Shanghai Blues

Really Great Service, Great Food, and Amazing Value for Money. Will be visiting more often, little London Gem!!!

Upscale, nice atmosphere, and very classy. I had the ma po tofu and fried rice. The tofu was great but not too special. The vegetarian fried rice was alright. The service was very reliable and very good. There weren’t many vegetarian options unfortunately. The dim sum was pretty good, but again nothing that special. Decent Chinese food for when I was craving it.

We stopped in for dim sum. Massively disappointed. Dumplings were awful, service was oppressive and it was eye wateringly expensive. I don’t mind paying good money for food but this was overpriced and appalling. I would have given it no stars if that were an option

Me and some colleagues recently ate at Shanghai Blues to celebrate Chinese New Year. We were happily accommodated and served very well and efficiently by the small team. The restaurant itself looked as if was recovering from some festive use but was full and lively. The food was lovely and at lunch they have a deal on their dim sum. If recommend if you’re a fan of dim sum and in the area

Bad booking and ordering process and long waiting time. two hours waiting, 20 minutes eating

Half off all food on Sundays? Sign me up! Came here with a group of 10 and we didn’t leave hungry or disappointed. Big selection of standard Chinese dishes but the highlight of the meal was the lobster, a huge monstrosity that we barely finished. Beware that the sea bass isn’t a whole fish but instead little filets. So would highly recommend the lobster but skip the sea bass.
Ambience was very good for a Chinese restaurant (quiet, dim, classy) and the service was attentive and quick. I’ll be back!

Worst place ever. They gave me a mineral water which is £4.00 when I just ordered water.

Food was ok, but the service was comically bad! First they brought out main courses before starters, each person received food at different times. One person’s main course didn’t come out at all. I guess they felt bad because they sent us a bland fruit platter. Then we were left completely alone for an hour after dessert, it’s like they either forgot we were there or were avoiding eye contact on purpose. It was so weird!

The dim sum is pretty good but we had a horrible experience here on a groupon voucher. We gave them the groupon vouchers at the start and at the end of the night they claimed we had not given them any vouchers and demanded we pay the full bill. Even when I showed them my iphone group on voucher as having been redeemed two hours ago they said, «how do we know about the others?» Astonishing. The service was awful too. In a near empty restaurant they took 45 minutes to bring us a bill. Avoid this place like the plague.

Shanghai Blues, hands down, must be the classiest as well as most up-​scaled Chinese restaurant we ever been to. But it is also, in our opinion, the Chinese restaurant managing to evoke our most mistrust.
I have to admit our expectations were pretty high having red about the place as well as upon entering it. What is alluring about this place is the location, décor, ambiance, cocktails, the menu and the 50% off promotion. In our chase for the best Dim Sum any discount is a welcomed one and it doesn’t get much better than 50% off. But to be honest 50% off at Shanghai Blues is the equivalent of pretty much full price in many other Dim Sum serving places in London. The best deals are available on Sundays when it is 50% off the entire order but again it is not all that bang for the buck however it might be justified by the great Dim Sums or the cocktails as well as the jazzy ambiance. Still I must say the price asked for the rice even at 50% off is a joke considering the portion size.
Having red this far you might be wondering whether I am bipolar not understanding the origin of my/​our alleged so called huge mistrust. But let me assure you, indeed to us it is the Shanghai Blues that shows signs of bipolarity. I have had bad, slow or/​and uneven services before, one might even prejudicially argue this is to be expected at a Chinese place, but at Shanghai Blues in addition to all of that we experienced also «twilight» odd.
While ordering I have experienced staff breathing down on my neck but never before my visit here have there been lasting less appropriate body parts contacts while taking or helping me with the order while literally bent over me. Nor have I actually heard the word «FU¤%» having been expressed in front of our table when being called to help a waiting kitchen staff serving a Dim Sum we did not order after we finished our mains. It is even odder considering the fact same waitress and kitchen staff did serve us the Dim Sums we in fact ordered as the starters 55 minutes prior. We are aware we might come across as tourists, and we are being Scandinavians, but it is nevertheless insulting as well as degrading to us being presumed as dumbs or illiterates! And to make perfectly clear NO none of us are even nor were blonds! Why ells would we be given a bill for the full amount on a Sunday when everything is 50% off? And when made aware of it presenting us with the right bill only 20 seconds later while blaming the mistake on another imaginary staff! Imaginary to us as only one person dealt with us during the entire visit! If we didn’t know any better we would argue there is in fact 2 separate bills prepared simultaneously to be displayed at the end of the visit: one without the promotion aimed to make the gullible or unknowing tourists sing the Shanghai blues where the odds are assumed to be 50 – 50 in favor of the bank or I mean restaurant.

