Shanghai Bistro

Came here tonight with my family since our usual Shanghai restaurant was closed for the day.
This place is located on El Camino right next to the Yumi Yogurt place in Millbrae if anyone knows where that is. There’s a small parking lot right outside so you don’t really have to worry about parking.
The restaurant itself is a decent size and can probably sit a lot of people since a lot of the tables I saw were mostly those big round tables. There’s also a bathroom right up front so you can see the sign.
Now I have to be honest. my family and I got here around 7pm and we were the only group there. We were there for almost an hour and yet no other group had come in to eat so the wait staff (the wife I’m guessing.) was very attentive to our needs. As it was our first time there, she recommended a few dishes that sounded good to us so we ordered a few of her suggestions as well as our own preferences. I was also pretty bummed upon finding out that they did ran out of pig ears as well as pig kidneys. Like. what. No.
The food was… errrr. well… some were better than others. We had a noodle soup dish that was really salty so that was a no. Xiao long bao is always a must to order at a Shanghai place, but their dumplings were a bummer. My brother got their dan dan noodles and he said it was good, but not good enough to win his love over. My parents really enjoyed their green onion pancakes and «suy gow.» (Forgive my horrible translation). I, on the other hand, enjoyed their tea. Hehe. And the two dishes that my parents enjoyed as well.
Overall, the food wasn’t half bad. Service was attentive and their chairs and tables are actually pretty clean compared to other Chinese restaurants I’ve been in. Not sure when we would come back again, but it’s definitely going to happen.

It’s sad when a restaurant gets low ratings because of poor customer service.
We visited this restaurant on Presidents’ Day this week, since our first choice restaurants were all packed with people enjoying their holiday. The sign outside this restaurant said «DIM SUM» so we figured it’d be nice not to have to wait to get a table. [Note: no regular dim sum here like ‘har gow’ or ‘shu mai’]
When we walked in, the place was empty except for about 3 tables, including a customer wearing a Giants hat (important later). The waitress pointed to a table and then proceeded to put about 10 paper place settings on our table for 4. This prompted a conversation between the 3 of us in our party. «That’s a lot of paper to use on just one table. Why can’t they just wipe the table top?» A peek underneath the papers and tablecloth revealed the reason: the table was just an unfinished piece of plywood.
We ordered many dishes, since we were treating our friend to lunch. One item my husband wanted was «chives and pork dumplings.» When the dumplings arrived, we each took one and ate it. It was good but we didn’t realize they weren’t chives; they were cabbage. We didn’t realize the mistake until the waitress came over, looked at us closely and said, «Oh those were cabbage, weren’t they?» and walked away.
My husband quietly asked why we got our food before the Giants-​hat table, since they had been there before us. But we didn’t have to wonder too long because the waitress loudly said to no one in particular (in Mandarin): «The Americans want to know where their food is but I can’t help it if they order things that take longer to cook!» During our lunch, she would often talk loudly about other tables in Mandarin (which I could understand).
The food was ok. The xiao long bao were pretty bland though. Halfway thru the meal, our friend went to use the restroom and came back saying that the restroom was really gross and there were no paper towels. Later, my husband had to wash his hands, so he asked the waitress for some paper towels. She ended up giving him paper towels, as well as a packet of toilet seat protectors that she wanted him to replenish in the restroom. We thought that was kinda funny, but not really appropriate to have a guest fill up restroom supplies…
As we continued with lunch, we witnessed the waitress talking extremely loudly to the Giants-​hat table. Clearly it seemed like there was a miscommunication of dishes that were ordered. Either they had placed the wrong order or she had put in the wrong order. We felt bad for those customers because the waitress had this LOUD way of talking and seemed extremely pushy and impatient.
A few minutes later, the waitress brought a plate of dumplings to their table but they turned it away, since it seemed like the wrong order. I wondered if those might have been OUR chives dumplings, so I asked the waitress since she was carrying the dumplings back to the kitchen. She said she had given us the wrong dumplings but we had eaten them. She asked if we wanted the ones in her hands that were «really good.» I figured it was her token of apology for getting our order wrong, since this plate was going to go to waste anyways. So I said ok and she left the plate with us.
A while later, the Giants-​hat table continued to STILL have problems with the food order, so the customers asked for their bill. This caused even MORE loud talking from the waitress. We felt SO BAD for these customers. My husband muttered to me, «Well, they’re not coming back.» [Interestingly, the customer ended up writing a Unilocal review of this place a little while after they left].
We continued with our lunch and when it was time to pay, we asked for the bill. She had charged us for the extra dish that she had left on our table – that extra dish that had been placed on the Giants-​hat table and had been turned away by other customers!!! She gave no apology for getting our order wrong, and instead, charged us for a dish that was not cooked for our table.
When I talked to her in Mandarin, the loud voice was now directed at me. She blamed us for eating the cabbage dumplings when the order had been wrong. If we hadn’t eaten them, we could have gotten another plate. We didn’t mind that mistake, but I was shocked that she’d charge us full price for a dish that was meant for another table. She continued with her loud talking and saying how she would have to pay for the dish if I didn’t pay for it, etc.
At that point, I had seen enough and just wanted to get out of there. After I handed her my credit card, she calmed down a bit and said that next time we came in, she’d give us some free soup, etc. I knew I wouldn’t be coming to this restaurant again, until the owner got new employees that had better customer service.
There are so many great restaurants in Millbrae. Go elsewhere.

