Shanghai

Durham, United States

3.9

Open now

20 reviews

Accepts Credit Cards
Free Wi-Fi

Contacts

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Telephone:
+1 919-383-5700
Website:
shanghaidurham.com
Address:
3433 Hillsborough Rd, Durham, NC, 27705
Nearby public transportation stops & stations:
1.4 mi120
1.6 mi096
1.9 miEast Campus
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Bussiness info

Takes Reservations
Yes
Delivery
Yes
Take-out
Yes
Accepts Credit Cards
Yes
Accepts Apple Pay
No
Accepts Bitcoin
No
Good For
Dinner
Parking
Validated
Bike Parking
Yes
Wheelchair Accessible
Yes
Good for Kids
Yes
Good for Groups
Yes
Attire
Casual
Ambience
Casual
Noise Level
Average
Alcohol
Full Bar
Outdoor Seating
No
Wi-Fi
Free
Has TV
Yes
Dogs Allowed
No
Waiter Service
Yes
Caters
Yes

Today

Today 11:30 am – 2:30 pm
5:00 pm – 9:30 pm
Open now
Local time (Durham) 14:18 Monday, 23 June 2025

Business hours

Monday 11:30 am – 2:30 pm
5:00 pm – 9:30 pm
Tuesday 11:30 am – 2:30 pm
5:00 pm – 9:30 pm
Wednesday 11:30 am – 2:30 pm
5:00 pm – 9:30 pm
Thursday 11:30 am – 2:30 pm
5:00 pm – 9:30 pm
Friday 11:30 am – 2:30 pm
5:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Saturday 5:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Sunday 12:00 pm – 2:30 pm
5:00 pm – 9:30 pm

Description

Specialties

Shanghai Restaurant is located in the Durham Festival Shopping Center and open daily for lunch and dinner (including Sundays). We can accommodate large parties, families and office groups in our dining room and have a fully stocked bar for festive gatherings. Reservations are welcome. Our menu features fine food made fresh to order and we will prepare special requests with no problem. Our chefs do not use MSG when cooking dishes and can accommodate any special dietary needs. Brown rice and a variety of vegetarian dishes are on our menu everyday. College students are welcome and receive a discount with valid/​current school ID. We have been serving the area for over 20 years. Come in and experience what makes us different.

History

Established in 1980.

Shanghai restaurant has been around for over thirty years and approximately three different individuals have successfully owned this same institution. The current owner has had this restaurant for over fifteen years and has seen their business grown tremendously over the years. Do not be fooled by the name because this restaurant actually serves Cantonese style Chinese food not Shanghai food.

Meet the Manager

Alex W.

Manager

My name is Alex Wong and I am the son of the restaurant owners. My family is from Malaysia and over the years we have served some foods from their native country, bringing joy to individuals that are familiar with those type of dishes. I grew up in Durham and I have been working at this very institution since I was in middle school, making me a typical restaurant owner’s kid. I recently graduated from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and plan to go to graduate school for a MBA. I love working in a restaurant because I am very passionate about serving people great food, providing them with a great environment to be in community, and giving them exceptional service during their dining experience.

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Nearby

Near this location:
30
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3443 Hillsborough Rd
70
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3405 Hillsborough Rd Ste D
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20 reviews of Shanghai

