Shanghai Gourmet

Came here for Christmas Day dinner after Joe’s Shanghai had a ridiculously long wait. We had the salt and pepper shrimp, garlic broccoli, beef soup dumplings, and chicken crispy noodles… delicious! The service was frenzied and kind of overwhelmed but adequate given it was a holiday and everyone was trying to dine in parties of 4 or more.

To my absolute chagrin, Shanghai Gourmet is no more! It is now New Style Hand Pulled Noodles and their menu has some similar items but much has changed. No more dim sum, still has the American Chinese food. Waiting to try the food, and will update in a new entry under their new name.
So so so sad to lose Shanghai Gourmet!

No line on a Sunday morning– Worth it!
It is located new Joe’s shanghai (there wasn’t line there but it’s cash only so we ended up coming here) — THEY TAKE CARD– AMEN!!!
We got the soup dumplings (crab) — average but it will do when you’re hungry! Cheap prices $ 6.95 for 8.
We also got the chicken/​beef ho fun– I thought this was pretty flavorful and I liked it! They don’t put as much soy sauce but it was still pretty good.
Crispy duck… abort– it was really dry!!!
I recommend coming here Sat or Sun morning when you want a quick bite to eat in chinatown, it is also near the chinatown bus. Some of our friends were in a hurry to eat because they had a bus to catch. This location was perfect.
Service is friendly and plenty of seats!

I came here awhile back with a large group and we shared everything. The menu was already prepared ahead of time and it turned out to be a great one, showcasing many classic and wonderful Shanghainese dishes.
We started off with two different types of xiao lon bao (soup dumplings): Crab and pork meat. They came nice and steamy, with plenty of good flavor and soup in the dumplings, though the skin is a bit thick. I preferred the pork one.
Then came noodles with bean curd, green onion, meat and it was quite good. The sauce was very flavorful. We also had cold noodles with peanut butter sauce, which I always enjoy. After that were the spring rolls, which were quite crispy but the inside filling was not that great. One of my favorite dishes was the beef wrapped in scallion pancake. The pancake was flaky and yummy and worked perfectly with the great taste of the beef and sauce. And it was just right; not too oily or too salty.
Later we were served beef soup with white vegetable and cilantro on top. The soup was decent, though I am not a huge lover of soup in general so I didn’t have too much of it. I liked the nian gao (flat rice noodles) with spinach and cabbage, which came with an amazing, delicious sauce… I believe it was hoision sauce, but am not sure. Also, the consistency of the noodles was just rignt.
The last dish was the crispy whole fish, served with peas and pine nuts and made with sweet and sour sauce. This tasted delightful, especially the more crispy parts of the fish and the sauce had a nice, full bodied, strong flavor. The peas and pine nuts are traditional to this dish and complement it well.
We had great service here and all the dishes came out in a timely manner.

I just had some lunchtime takeout after jury dutying. Very cheap and tasty, executed and handed over with promptness and precision. Would love to try more fun things here, like the dumplings and other dim sum.

Delicious and good value.
Came here on a Saturday when we realized the restaurant we were heading to was closed. We were a little worried about the fact that the place was a bit empty during prime dim sum/​lunch hours, but it was for naught. Service was fast and no-​nonsense.
Food was delicious. 9 soup dumplings when you would usually only get 6 for the price. Great sauteed dishes as well. The pot casserole was delicious as well — I opted for the duck meat. It wasn’t exactly what I expected (kinda wanted a rice casserole), but it was my own fault for not checking.

5.2÷10
Food: I only popped in for a quick bite consisting of 2 dishes — cold sesame peanut noodles and the traditional pork buns. The noodles were thin and fresh with peanut sauce and cucumber on top in a cold sesame oil broth. The noodles were so fresh they led me to believe that the chef had made them just the minute before. The pork buns (xiao long bao), on the other hand, were too Americanized. Speaking specifically, the dumpling skin was thicker and tougher than it should have been and the contents of the dumpling were nothing special. At a place like Din Tai Fung, transferring a dumpling to a soup spoon, you cannot help but tear about 1 out of 5 because of the thin, delicate skin.
Décor: As an animal lover, I was distressed to see the supposedly decorative fish fight and bite each other throughout the entire meal. I wonder how many other patrons found themselves similarly disturbed watching these fish. The rest of the restaurant had no other noteworthy ornaments, although a kitschy standing screen took some space.
Service: The waiter was brusque and did not have a friendly demeanor. The host gave us a table that was wet from the recent cleanup. Quite gross.

