soup dumplings compared to Joe’s Shanghai but I was desperately hungry and tasted two burst dumpling that weren’t even hot – ehh but then realized the cabbage leaves were not washed! So I ended up throwing the dish away. I bravely ventured on to the mild temperature chicken and brocolli and wasnt impresses. Im sorry I cheated on you Joe.

Came to this place because it’s near to Times Square. Food is amazing. I ordered pork chop with peking sauce and crispy tofu. Everything is good but the tofu was too sweet for my tastebud. Overall food is good and tasty. Ambience is great. Service is good — nothing to complain about. Will visit again!!!

I got to eat here not once but two times my last visit. This is not a good thing.
My in-​laws like going here because it’s near their favorite Times Square hotel. My mother-​in-​law accidentally called it «Johnny Shanghai» which is a much better name.
I first got a bad feeling about this place when I saw a guy with a sign hawking it. Not Times Square-​y at all…
On our first visit we had the veggie dumplings. I’m not sure what the filling was (spinach? chives?) but the green wrapper was overcooked and gluey. Our table ordered the mu shu, and the restaurant warned us that they were out of mu shu pancakes (who runs out of mu shu pancakes?). We got the mu shu anyway. It was the worst I’d ever had and it had nothing to do with the pancakes. The sauce was really dark (and no it wasn’t hoisin). My kids didn’t even want it.
My husband survived by getting a cup of the egg drop soup. We also had the broccoli chicken which was only okay. The chicken was orange. On the plus side, there was broccoli and the chicken was white meat.
A few days later, my mother-​in-​law announced that we were meeting up with the rest of the family for a dinner at John’s again. We considered scrambling to come up with another option but there wasn’t enough time. Resigned to our fate, we trudged towards John’s again. This time I ordered the chicken with black bean sauce. My husband hated it. On the bright side I thought it was better than the broccoli chicken (he disagreed) and it came with a lot of vegetables.
I was debating between 1 and 2 stars for this place. The high prices ($ 16+ an entrée) bring it to 1 star town.

I’ve had home delivery from here three times and each time have been sorely disappointed. The first time the delivery driver got lost (yeah, seriously, I live in Midtown! Who gets lost in Midtown?) so the dumpling I had ordered where cold by the time they got to me. The second time the chicken and cashew was like eating dry leather. The third time the hit of MSG was so strong and fast couldn’t eat half the sweet and sour pork — this was despite checking with the order taker twice that they don’t add MSG to their food! Strongly recommend you look elsewhere for better Chinese… stay clear of this place!

I’ve only eaten from here twice, and the food is aight. It’s certainly better than Manchu Wok. But I do have one issue with this place. Both times I’ve come, the mean fuckin’ cashier refuses to put my change in my hand. I mean, I handed my $$$ to you to pay for my meal. Show some respect and courtesy to your customers and place the change in their outstretched hand.
This happened to me just now. After slamming my change down on the counter, she looked at me and huffed, «What?!» She’s lucky I didn’t unload the verbal chopper on dat ass.
So rather than endure her attitude in the future, I just won’t give them my business anymore. At least the folks at Manchu Wok are friendly.

Ordered delivery numerous times before. But I cannot believe that the delivery guy was so rude! He threw dirty words on me, when I picked up the phone. I would certainly never order from them again.
plus, their food was really just average in midtown.
think twice before you order.
avoid them at all cost

Came across this place since it was pretty close to our hotel and just wanted something warm. All we saw in Times Square are chains which were all packed and unappealing. Looking for a local joint seemed bit difficult so went down a couple blocks away from Times Square and we came across this Chinese joint but the Unilocal reviews worried me a bit. Hubby said as long as you order standard dishes that can’t be screwed up too badly, should be safe even though there are some bad reviews.
We ordered «safe» dishes, orange chicken and veggie lo mein. It was pretty decent and the orange chicken wasn’t heavy at all. It looked like a lot of sauce on it but wasn’t thick and the chicken were good size bites. Lo mein good too, little soy sauce-​y but good compliment to the orange chicken.
Free hot tea, overall service was fine, food came out quickly and we left satisfied.

I’ve ordered numerous times from here and, as expected of Chinese food in Manhattan that is not from Chinatown, it was pretty subpar. The presentation may be different in the restaurant because I always get delivery.
I’ve gotten sesame chicken, which is similar to other Americanized Chinese food — oily and dripping with sauce. The sauce was a bit off — not as sweet as I’m used to. I’ve also gotten mandarin noodle soup with shredded pork and vegetables, which has a decent tasting soy sauce based broth and noodles that were mushed up together when they were delivered. I’ve also gotten the crispy red bean paste cookies, which were ok — not exactly what I was expecting and not very crispy. However, the pork soup dumplings are actually pretty decent for being delivered. The skin is thin and the soup is flavorful and it’s still nice and warm when it gets to my office.

