Shanghai House

Amazing food! So fresh and delicious! Seriously I think the best Chinese food I’ve ever had! :) Try the egg drop soup and the steam dumplings!

This gem of a place located in the heart of Downtown Tacoma, right next to a «shady» medical clinic was such a culinary surprise.
I did not expect the food to taste as good, it was spicy and flavorful. Always a plus when eating at these type of establishments.

Meh. The staff works hard but they are understaffed. The food was barely edible. I wouldn’t go back.

I used to LOVE this place… but not anymore! New management… Who serves Southern BBQ AND Chinese in the same place? The place was empty and there was one woman seating, taking orders, and apparently, cooking our food… what normally would be a quick lunch turned into a torturous ordeal. The woman told us that her cousin had to leave the business because of a mysterious illness, and that she and a partner had taken it over for him. Where to start? The once varied menu (that still appears on the website) was whittled down to about 12 items and now included some «Southern BBQ». I use quotes because I never smelled BBQ and don’t trust for one second a BBQ joint that doesn’t smell like smoke. We were optimistic and decided to give it a try… bad idea. My wine glass arrived dirty, and only half full (we used to love the wine value of a to the rim glass). The usually generous (always take food home) portions had been halved and prices raised. My dad had Mongolian beef… it used to be served on a lovely bed of crispy rice noodle… but this beef sat on top of… wait for it… PUFFED RICE CEREAL… yep…RICE FREAKIN KRISPIES. What the actual hell? It was just weird.
She came over during the meal to check on us, she could tell we were disappointed… I told her I wasn’t very pleased and that too much had changed. She was very nice and apologized… when she brought our bill, she had thoughtfully given us a 10% discount and brought us a to go container with a free dessert of «chinese donuts”(Pillsbury biscuit dough, rolled into balls, fried, and rolled in sugar… yuck)…we paid and left, knowing we’d never go back.
R.I.P. Shanghai House… you will be missed

Worst dining experience ever. Appetizer hot and sour soup/​egg flour soup was bland and sugary. The Mongolian beef came with old tasting meat in a weird syrup and rice crispies on the side. The Kung Pao chicken only came with a few slices of bland meat with planters peanuts on top. The General Tsao chicken tasted like batter. The rice was stale and tasted like it came out the box. The service was horrible and slow.

Easily the worst meal I’ve ever paid for.
Unilocal prohibits me from giving a zero star rating, otherwise I would.
The egg drop soup was nothing but cornstarch and lukewarm water, the Mongolian beef came with rice krispies (to take up space on the plate?), and the general tso’s chicken was fried chicken clumps with Thai sweet chili sauce poured on. The kung pao chicken order had about 4 small nuggets of chicken and looked like someone just poured peanuts on top for bulk.
I realize I should have known better, eating at an otherwise-​empty restaurant in downtown Tacoma, (but the place I intended to eat at was closed today).
Nobody ate more than a third of our meals, and only because we choked down some of the gluey rice out of spite.
This isn’t good Chinese food, this is barely food. This is no din tai fun, no jade garden, and not even panda express. You’d be better off with a microwavable dinner, even if you just let it defrost to room temperature.
I hate to discourage people from supporting local businesses, but wow, this was impressively awful.
EDIT: this showed up on my credit card statement as «Hot Dogs To Go»… TOTALLY NOT SKETCHY AT ALL!

I’m eating the delivery from this place as I’m typing and SOOOO not impressed at all I paid $ 46.00 with tip for house fried rice, Almond Chicken, beef broccoli, and Mongolian Beef. The bag showed up leaking, There serving sizes aren’t awesome but I could over look that if the food was great but its just not the only thing I think is good is the House Fried Rice. I expected the Mongolian beef to be spicy but it isn’t at all it looks like a hot mess all stuck together. the sauce in the beef and broccoli tastes like they use to much soy sauce it just seems like its missing some key flavors. And worst of all my Favorite the Almond Chicken I LOVE Almond Chicken its my favorite food at a Chinese Restaurant, this one is little pieces of battered chicken with slivered almonds which is fine they are cooked great and have good flavor alone but the sauce they sent me looks like… well its hot WHITE goopy saucey mess that doesn’t taste like Almond gravy (which is always a nice gold color every time I’ve Ever had it) They did send free Sugar Doughnuts which my kids are in love with but I would have rather have had my dinner awesome then get free doughnuts. I’m VERY unhappy and disappointed and will NOT EVER EVER EVER Order from Shaghai House ever again.
p. s. no fortune cookies ;(

