Wa Me Chinese Restaurant

The spring rolls we had were excellent. But they keep odd hours the hours of operation that are listed are inaccurate. We arrived at 7pm the sign said open until 9pm. The place was deserted save for 2 employees who spoke next to no English and they looked like they were trying to close. I wouldn’t mind trying them again, but I wish it were a bit more organized.

I love this place. They take care of you. Great food and great prices. Very friendly people and very helpful. Get the beef with mixed vegatables. Hot and spicy soup is to die for.

I’m sorry but it was horrible. I have never wanted to walk out of a restaurant so fast. Potstickers we ok but had very little filling and the sauce was all apple cider vinegar. The steamed pork buns were very bland. Green onion and beef tasted very fishy. And the egg drop soup was unediable, which is hard for me to say because I have never in my life had unediable egg drop soup, i have had bad but never unediable.
Easy to say I will never go back.
The staff was friendly. Restaurant was empty and cleanish. However, I could see into the kitchen and it looked very disorganized and messy.

After 10 days of being on the road, we all started missing Asian cuisine, which led to the decision of celebrating a birthday in a Chinese restaurant, preferably a Shanghainese/​Cantonese one. With real delight, I saw in the description of Wa Me that the restaurant owner is from Shanghai and have had 10 years of experience running a restaurant in Shanghai. We called and confirmed that in Shanghainese — so far so good!
However, we felt truly disappointed with this place after eating. Not a single dish was done in the correct way, and some of the meats used in the dishes were not fresh at all. I remember the Shanghai fried noodles being the worst of all, even less tasty than the typical Americanized version which bears that name.
What surprised us most was the fact that a 15% tip was already added to the bill when we got the check, and neither the waiter nor the owner (who was speaking Shanghainese to us the whole time) mentioned that. I would call that an action of deliberate misleading us, because we were only a group of four and wouldn’t expect an automatically-​added tip. In fact, we were calculating a 20% tip to add to the bill when we realized that the numbers didn’t seem right. I don’t think the owner did that because she didn’t expect a fat tip: from our conversation, it was really obvious that we had spent years in the US and were obviously not having our first meal in the US as tourists and didn’t know about tipping our waiters. Anyhow, we were shocked at this trickery, and left the restaurant feeling sad. I don’t think we’ll ever return.

The Lo Mein was quite tasty, but I would request extra meat even if it cost more. Egg drop soup very bland.

Ordered everything from bubba tea, tomato stir fry eggs, bbq ribs, stir fry rice cake, but none of it was good. In fact, I bet average home cooks can make better food at home. Everything was too sweet, and it was out of balance with the flavoring. Price was also steep and came down to $ 80 sth for four people though the food quality is no better than the food court.

Absolute horrible service food tasted like it was from a week ago. And the service!!! I called in for takeout and no one would take my call so I decided to just stop by and try them out. That will never happen again !

Try the house specials. and enjoy the hand rolled noodles… yum yum

The food here isn’t full of flavor, but it’s edible.
We had 8 dishes with one of them being free. It costs about $ 90 something without tip.
It’s true that it’s not an Americanize Chinese restuarant. They do serve authentic Chinese/​Shanghai food. The food is just mediocre. I rather go to Sweet Ginger. The service here is better than Sweet Ginger though.
The best dish on our table or the one that was finished first was the salted crispy fish. It was good;a tender piece of fish surrounded by a light batter. It was seasoned well/​salted; it probably had MSG on it, but I don’t have a problem with consuming MSG since it’s on a lot of Asian dishes. Our least favorite had to be the mapo tofu; it was quite tasteless. This is one of the few places around here that does serve rice cake if you’re craving that. The beef with green onions wasn’t bad either; the meat was tender, but it was still mediocre which was pretty much the same with the rest of our order.
My only other grip is that I’m a lazy eater and hate having little bones in my food which was the case with our spicy chicken dish.
Would this place be on my regular list of go to’s or would I drive out of my way to go here? Probably not, but I’ll probably go here if I’m within the area.

These folks are just located across the street from the Gossip strip mall area and behind the old Red Maple spot. I have always wanting to try this place out ever since it popped up in my Chinese restaurant search few months ago, and I finally made it here one day with a friend. The interior is quite small, and the whole place can barely fit a little less than 50 people.
Going through their menu, I spotted two items claiming to be handmade in store, which were their Shanghai noodles and pork dumplings. We got the Shanghai Egg Noodles, Pork Dumplings, and some stir-​fried rice cakes. The rice cake was probably the best of all, nice little sliced rice cakes with veggies and pork, great flavor overall. The noodles seem legit, but I was not impressed by it. The pork dumplings were a little disappointing. There was zero chance they were freshly handmade, and I was 100% positive they are the same frozen ones you can buy from grocery stores.
There was definitely a little bit of «Waaaa» from Wa Me, but not in a good way. They obviously have an integrity issue about what they serve you. An odd feature they provide here is pirated movies with Chinese subtitles streaming off China on their big screen TV in the main dining room… We watched Skyfall, which was still in theatre.

Try authentic stuff first, this place gives little world a run for their money!