Worst service I’ve encountered in a fairly long time. Not only did she get the order wrong, they served other tables that came in later before us. Asian preference I guess.
The dumplings I had were good but had to cancel the rest since the waitress could barely speak English and when she did she screamed like chairman Mao on a propaganda video.
Definitely do not go here if you have any desire for an enjoyable dining experience. There are way too many options within a mile from here that are better

Ok food. customer service is absolutely terrible. so apparently they close some time after lunch (there’s no sign on the door) and the rude lady taking the order demanded that we review the menu and order quickly, because they were closing. She made us feel very uncomfortable by standing over the table as we checked over the menu, but when it was time to pay, she told us to wait as she finished her lunch. Never coming here again.

really authentic and delicious shanghainese cuisine. lots of veggie and meat options. as a vegan, i especially like coming here for their appetizers/​dim sum. i think the lower ratings might be due to patrons’ inexperience with shanghainese food or ordering the wrong dishes…
the food is also cheap. the restaurant interior isn’t super impressive and i’m not sure how well the waiters speak english… my dad speaks shanghainese to the waiters and owner, who is super nice and remembers my parents (regular customers). the owner usually gives my parents free food or a discount because they go frequently.

Hummm despite what other reviews have said about this place and the 3 stars rating, we decided to meet here with friends to have Shanghai cuisine. Their soup dumplings is delicious! Their fish in a sauce plate was also splendid! (Sorry for the lack of names. We saw an old couple eating it and just pointed when the waiter took order. :P) One of their fried dumpling dish had this really good peanut sauce which was different and new to my palate. Salt and pepper fish is also good.
I did wish that the chicken claypot did not have bones. AC could have helped a little with the temperature too.
With other reviews that stated angry remarks between staffs… guest that made it truly authentic. :)
I’ll return here again and hopefully not find a pubic hair like someone else did. yikes!

Where do I start!!! The wife takes our order, they brought out 3 of the 5. She missed the last 2 orders after that. So we asked the husband where the orders were, he then asked the wife, whom totally forgot and denies to him that she took our order. The husband comes back to ask again, as if we didn’t make it clear the 1^st time, the woman did… So he gets extremely upset! Asked the wife again, she states the younger waiter did. (Liar) Anyways they start screaming at each other in Chinese, telling one another to go to hell… Everyone in that place stopped and listened in on the commotion. At this point, we were done and asked the they stopped the order because we had lost our appetite. They denied and stated the order was already on the way! Food wasn’t all that good and the service is even worst! Won’t be visiting this establishment again!