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Place rating: 3
Durham, NC
Coast to coast, Chinese restaurants in America should be commended for a consensus menu consisting of dishes never to be found in China. The execution of said menu, however, is widely variable. Shanghai’s food has genuine flavour, and items like the Szechuan tofu, advertised as spicy, actually had spice. Delivery is swift. On the whole, above average but typical American Chinese restaurant.
Place rating: 5
Raleigh, NC
This place is truly amazing. Seriously, I haven’t been this impressed with a restaurant in ages!
My group of 15 waltzed in here at 8:30 on a Saturday and we were promptly seated, with orders taken within five minutes of us sitting down. Not only did our food come out shortly after, but everything was delicious! Highly recommend the cashew chicken w/​veggies, and any of the soups.
I want to seriously commend the staff here, who made sure our water glasses were always full and got our food out ASAP. They were super professional and our waiter divvied up the check by person at the end of the meal.
Great for groups, and lots of healthy options are available.
Place rating: 5
Durham, NC
This is the best Chinese food in Durham with fast service! Everyone is super nice and this is always our go to restaurant when we are craving Chinese food! They also offer an authentic Chinese menu which is really nice! Shanghai is beyond reasonably priced and has the best shrimp toast in the state! I also recommend their salt and pepper pork, sesame chicken, lettuce wraps or any of their tofu dishes! This place is both meat lover and vegetarian friendly!
Place rating: 4
Durham, NC
I love Shanghai! I always order takeout or delivery, and they are very prompt about delivering on time. Food arrives superhot, and they are generous with fortune cookies, chopsticks and sauces. I am fan of the Vegetable Fried Rice, the Steamed Vegetable dumplings (the sauce it comes with is superb!) and the pan friend noodle. Their curry tofu is to die for.
Always love going back!
Place rating: 5
Durham, NC
This restaurant is clean. The service is very quick. The staff is friendly. The menu is extremely varied. There are a lot of vegetarian options as well as spicy options. You will find a lot of classic Chinese dishes on the menu as well as American Chinese classics. The restaurant is very big. They have a table that can seat up to 8 as well as booths. They also have a full bar. Make sure you come and dinner.
Place rating: 4
Durham, NC
I was craving Pork Fried Rice and my go to Chinese restaurant is closed on Sunday’s. I went to Shanghai. I had enjoyed sesame chicken there before but never had their fried rice. It was very good. I still have some left over for lunch. I also had a pork egg roll which was also tasty. I recommend this place.
Place rating: 2
Durham, NC
I am highly disappointed. I ordered shrimp with garlic sauce and broccoli and with light sauce I was give shrimp with tons of other vegetables and a couple pieces of broccoli. I wanted light sauce but I still wanted it to actually taste like garlic sauce. It literally tasted like it was steamed it was unapologetically lacking in flavor. The only good thing I have to say is that the ordering process was easy and the delivery was quick other than that I am truly disappointed in the food quality.
Place rating: 5
Brooklyn, NY
I found this place on Unilocal and figured since it was so close to our house to go and try it out. Loved it — we ordered orange chicken, sesame beef, garlic yu choy and hot and sour soup. Will definitely be coming back!
Place rating: 5
Durham, NC
Shanghai has been around as long as I could remember. It is a family owned restaurant full of very friendly staff who remember and know your name when you return. They are always so nice and attentive. The food at Shanghai is always reasonable price and if you get a combination dish it comes with your choice of wonton, egg drop or hot and sour soup. You can’t really go wrong with any of these as they are all delicious. The combination also comes with your choice of egg roll, vegetable roll or Shanghai roll which has shrimp inside. I usually prefer to get the Shanghai roll as it has a more thin and crispy wrapper. They have their normal American Chinese menu and also have an authentic Cantonese menu to order from as well. Every meal also comes with a pot of black tea which you can also get free refills of which I love! Overall, Shanghai is one of those local Chinese restaurants that will have you coming back for the friendly family family-​owned staff and great reasonably price food. I have also never left here without being satisfied and full!
Place rating: 2
Alpharetta, GA
Got this delivered to our hotel room in Durham so this is for DELIVERY.
Speed: Fast, came in like 30 minutes. So that’s awesome.
Food:
The good news is they have brown rice, the bad news is, everything else tasted pretty meh. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t something I’d order again. We got pork low mein (noodles), Scallops and Shrimp in garlic sauce, meat dumplings (steamed) and the «healthy» steamed beef and broccoli. In case you were wondering, the healthy option is super bland, it is literally steamed beef and broccoli with no seasoning at all. I’ve had this done at other places where they season it with garlic and ginger before steaming and while it’s not salty or anything it has a nice flavor. The low mein and seafood dish were both lacking something which I can’t quite put my finger on (no it’s not MSG). The meat dumplings were odd, I’ve had many a meat dumpling in my life and I gotta say, these were more like pierogies than Chinese dumplings.
I hear their authentic menu is good and had I gone in I would have asked about it. For now though, I’m not likely to go back while I’m in town.
Place rating: 3
Raleigh, NC
I have been ordering from here for home delivery for a couple of years and always been satisfied. The last time I ordered, however, it was horrible. Egg roll was tasteless as was the pork lo mein. Fried dumplings dough was too thick, and therefore doughy. Very upsetting. Couldn’t finish what I had and ended up throwing leftovers away.
I will try them again, hoping next experience will be better!
Place rating: 3
Mebane, NC
I need to give it a second try… I was on my way back from Richmond when I decided to grab some dinner to go. Chinese was the choice so I popped into Unilocal for well-​rated fare within easy striking distance of I-​85.