The dishes I have gotten there have always been very good. but I have a complaint. I have ordered dishes that any Chinese place would have and have been told «we don’t have that today» pot stickers, egg fu young, on weekends no soup and such. It has happened so often that I won’t go back. the one thing you should never hear is «no»
I have to amend my comment. I did go back and they did have what I wanted and it was very good. I did call ahead to make sure they had what I wanted.

Some of the best Chinese (Shanghainese) in the valley. You must try, in this order:
— The Bean Curd & Veg. Soup w. Frozen Leek, this has a nice smokey taste and the vegetables are fresh.
— House-​Made ShangHai Noodles w/​Egg, the noodles are fresh and have great texture, and the eggs are cooked perfectly so they are not tough or rubbery. and
— Ma Po Tofu… even if you don’t like tofu. This is a seriously good dish.
Their soup (or sauce) filled steamed dumplings, I cannot remember their name, are particularly good as well.
Great value… hands down. I put this place up there with Little World for the best authentic Chinese food in the SL valley. If you like Little World, you gotta try this place. Even if you don’t like Little World, you should try this place. The staff/​family are always friendly and treat us well.

My husband would probably give this place 3 stars. I’m slightly less forgiving.
The food was mostly delicious, particularly shanghai noodle soup with twice cooked barbecue pork (*huge* portion). The noodles were spongy and delicious. The vegetables tasted pretty fresh. I liked this dish better than the one I ordered.
I had pon-​pon chicken on fried rice. My husband noted that the batter on the chicken was outstandingly crispy. I had a bit of an issue with the metallic/​vinegar smell that strongly accompanied the chicken. I didn’t end up eating much of it.
The food can stand on its own, that’s for sure. The cleanliness needs to improve. There were splatters on the walls in the booth we sat at, the wainscoting was filmy and dusty. I also found a hair in my husband’s hot and sour soup, and then again in the shanghai noodle soup. Two (significant) hairs in one sitting is unprecedented for me.

Absolutely excellent potstickers. Big and thick skinned, just the way I like them. My husband got the house fried rice and it was also fantastic. The food takes awhile to come out, because they’re actually back there in the kitchen making it on the spot. No microwaved junk that has sat in the fridge all day. Clean place and nice service, too. Our meal could not have been better. The restaurant looks divey and kind of cheap from the outside, but do not be fooled. This is definitely a place we’ll be frequenting.

Great food, clean, lovely little taste of shanghai in wvc!!! Hidden gem! Can’t wait to go back and try the other traditional dishes.

Nice little find in the middle of SLC. Unilocal led my family here and I’m here to say that it’s quite a hidden gem. The staff and cook are all from shanghai, so everything is quite authentic, at least the stuff from the Chinese menu. The décor isn’t much but don’t let that fool you. The owner actually had a restaurant in Shanghai for 13 years so they know what they’re doing.
Between now and Chinese New Years (1 – 23), they’re offering free dishes if you order a certain number. The sesame balls at the $ 25 level were a nice dessert to cap off the meal.
I wish I could try more things on the menu, but only here for the weekend and have other appointments…

Wa Me restaurant has Shanghai rice and noodle dishes that are very good and authentic. The Shanghai noodles and fried spare ribs are my favorite. Friendly staff and fast service.

These days I go to Chinese restaurants not just for «Chinese food,» but for some special cuisines these particular Chinese places have to offer, and instead of calling these places «Chinese restaurants,» I like to call them by the specialty cuisines they serve.
Wa Me is such a place. I call it a «Shanghai-​nese restaurant» because it serves up some of the dishes that Shanghai represents. I first read about Wa Me when a couple friends of mine wrote about its unique dishes on facebook, and once I started going there, I fell in love with this small restaurant with dishes that are packed with big flavors!
These days my late afternoon Wa Me lunch (or early dinner) will include an order of the juicy steamed buns, a meat or fish dish (my favorite so far are the fish-​head casseroles and cold meats platters,) or Shanghai-​style stir-​fried noodles, and rice balls in sweet wine for dessert… very tasty food!
I believe the whole family works there, and everyone is friendly and helpful. I love it!

I have to admit, it’s easy to miss this restaurant. However, it’s a very clean, which for a Chinese restaurant in SLC, it deserve an extra star, that’s why I give it a 5.
It runs by a very friendly small family, dad’s the cook, mom and son work together. When the cooks don’t speak English, you know the food is authentic. I love their home made noodles. Make sure you ask for that. Pot stickers are huge, it should be a meal instead of an appetizer.
My favorite is the steam dumplings. They are so juicy, not to mention it steams in a bamboo basket. So good and cheap!
As for their soup, it’s a must! All of them are cook in a special bowl, it’s huge! It feeds a family of 5 at least. I love the home made pickled pork belly, bamboo shoots soup. However, if you want something real authentic Shanghai dish, try the fish head soup. It is slow stewed with tofu, and glass noodle. It’s surprisingly light. However, you probably want to make sure the fish is fresh.
My kids love the tiny rice ball sweet soup. I recommend this place to people who want real authentic Chinese food.