Authentic Shanghai food. Pork knuckle was delist, and so was the xlb.
Clean cheap food, will definitely return.
Saw reviews from others, wondering why would they come to a Shanghai restaurant and have something not Shanghai food?
Its like going to a steakhouse and ordering fish

Give them 3 stars because the lunch was fun … you end up at a restaurant you know nothing about, then you check out the Unilocal reviews and they seem to be blasting the crap out of this place, with a passion. Here’s a fail proof strategy. Go with 6 babes, preferably Chinese American who are totally familiar with SB and will not fail to call them/​the restaurant, on their … indiscretions? Liann, Vicky, Linda, Cheryl, CJ and … After skimming some of the other reviews, I would hate to have seen my culinary fate if it wasn’t for LV et al. knowing their way around. AZ kinda comandeered, someone mentioned that SB was the favorite of … so I was pretty confident that this was headed in a good direction culinary wise.
«Seeking A Friend For The End,» HBO obscure movie is on for background noise as I write, but when the sound track goes to «All I Need Is The Air That You Breathe» and it’s about Kiera Knightley … Liann kind of has that Kiera vibe but this is about Shanghai dumplings …
Every where you look, and I had my back to the rest of the restaurant so my view was totally 6 babes, all friendly, accomodating, charming and protective, in the best of ways … oh yeah the food … trying to convey the context and atmosphere in the interests of accuracy …
Started with the drunken chicken thing … it’s like a girl’s dish because it requires such delicate, oral dexterity to maneuver around the bones for such slight payoff meat wise and avoidance of chicken bone impalement (this whole review is tongue-​in-​cheek, I might mention … no, seriously) but the alcohol marinade kind of does it … you want the dishes that get them away from the cell phones and candy video game … here’s some Chinese bacon dish, thinly sliced, in a soy based broth … fun to watch Vicky cut off a tiny piece to avoid the fat that’s incumbent in any bacon/​pork belly proposition. Thinking, «You know, you could jump up and down on the food, all of you and if it helps you look as beautiful as you all look, I’ll jump on it with you.»
The obscure HBO movie in the background has Herb Alpert’s «This Guy’s In Love With You» on the soundtack playing and Keira Knightley is the co-​star but recently got married so get over it … the sesame balls were burnt and the fried rice, no it was wet rice with green and pork stuff in it, tasted burnt so both dishes were sent back with an air of resignation, like: «We can’t believe you served that to us regulars …»
There were a lot of things on the menu that I wouldn’t mind trying. I’m kind of feeling wary after reading some of the other reviews before writing this one but I thought lunch was a winner today, spur of the moment and I kind of liked the Shanghai dumplings and I have had Shanghai dumplings at notable locales in Shanghai so that’s saying something … on the other hand, we could have been eating dirt and it would still have been a good lunch … ahahaha … no really. Just giving credit where credit is due…
Go everywhere surrounded by beautiful women. F – k the food … J/​K … Oh s – t — now it’s «Garden State,» on HBO, another obscure movie but this time Natalie Portman. Intelligence and beauty. Like our table. I’m looking at the Des G. review on the right and it sounds like someone with a personal vendetta or a competitor trying to sabotage. They should take that review down as it’s obviously a hack job.
So I would say, not bad. It’s definitely better in Shanghai but you’re not in Shanghai so what the heck. Then again there are a lot of options in the immediate vacinity on the Peninsula but I would eat here again. And when I do, I will comment more about the food —

We were brought here by our father in law’s friend who lives in South San Francisco. We ordered a variety of dishes from their shrimp specialty, to the house special with various organs/​tripe, to dishes that were more familiar like tofu hot pot, shanghai fried buns, pickled cucumbers.
The waitress was a bit pushy in her suggestions but that wasn’t my real problem with the food. The shanghai fried buns were too doughy, the pickled cucumbers lacked flavor. I have had my fair share of Shanghai food in SF and I can’t say I could recommend this place or would come back if I were in the area.

Would Never Eat Here Again.
Food: The chef must have lost his sense of taste, like the dad in Eat, Drink, Man, Woman. The food lacked flavor. The worst beef chow fun, ever. We ate some of what we ordered: beef chow fun, Shanghai style soup dumplings, pan fried dumplings, some sort of soup. We ate some but threw the rest away because it all lacked flavor. Terrible.
Atmosphere: typical low key Chinese restaurant décor. Not a place to have banquets.
Service: good, but no need to worry, because you shouldn’t eat here.