Worst Chinese food EVER, if the one experience I had with them is any measure. Their Kung Pao Chicken was nothing more than some red ketchupy sauce, a few pieces of chicken (I think), and more celery (!) that any other ingredient. It was Chicken-​like pieces, red sauce, and celery. Worst ever. I will not ever order anything from them again.
Having said that. my experience with them was about 9 months ago, and this past week I noticed a sandwich board on the street indicating they were «Under New Management», but the damage is already done as far as I am concerned.

I had hoped that the new management and hopefully a new chef would improve the food. I was really disappointed! The sweet and sour pork was just rice, pork and some sauce. No vegtables or anything else. THe soup was luke warm. I hate lukewarm food! Too bad as like chinese food and this is the only place downtown.

I hate to give this place, or ANY place for that matter, a one star. But the food in here SERIOUSLY SERIOUSLY needs some help.
Came in for some late night dinner after school and was expecting a luxurious plate full of hearty beef broccoli and oozingly sweet and sour pork with copious amounts if steaming fried rice on the side. Instead I got half a plate of small pork pieces with some drizzling of sweet and sour sauce, another half of a plate with overcooked broccoli and cubed beef, and rice with a touch of soy sauce.
I was a bit let down to be honest. I could just SEE everything they were doing wrong from the amounts of food they served, down to how they breaded the sweet and sour and even how they cooked their meat. There was absolutely no vegetables in the fried rice. And the sweet and sour looked more like clam strips than anything else. I was just super bummed. Not to mention their menu was OVERKILL! It was like a bible with menu items repeated to make it look like there was a large selection when really there wasn’t. I just… Man… I feel bad rating this place as absolutely terrible but their food is just not great. The people are freaking amazing and I could tell they were trying really really hard. But they definitely need to work on their cooking skills if they want to run a successful restaurant. I wouldn’t mind checking back in a couple months to see if they’ve improved though. If they’re even there. :/

I use to get wonderful food from this location, big portions, quick delivery and wonderful tasting now under «new management» it SUCKS!!! Ordered today and what was told to us would be a 20 minute delivery turned into over an hour, the food was cold and disgusting. There was so much grease in my almond chicken gravy that the chicken was skating on the residue and it took 5 napkins to absorbe all of the oil that was running out of it. It is disgusting!!!

I paid $ 9.00 for almond chicken with moo goo gai pan, had to wait for half an hour and they gave me the wrong order too boot. I had to pay to park this place sucks! For what you get

What is going on here?! Everything was fine, things were going well for several months in a row of every-​other-​week-​ish delivery and then suddenly, three orders in a row and we’re all ill each time. My spouse has eaten here at lunch time before and after the mid-​February start of this mess and says lunch is now the same.
We had been doing just fine simply not ordering fried items — they aren’t really our style to begin with and are mediocre at best. However, the shrimp with vegetables, shrimp with lobster sauce, and spicy shrimp with vegetables were all solid.
This one, sadly, is off of my list. It’s a shame because Tacoma’s really lacking even Americanized Chinese food.

Sigh… old meat, ok vegetables, tiny soup… overly greasy and oily
Whoever tells you this place is good must’ve never had good Chinese food.
Will not be going back

Terrible.
Honey walnut shrimp had just a teeny bit of sauce. Come on! Too much batter… and it was flavorless, doughy batter. Yuck. Everything tasted like it was out of a frozen bag, including the orange chicken and crab rangoon.
Got it as delivery. I doubt that makes any difference in the food quality, but it’s why I don’t have any comment about the restaurant itself.

I went back for lunch. Their xiao long bao was… not traditional. Wrapper was too thick, no shredded ginger on the side and dipping sauce was way too sweet.
Also ordered Ma Po Tofu (spicy tofu dish). I’ve never had one with frozen vegetable mix and without meat… therefore lacked the richness.
Service was fine.