I feel like most places in Chinatown are going to be highly rated, unless it’s super dirty or something – and Shanghai Gourmet was exactly what you’d expect from a proper Chinatown establishment! A friend and I tried to go to Joe’s Shanghai, right down the street, but was crowded as usual, so we found Shanghai Gourmet instead. After checking that it did indeed sell soup dumplings, we entered gingerly as there was no one eating there (it was 3:30 pm on a Saturday, though). Everything was cheap and tasty, and we devoured the cold sesame noodles (delicious! Ample, light but satisfying sauce, and I usually hate sauce!) and ordered a few pork soup dumplings and other steamed dumplings. Everything came out quickly and warm, and our service was great as expected.

Pretty disappointed with this place with the high Unilocal reviews.
The soup dumplings (xiao long bao) that a lot of reviewers say are awesome, was definitely not. The skin is very thick, especially on the top, which means it’s pretty chewy. There is a lot of «soup» in each bun and was flavorful, but the meat wasn’t that flavorful and all in all, it’s the skin that makes the difference when comparing xiao long bao. We also ordered the pork and chive dumplings, which also had very thick skins and not so flavorful meat. The wontons in spicy sauce (appetizer) was okay and had a chili oil and a peanut sauce on top of them, which made them tastier but was also surprisingly a let down.
The onion pancake was pretty good — perfectly fried and well seasoned. The dough was the right thickness, had the right consistency and chewiness, and had the crisp exterior. The garlic sauteed veggies (kong xing cai — not sure what the english translation of this veggie is) was AMAZING. The veggies were very fresh, tender, and well seasoned.
The great things about this place? Freshly sauteed veggies. Service. No wait. Very reasonable prices.

#The Steamed Juicy Pork buns (soup dumplings) were good. The skin is on the thick side though.
The place is cool, because you can #easily get a table… unlike Joe’s Shanghai.

A Chinatown restaurant with amazing service. Yes! It’s true. A few feet from all the people lined up to go to Joe Shanghai next door and there is amazing Soup Dumplings here.
Did I mention the staff are so sweet. Service is amazing.
My favorite dish so far is the fried dumplings and the fried fish fritters the seaweed batter. Yummy!

We wanted to try another restaurant on this street, which was packed (and is probably always packed) so we decided to come here. What can I say? We just had a wonderful lunch. The food was delicious (try the dumplings!) and the service was just perfect. The price was more than reasonable for really good size portions.
We had a baby with us and the staff did everything they could to make sure that we’d feel comfortable.
I loved it and wish I could return (but I live in DC).

I was looking for a decent Chinatown lunch spot and came here based on the great reviews for soup dumplings. I ordered the steamed pork dumplings. Not sure if I ordered the coveted «soup dumplings» or not, but was not overly impressed with these. The wrapping was rather thick and rubbery and the filling pulled away into a tough little ball of meat inside. I took these home and reheated and crisped up in a frying pan like potstickers for dinner, they were much better! For my lunch I had also ordered a beef noodle soup which was fine, though I hesitated to finish all the broth as it was too salty as usual with Chinese noodle soups. Oh well.
The one plus here is the customer service. Just like in the reviews, there are several very pleasant and happy waiters who will talk to you to make sure you order just what you would like and seem to really want to serve you. It’s true, for a Chinatown place it almost feels weird, but it’s why I give them three stars.

Only in my wildest dreams would I ever imagine getting fresh soup dumplings delivered to me and I don’t have to be in Taiwan or Asia for it. Hell to the yea! Here’s what I nommed:
Soup dumplings (xiao long bao): These were piping hot when they arrived. Full of soup and it was just so satisfying. The downside to ordering these delivered is that I don’t have the wide Chinese spoons to enjoy, so I nearly burned my mouth from popping them into my mouth. Oh, and it’s hard to dip in soy sauce and I didn’t realize there was bits of ginger at the bottom of the soy sauce containers. Still good though!
Pan-​fried pork buns: Uffff. I ordered too much food. There are 8 of these to an order and they are delicious. Maybe a tad bit salty, but the buns are fluffy as they should be and the meat is flavorful. One can easily get full from 2 buns.
Vegetable chow fun: This was my «I ate veggies so I’m healthy» dish and I love chow fun, those flat wide rice noodles. Kind of a mistake. I got the veggies, but there wasn’t much flavor to this dish. Where’s a bottle of sriracha when you need one?
Coconut milk ice tea: Not much tea to this, but I think it tasted good with my food. Otherwise, by itself, it would be disappointing. I’m just happy that I could also get one of these delivered with my food.
I ordered way too much, but the favorite item was still the soup dumplings.