This place is like a cross between chinatown dim sum and Yauatcha. Nice décor, good range of non-​standard westernised dim-​sum and pricey. However factor in the 50% on weekends and this place wins hands down on value for money.
The cocktails are quite nice. Particularly the lychee based ones. However a lot of them were «not available» when we visited with a Groupon. Whether this was availability of deliberately restricting us peasants with our Groupons, I’ll never know.
Service throughout started well. Very attentive, then suddenly disappeared. We sat for quite a while after finishing out meal with not a single waiter/​ess in sight. Extremely strange. What saved this place from getting 3 stars was the dim sum itself.
I can’t for the life of me remember the names of anything I ate apart from the prawn scallops that were very good. However one dim sum was particularly memorable because upon biting into it, there was a delicous broth that dribbled down your chin that was oh so tasty as an accompany to the meaty filling, that I’d never seen done before. Also the sea bass dim sum along with the scollops were cooked to PER-​FEC-​TION. One disappointment were the pricey and mountainous spare ribs cooked with chilli and cracked black pepper. Really, tough, hardly any meat and super chewy. Note the portions were similar to other places. 3 – 4 pieces for normal dim sum. 2 – 3 for specials like sea-​bass.
So apart from one bad choice, the quality and breadth of not your average dim sum elevates this place to good for people you wish to impress. It’s not as cheap as chinatown, but there’s some great dim-​sum to be had if you find yourself in Marylebone and consider Chinatown too far to meet your dim-​sum cravings.

In 2006, I push the door of this restaurant for the fist time. It was one of the best experience I never had ! Moolie croissant, crispy dusk were so delicious! Service was great!
In 2011, I came back hoping to feel same pleasure. This restaurant is not good as it was. Service is not what it was. I was missing pancakes for my duck, asked 4 times but without any succes. This restaurant is expensive and does not worth it anymore. Too bad We still appreciate live music. I think I will give this restaurant another chance

Overpriced and portions too small.
I don’t care how good they think they are, at £3.90 for steam rice, that is only enough for 3 mouth full, is extortionate. You will leave ether poor or hungry.
Go to Chinatown, food just as good if not better at a price you can eat until you are full.

This place is alright by my standards. We come here when we’re not in the mood for the out of the bag dim sum served in Chinatown, yet too poor to afford Yauatcha.
The staff are great, and happy to explain menu items to you. And though I love the ambiance and live band, I still think it’s pretty pricey for dim sum. I guess I’m more of the hot-​steaming-​off-​the-​cart dim sum kinda gal.

I came here for brunch on a Saturday afternoon which had 50% off on all dimsum. This place is somehow a bit hard to spot from the outside so if I were not to meet my friends who already know of the place, I wouldn’t have heard of it or thought of going there to eat.
The dimsum selection is a bit on the pricey-​side and 50% off actually puts it on a more reasonable scale. The tea choices were incredibly pricey, up to £3−4 per person for a type of tea! It’s true that the interior is very classy for a Chinese restaurant, but charging that amount for tea per person is unreasonable! Let’s just say that I did not have tea with my dimsum that day (made it a very odd dimsum experience, indeed!)
The xiao long bao came in a really cute personal tray. It was very hard trying to get the xiao long bao off the tray and I broke the skin while I tried to do it which was quite a disappointment. Nevertheless, the xiao long bao was OK and nothing to rave about.
The steamed custard bun (or puff?) was tiny and unlike the ones that I’ve eaten. Its appearance was a cross between a meringue and a tiny Chinese bun while the shape mimicked that of a xiao long bao except the base had a yellow line around it. When it was served I think my heart sank when I saw how tiny it was. Biting into it didn’t immediately ooze the custard paste into my mouth and it only did after the second bite. But by the third or fourth bite, the custard bun was completely gone.
The rice noodle roll we ordered had a strange filling inside. We ordered two types, one was with the standard prawn filling and the other was a type of pork meat which was rather unusual. I’ve tried different types of fusion before (rice noodle with unagi — which was absolutely delicious btw) and this rice noodle with slabs of pork meat just didn’t quite work.
One thing I did like here was the steamed yam cake. The cake was cut into small little cubes, and when I bit into one I immediately felt the cube disintegrating in my mouth. It was really nice, and because this was my first dish, as a result I think my expectations for the other dishes went a bit higher.
There were a few other selection of dimsum which was quite strange in appearance and satisfactory in taste. I’ve been to other dimsum restaurants which have attempted the fusion experience (such as the one with the unagi) and it was way better than this place.
Overall, loved the interior, but dimsum was just OK and tea was too expensive. I wouldn’t be coming back here any time soon as there are other places with better dimsum at better prices! :)