I love Chinese food, I really do, which is why I continue to eat it despite a series of unfortunate incidents that occurred at this restaurant. This latest incident takes the fortune cookie.
Ironically, by the end of the meal I would have gladly paid over a million yuan for a single fortune cookie following the culinary journey of hell I was subjected to at the hands of your restaurant.
I imagine the same questions are racing through your brilliant mind as were racing through mine on that fateful day. What is this? Why have I been given it? What have I done to deserve this? And, which one is the starter, which one is the desert?
You don’t get to a position like yours John with anything less than a generous sprinkling of observational power so I KNOW you will have spotted the lack of food on our table. That’s got to be the clue hasn’t it. When asked about our food, to your credit you checked for us. On return you told us our duck takes longer to cook…50 minutes longer to be exact; ignoring the duck that was bought to the table before us despite arriving 20 minutes after us.
Once the duck did arrive, it was a sour gel with a clear oil on top. It’s only redeeming feature was that it managed to be so alien to my palette that it took away the taste of the curry emanating from our miscellaneous central cuboid of beige matter.
Anyway, this is all irrelevant at the moment. I was raised strictly but neatly by my parents and if they knew I was eating meat a sour gel would be the least of my worries. So lets peel back the tin-​foil on the main dish and see what’s on offer.
I’ll try and explain how this felt. Imagine being a twelve year old boy John. Now imagine it’s Christmas morning and you’re sat their with your final present to open. It’s a big one, and you know what it is. It’s that Xbox One you picked out the catalogue and wrote to Santa about.
Only you open the present and it’s not in there. It’s your hamster Richard. It’s your hamster in the box and it’s not breathing. That’s how I felt when you gave me my meal.
Now I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking it’s more of that sour gel duck. I admit I thought the same too, but no. It’s Fat John. FAT. More fat than any man could consume in a month. On my plate we have a piece of duck and some skin in a brown glue-​like oil and on the right of the plate the chef had prepared some shallots. His knife had obviously broken and so it was decided the next best thing would be to slice the duck through the digestive tract of a bird.
Once it was regurgitated it was clearly then blended and mixed with a bit of glue. Everybody likes a bit of glue John.
By now I was actually starting to feel a little hypoglycaemic. I needed a sugar hit. Luckily there was a small fortune cookie provided. It had caught my eye earlier due to it’s baffling presentation.
It appears to be in an evidence bag from the scene of a crime. A CRIME AGAINST BLOODY COOKING. Either that or some sort of back-​street underground cookie, purchased off a gun-​toting maniac high on his own supply of yeast. You certainly wouldn’t want to be caught carrying one of these through customs. Imagine biting into a piece of brass John. That would be softer on the teeth than the specimen I was given.
I was exhausted. All I wanted to do was relax but obviously I had to sit with that mess in front of me for half an hour. I swear the sour gel moved at one point.
My only option was to simply stare at the plate in front and wait for either the dessert menu, or sleep. Neither came for an incredibly long time. But when it did it surpassed my wildest expectations:
Yes! It’s another crime-​scene cookie. Only this time you dunk it in some white stuff.
John… What is that white stuff? It looked like it was going to be yoghurt. It finally dawned on me what it was after staring at it. It was a mixture between the sour gel that was on my duck and ice cream. It reminded me of my first week at university. I had overheard that you could make a drink by mixing vodka and refreshers. I lied to my new friends and told them I’d done it loads of times. When I attempted to make the drink in a big bowl it formed a cheese John, a cheese. That cheese looked a lot like your fried ice cream.
So that was that John. I didn’t eat a bloody thing. My only question is: How can you live like this? I can’t imagine what dinner round your house is like, it must be like something out of a nature documentary.
As I said at the start I love Chinese food, I really do. It’s just a shame such a simple thing could bring it crashing to it’s knees and begging for sustenance.
Yours Sincerely,
Mark

Came here for dinner with a party of five. The place wasn’t crowded and so we were seated promptly.
We ordered:
Pork soup dumpling — bland, not impressed at all
Mongolian beef — tasty
Sliced fish in garlic sauce — fish was tender but not what I expected. The fish is already cut up in pieces when brought to the table.
Eggplant in garlic sauce– winner, juicy and delicious
General tso — delicious, you must get this
Overall the place was okay. We left full and satisfied, although we’ve had better elsewhere.

If you want xiao long bao, stick with Joe’s– John’s is okay, but their buns have less broth in them, and have a bland taste.
Good for a quick bite. I would recommend the lunch specials.
Service was friendly but a little slow.

Had 45 minutes to spare before play started, so we stopped in on a sweltering NYC afternoon seeking A/​C. When we walked, in I noticed a mildewy smell and NOT the cold blast I was hoping for. I was kinda hesitant about being seated, since it was not cold. The manager, heard me and convinced us to go to the back of the restaurant, where it was slightly cooler.
Ordered the pork xiao loong baos and because it was so hot out, I wanted some cold sesame noodles. The baos were okay, not spectacular or anything. It seems that any Chinese restaurant that offers soup dumplings is supposed to be «special». Not really.
I was disappointed in the noodles; first, because they were not cold, instead lukewarm, like they just came out of the pot and rinsed w. cold water. The sauce was okay, but the portion was ridiculously small. I make cold sesame noodles and you can order them from any take out restaurant for half the cost. The sauce is basically diluted peanut butter w. soy sauce, vinegar and chili sauce, if desired. Nobody uses Tahini or sesame paste like you’re supposed to, cause very few people can distinguish the difference and it costs alot more. Anyway, my complaint is that the portion was so small for such a low cost item; basically a handful of noodles and peanut butter.
There is an «A» Dept. of Health rating now, so I guess they’ve fixed their problems, and the décor is pretty, with teapots lined on shelves in front of a mirror. Prices are reasonable for midtown, but there’s nothing in this restaurant that wins me over.
P.S the tables are squished together, so definitely, there is no privacy, The service was quick and water was refilled several times, without asking.