This place is okay. I don’t think this is really good Shanghai food but I guess every restaurant tries to implement their own flavors into it too. I came here a couple times for take out.
Ordered chicken fried rice, shanghai dumplings, and a peking duck. Their duck was kind of dry and the buns were eh. The dumplings were decent but not the way they it should look I guess. Fried rice were like fried rice you could get in any store so nothing too special about that either.
Only good thing is they make it really fast. The food is ready by 10minutes the most and it helps a lot when I am in a rush. Price is kind of decent too, they do have lunch specials which is smaller portions but definitely cheaper than their dinner menu

Came here for Shanghai dumplings and some chow mein. Pretty simple.
I don’t know, but I felt a bit apprehensive about the atmosphere. We weren’t Asian and it’s fine, but I do not appreciate being treated any differently.
Our dumplings did not look as pictured and it was not given in a bamboo steamer compared to the other patrons. We were not offered tea or anything to drink.
It was quite mediocre and did not particularly like the taste at all. I would never return here again.
Thank you for the lack of courtesy.

My parents drove down from Sacramento to have dinner with me for my birthday. Originally they had wanted to go to Shanghai Winter Garden but I didn’t like the poor Unilocal reviews it got. So I did some browsing & we ended up here.
I guess we got there right when they opened because we were the only table. We started with a Chinese spinach with bean curd which I would imagine what eating fresh tea leaves is like — it was a little chewy, a really clean flavor, & surprisingly refreshing. I got a Spicy combo of cold beef/​trip. This is a cold dish of sliced beef tendon tossed in a spicy oil. This particular dish wasn’t overly spicy & the tendon was good & crunchy.
My guy says it’s good luck to have chicken on a birthday. Being the overachiever that I am, I got 2 chicken dishes: the Chicken/​wonton casserole & the Stewed chicken noodle soup. The casserole was huge with at least half a chicken in it; the meat was dry though. The wonton felt homey to my dad & the soup was really tasty. The noodles were SO good. I think they are made of rice but the stewing made them sort of mushy. For some reason the soup was milky white but it was really delish.
We got 2 other dishes that weren’t so great. The Shanghai sauteed prawns used the wrong kind of prawns, it was too oily, & the baking soda made my tongue feel weird. the stewed sea cucumber/​green onion had good texture but it was too sweet.
We finished the meal with Fried pumpkin cakes that were crispy on the outside & not too sweet on the inside. There were 3 more tables by the time we were leaving. Although Chinese was not what I would’ve picked for my birthday meal, I was left very happy with (almost) everything & my full belly made turning 25 all that much better.

Consistently good food. Fast, fresh and flavors well balanced. Standard Shanghainese fare — little dumplings, noodles, onion cakes, etc. etc. However, this is the first Shanghai place where the little dumplings that are served in the restaurant is available for purchase frozen. We tried them at home and they tasted exactly as served in the restaurant. Depending on when you arrive, the availability of the bigger round tables may be occupied by large tour groups.

So so

Good for some tasty take out.
— rice w/​veggies + pork
— fried porkchops
— green beans
— xiao long bao is pretty good too if you’re dining in.
3 dishes to go comes out to just under $ 30.

My bf claims that this is an authentic Shanghainese restaurant because the workers speak the language. Also, because there were a lot of Shanghainese people eating there.
Best Shanghai fried rice cake I’ve ever had. Great flavors and texture.
Shanghai dumplings — nothing special, or well they all taste the same to me no matter where I get them. I’m not a big fan.
Shanghai fried pork buns — ehhh I would rather have another order of the dumplings instead
Spring rolls — pretty good. I like how it is flat. The filing tasted really fresh. I would order it again if I were craving for something fried.
Shanghai rice roll — I learned that this is authentic Shanghainese food. it contains sticky rice, chinese cruller, and pork floss. It is plain in flavors but worth a try for only $ 2.50.
I also had some type of fish cooked with a lot of green onions. My bf ordered everything since he is Shanghainese, and I am unable to figure what it is on the menu. I uploaded a picture of it. if anyone can tell me what it was. It was a little too slimy and salty for my taste.
Overall $ 37 for 6 dishes, which fed 4 people for lunch. We had enough leftovers to feed probably two more people. I’ve only been to two Shanghainese restaurants, and one shanghainese dumpling place in my life, so this place is my favorite Shanghainese restaurant for now.
My bf’s grandparents also said that the food is authentic, so I guess I should trust them because they are from Shanghai.