I only ever come here when it’s half price (Saturday lunch and all day Sunday). The dim sum is not authentic and quite fushion-​y but the quality is still great! they have a large selection of dishes to pick from, typical dim sum dishes like har gow, siew mai, but also more elaborate ones like scallop dumplings (almost a whole scallop inside!) and crab dumplings.
Each dish is normally £6.50, so after the discount it’s around the same price as in Chinatown, which for the quality is well worth the price! the restaurant’s fairly dimly lit but feels very grand and very Chinese.
The service is quite quick but the waitress made a bit of a face when we asked for hot water. also, we were charged £1 for each time the glass of hot water was filled! ridiculous! that aside, I’ve been to Shanghai blues maybe 5 times now and will keep going back for the good food for shizzzzle!

September 2012
We had a fun time at Shanghai ! We liked the ambiance. They had a great Jazz & blues band. The service was attentive. The signature cocktails were good (but not great). Out water glasses were refreshed in a timely manner.
The Grilled Shanghai Pork Dumplings were tasty. We enjoyed the Stir Fried Crab with Ginger & Spring Onions, Buddhist Monk’s Vegetables in Crispy Taro Ring and the Deep Fried Sea Bass Fillet.

Decent food, decent venue. It’s eating Chinese food without the Chinatown chaos and smelling like a barbecued bird after a meal (yes I had bad Chinatown experience). So I’ve gone to Shanghai blues a few times for lunch and dinner. Service was OK. I might be bias but I felt that the service was better when they found out that I could speak Chinese.
So it really should’ve been a 3-​star.
BUT
They’ve got 50% off on food on Saturday. Hence the perfect boozy dimsum brunch fiesta anybody can ask for. Did I mention that they also had an extensive wine list (extensive for a Chinese restaurant excluding Hakkasan)?
Boozy dimsum @ Shanghai Blues. Highly highly recommended!

Delicious high quality Chinese cuisine. I wished that the Chinese restaurants in the US could have nontacky décor such as the ones in London. This place serves a huge variety of drinks, including some Chinese liquors. The waiters were very friendly and we actually met the owner while we were there! They bought us champagne, so extra stars for them, hahaha.
Apparently, Lewis Hamilton F1 champion loves to frequent this place when he visits London! :D
I found that charging 3(or was it 5?) pounds for a tiny amount of steamed rice is quite ridiculous. But maybe that’s just me being a stupid ‘Murican. ;)

Lovely, high-​end dim sum can be yours for half price every weekend lunchtime!
That’s right, book a table or just turn up and anything you order is automatically 50% off, no voucher needed, making this a steal for the quality of food and atmosphere.
The Ha Gau here are amazing, the prawns in them are really big, not just tasteless minced ones, we had two orders of them. Also very much worth ordering are the Shanghai Shui Jao and the smallest egg tarts I have ever seen in my life!
The two of us ate more than we should have on our visit but our bill was a very reasonable £42.10 with service.
The only slightly negative thing I would say is that the service can be slightly erratic and a little slow, but on a weekend lunch there’s no rush so it’s not a huge deal. Also £4.50 for a small bottle of Tiger beer is really, really expensive, and tea at a dim sum place should never be per person.