Bummed to see a 4 star rated restaurant listed as closed (Dragon Express), so I went with option 2… Shanghai. Also a well-​rated restaurant and listed to have brown rice; which I dearly love to see as an option in oriental shops.
I called in an order for General Tso and a spring roll w/​brown rice. $ 15 was the toll… which I thought a bit high compared to what I normally pay in my hometown spots (around $ 10 – 12). The lady on the phone said 15 minutes which worked out exactly to the time I could get there from my location on 85.
Easy to find and get in/​out. Didn’t really pay much attention to the tables or other interior design. Just wanted a grab-​n-​go.
The smell conjured up the hunger growl from the stomach so I went for the, easy-​to-​hold, spring roll. Not bad, but certainly not in a true spring roll wrap. It had the blistered, fried exterior of a traditional egg roll but wrapped thinly and with little chunks of meat inside. Not a bad flavor… but not what I had ordered or craved.
Got home and went in for the General Tso… large chunks of meat but with soggy breading, very light sauce and only about ½ dozen, very small, florets of broccoli. I was disappointed but hungry and too far away to really call them out on it. The brown rice was cooked well and not dry at all, so bonus points there,
All in all, I give it a «meh». Not really a four star experience at all…
Place rating: 3
Chapel Hill, NC
In terms of Chinese take-​out in the Graham area, this is the best I’ve found. The food is pretty solid.
Place rating: 5
Durham, NC
The best and the most delicious Chinese food I had in Durham! Nice environment, friendly people… Like eating at home
Place rating: 5
Downers Grove, IL
This came as a recommendation to us, as we were visiting Duke University.
My mom ordered the Chicken with Vegetables and I got the Beef Lo Mein.
It was really good plus they delivered to our hotel room very quickly!
Place rating: 4
Durham, NC
There are few things in the world more satisfying than Chinese food delivery, except if your eating you’re delivery leftovers the following day.
I’ve lived in Durham for a number of years and have eaten a lot of Chinese food from a lot of different places. I can say that there isn’t a single place where I have repeated my choice– with the exception of P.F. Changs which hardly counts as a Chinese place in my mind.
Shanghai is the place I have been searching for. Is it the best Chinese food I’ve ever had? No. Is it the best Chinese food I’ve ever had in Durham? The answer is undoubtedly yes.
Shanghais meals were tasty and filling. The rice was perfect, the meat and vegetables were only slightly over cooked, and sauces were palatable, not overpowering, and did not leave us with an upset stomach after the fact. The best part was unpacking my leftovers the next day to discover that my meal was still palatable and not a soggy mess. Truly, these dishes were cooked with a skill that is hard to find at rival Durham establishments.
To put it in summary– Shanghai delivers. And in a timely manner too, within 30 minutes of the time my call was placed.
Place rating: 4
Durham, NC
We went here for lunch and it was good. We started out with soup and then got our fried rice and orange chicken. I think the lunch prices are more reasonable than dinner, so I would recommend going for lunch. A good lunch spot, but service might be slowed if the place is packed. The service was good though so I can’t complain.
Place rating: 3
New York, NY
Shanghai, shanghai! I have mixed feelings of you.
I mean, yeah the food.
As an authentic Chinese, I think some of the dish are not good. But compared to other restaurants like red lotus, etc, this is definitely a good place to go. However, the price is just pricy with comparably small portion of the dish, making me feel like I am not satisfied.
The tofu dish is good but pepper salty chicken, no, no, no. I would not hurt my stomach again. I do not like the dry fried chicken at all.
Bottom line, if you are craving chinese food and in a hurry, this place is probably the one you should go.
Place rating: 3
Hillsborough, NC
I really wanted to like this place, but I had mixed feelings about it. First of all, the place is clean and very nice inside. The people and wait staff were extremely busy, but they were still overly friendly and attentive, which is refreshing. The décor was pretty typical, but still very nice.
We had mixed things to say about the food. The pork egg rolls were good, but a little lacking in flavor. The rice was pretty bland. It needed some seasoning. The beef and broccoli chicken was simply horrible. It may have been the worst I’ve ever had. The hot and sour soup on the other hand was the best I’ve ever had!
Everything else was ok. I’ll be back for the soup, but I’m just not sure about the rest of it. I’ll have to try something else and see what I think. After I try it again I’ll revise my review. Fingers crossed next time I’ll get something that blows me away like the soup.
Place rating: 4
Durham, NC
As much as I love Durham, we have a problem. It isn’t something frequently discussed but it should be. Okay, deep breath. Our Chinese food sucks. There, I said it.
When I used to live in Philadelphia, Chinese food was a weekly staple. Some was great, some was mediocre, but, at the very least, it was all passable. I got used to delicious Chinese food and took the availability of said food for granted. This was a mistake.
Over the last few years, I’ve tried any number of Chinese places in Durham and virtually every one of them has been subpar. Don’t get me wrong — Cary has some decent options — but if you’re looking for take out or a quick meal in Durham proper, you’ll be hard pressed to do better than Shanghai.
The first few times I tried their food, I didn’t think too much one way or the other about it. The restaurant is clean and the owners friendly. The prices are reasonable. The food is prepared quickly. But as far as the quality or taste? I didn’t give it too much thought.
Finally, after having takeout from for nearly the fifth time (which is a good sign in and of itself), I finally stopped mid-​bite and thought to myself, «Y’know, Shanghai is pretty great! Actual veggies — not just filler! Flavorful and well-​prepared tofu. Quality sauces!»
While I don’t necessarily want to settle back into the comfortable rhythms of weekly takeout, when I feel myself jonesin’ for Chinese, Shanghai will be my preferred spot.