Tried this place for lunch. Thought it was ok, have had better. Split an order of soup dumplings, well actually I had one as to be honest I’m not a fan of soup dumplings at all and we needed something to put us over delivery amount. I just don’t get the appeal of having scalding liquid squirt me in the mouth. No thanks. The hot and sour soup was decent and I had chicken with peanuts which could’ve been spicier and had more actual peanuts and less celery, if I wanted chicken with celery I would’ve ordered that. I will stick with Spicy Village.

Had this craving for Shanghai cuisine and ended up coming to Shanghai gourmet. From start to finish, it was worth it! The staff was friendly and cordial. I knew it was gonna be good service! Got three awesome dishes: Xiao Long Bao, Beef Pancake, and Shanghai Rice Cake. All were DELISH and filling! No complaints from this PROUD foodie! Just give them a generous tip at the end. I’ll gladly come back again! 多谢!!

Good place in Chinatown! We ordered the soup dumplings, scallion pancake, Westlake beef soup, shredded pork and bean curd, and the Shanghai pan fried crispy noodles — the bill was about $ 38. Everything was good here except the sauce for the crispy noodles was a bit too salty — I could tell there was a lot of MSG in there, but it was still nom. The waiters were all very nice and we came before people started to trickle in. Came here because he wait at another place was an hour and a half long, would be back again :)

If you’re looking for the Xiao Long Bao (soup dumplings) experience without the long lines and tourists, Shanghai Gourmet is just as good — if not better. It was around peak dinner time and my friend and I managed to snag one of the last few tables inside. No wait!
We were starving and decided to order ourselves some Scallion Pancakes, XLB and our main meals. This was my friend’s first experience with soup dumplings, so I hoped it would be a good one! The Scallion Pancakes were excellent. Very crispy and not too greasy which often happens. As for the XLB, they were a bit dough-​ier than ones I’ve had in the past, but flavorful nonetheless. (It’s hard to rival up to Nan Xiang Dumpling House.) Oh, and I should note the broth was a tad bit oily that night. For my entrée, I ordered the Chicken with Garlic Sauce — extra spicy and was a bit disappointed by the heat level (too low) but it was still a solid meal.
I’ll be back again and maybe try out the crab XLB. For the prices, the minimal wait and the incredibly friendly staff… Shanghai Gourmet is a wonderful spot to try out in Chinatown. Skip the chaos and tourist trap prices of Joe’s Shanghai. Cheap eats are the best eats!

We came here for soup dumplings and sad to say they were just OK. The skin of dumplings were thicker than what I’m used to and because of the steam they were a bit too chewy. The broth inside was also OK, I found myself adding extraordinary amounts of sauce and chili oil to each dumplings. On the plus side, the dumplings are very cheap compared to the other places. In addition, their scallion pancakes were light and crispy– just how I like them.
In addition, they have very quick service and plenty of seating available so it may be a good alternative if the popular places have ridiculous wait times.

This place has some of the better cheap soup dumplings in town. While the soup tastes a little different and not as flavorful as say Joe’s Shanghai or Shanghai Café, it’s still decent and its cheap and there is rarely a wait, which is fantastic if you are like most New Yorkers and hate waiting in lines.
You get the usual: around $ 6 for eight soup dumplings. The nice thing about their particular dumplings is the thinness of the skin — they do a great job of keeping it rather thin and still hot and juicy — the mark of some skilled dumpling makers!
If I had to recommend, I’d say to go with the regular soup dumplings instead of the crab. The crab ones are more expensive and also have a little too much of an oceany taste to them for me.
Also, do not get the juicy/​soupy steamed buns, unless you’re really feeling hungry for bread. It’s more bun than soup /​filling, and while tasty, still not as great as the soup dumplings.