OhMYGOD, WHY?!! The absolute most disappointing, atrocious chinese food I have EVER had. The Chinese food that they sell at the deli counter at TOP Foods (Grocery) or even Panda Express is better than the drivel I just spent $ 30 bucks on. We did take out and ordered the General Tso chicken (tasted like ketchup with soggy breading on chicken and the especially tragic Kung Pao Chicken, which was actually mostly alllllllllllllllllll (I kid you not!) celery and tiny specs of chicken strewn in with peanuts, not cashews. It is taking everything I have right now not to be swearing up a storm in this review. Let’s just say we will not be so stupid as to ever go back to this place, but even if we did, I don’t think they will be open much longer.

Styrofoam? Seriously? In 2012?
I hesitate to give this place one star, since I used to enjoy this place. They distinguished themselves in a land devoid of decent Chinese food with their northern Chinese influence in addition to the Chinese-​American standards. Then they took away the Shanghai pot stickers. And refused to discontinue their use of styrofoam. Fair enough: it’s not a gourmet restaurant. Despite the molten styrofoam containers that leached who-​knows-​what into my food, I still ordered from Shanghai House.
But four times in a row they screwed up my order. And ever since they started to offer delivery, it’s been an hour late each time. AND they make it up to you with … what, another styrofoam container of cold, limp fried chicken pieces with no sauce? I don’t want your crappy misfires. I want the old Shanghai House, the one that used to moderately impress me… Anyway, after the last time we ordered, we vowed «Never Again.» I keep hoping something will change. Until someone convinces me otherwise, I give this place two stars. They need to do better. The food isn’t THAT amazing: it’s pretty standard fare, so they need to do it well, be consistent, and work on that service.
Oh, and if you dine in, be prepared to have a big ol’ flat screen TV facing your way (since you’ll likely be one of the few diners) showing whatever sport or game show the owners think Americans like to watch. Sorta kills the sweet, granny-​like ambiance in the rest of the place…

We had lunch at Shanghai House today… it was just «ok» — nothing great, nothing really different than any other American-​style Chinese place. I had the Mongolian Beef and Kung Pao Chicken. The beef was tasty but the chicken was just bland. Anne had the almond chicken and another Chicken dish I don’t recall — again, both really bland — not much in the way of flavor. The soups were OK — just average. We also had the Shanghai Steamed buns (Dim Sum)… again, just OK. The restaurant was completely empty at 12:15 — yet the service was just a little off. We had asked for the dim sum and soup to be first, but everything all just came at once anyway. The waitress was delightful — happy, outgoing, and checked on us often. But as for the food, it’s really just 2.5 stars — OK, but not worth Shanghai House being a destination eatery.

Shanghai House is a perfect opportunity for Tacoma to finally get an AUTHENTIC Chinese restaurant… I am praying for someone to explain to the owners that there is a contingent of folks in T-​Town who want authentic food, not only Americanized Chinese fast food.
Shanghai house has xiao long bao. This is a very particular Shanghaiese dim sum dish. The soupy dumplings the previous reviewer liked??? That’s what these are, they’re the best thing they serve, and the most authentic dish on the menu. Xiao long bao is a «soup bun» — the claim to fame here is that it actually has soup inside the little dumplings.
Seattle area dim sum is primarily Cantonese (yum!) — I’ve only seen Shanghaiese dim sum in Canada. If Shanghai House would serve more specialty items like this, such as «Shanghaiese rice rolls», they’d probably capture a cult following. Especially from my family! Heck, I’d be happy to find ANY good dim sum joint in Tacoma!
Typical Americanized Chinese fast food is done adequately here — broccoli beef, sweet and sour what-​have-​you, etc. — and much better than any other Chinese joint in Tacoma. But I have to say their hearts don’t seem to be in it. On my visits, I’ve run into several friends here who know Asian food, and we agree it’s the best we’ve got in town.
Please give them a try and — if you care — tell them that you want to see more authentic food!!! There’s a gem buried here!