There used to be this terrific Shanghainese restaurant in San Mateo called Shanghai East. They had great food and good service, and our company used to take 10 – 20 people at a time there every other week. All was good in the world.
Then they changed chefs, and the food quality dropped. And then, in a flash, they were gone. We were sad, but we moved on.
Flash ahead 8 months, and I receive an excited email in my inbox, announcing that Shanghai East has been found! It’s in Millbrae, and renamed to Shanghai Bistro. The next day we have a dozen folks signed up to check it out.
Their new location is in a small strip mall on El Camino in Millbrae (which means it probably had about a thousand other Chinese restaurants to compete with. The strip mall has a two-​aisle parking lot, so parking should always be available.
When my car arrived, the wait staff immediately recognized us and sent us to our reserved table. That’s certainly a good sign.
The dining room is bigger than their old location. It has tall ceilings, lots of windows, and is very well lit.
All of that is nice, but seriously, all we really cared about was the food. Here’s what we ordered, almost all of which were items we always ordered back at Shanghai East:
Fish with wine sauce — This was always my favorite dish at SE, and typically worth the visit by itself. Fish fillets and tree fungus mushrooms in a sweet clear sauce. The dish here was very good, but not quite perfect. A little too much wine was the culprit. But this is nitpicking, because it was still delicious, and the difference was much more likely a slightly heavy hand than an altered recipe.
Mongolian chicken — I don’t remember this dish ever being as good at SE as it was here. Bursting flavors came with every bite of the chicken strips with red peppers and onions. Outstanding.
Xiao Long Bao (Shanghai dumplings) — SE always had the best soup dumplings around, and they continue that tradition here at Shanghai Bistro. You actually get soup in them when you order them here. Yum.
Pan fried rice cake with pork chop — Pork chops on the bone served with rice cake cylinders in a sweet dark sauce. Really tasty, and even better than it used to be.
Green beans — We ordered this vegetarian-​style because we had a vegetarian with us. Too bad, because the ground pork really makes this dish pop. Still very good without it, though.
Green onion pancake — Crisp on the outside, moist and chewy on the inside. They make one of the best versions of this in the bay area.
Dan dan mein — This is a spicy noodle dish that some folks love. I’m not a huge fan, but I do enjoy it. The version they served as wasn’t as good as what they used to serve at SE. It was okay, but when compared the rest of the meal, it definitely paled.
Tofu and bamboo clay pot — This was actually disappointing. Big cubes of firm tofu in a broth with shredded bamboo. There wasn’t much flavor, and it has already been crossed off our list.
Tomato soup with cabbage — They started the meal by providing us with this free soup. It looked like it was going to be hella spicy, but the red turned out to be tomato, not pepper. I liked it, it was simple and mild and a nice start to the meal.
Red bean paste squares — I don’t know what these are officially called, but they were clearly made in a pan (like lemon squares) with layers of dough with a thick layer of red bean paste in the middle. They were served piping hot and they were absolutely delicious.
So overall, a really freaking delicious meal. I left wondering if this food was always this good or if it had just been so long that I’d missed it. Regardless, we loved the experience, and we’re going to make the effort to get up to Millbrae (from Foster City) for lunch because it was totally worth the drive.

Quality has gone down… Portion has shrunk.
They tried to kill me, and during the process, they didn’t want to serve the food that I ordered before they put me to sleep. I order a Beef Noodle Soup and a Preserved Mustarded Veges w/​Shredded Pork Noodle Soup. Both came 3 mins apart, but the noodles were hard like rubberband. I immediately flagged the waiter down and he took the Beef Noodle Soup back to recook. Then 3 mins later I had to flagg him down because the other bowl of noodles were also not cooked. WTF? You want me to die?
Then my third dish came, which happened to not be the one that I ordered. I ordered a specific kind of Cao Nian Gao (stir fried sticky rice cake), and apparently the stupid chef made the Preserved Mustard Vege one. WTF? again!
Keep it up and you guys will loose customers. Another Shanghainese restaurant is opening up in Millbrae. Making it a total of 4 Shanghai Shops. Why eat here? HUH?

Shanghai Bistro is the transplant Shanghai East from san mateo. that would explain the crowds for this newly opened place. devotees descend upon here like locust. one would think a flash mob event took place. oh yes, shanghai east had tour group bookings also.
décor: seems similar to family china bistro
menu: very intensive, online version has english/​chinese versions.
sampling:
–steamed dumpling (xlb10/6.50)
pretty small droplets with some juice but dry meat inside. wrapping with small ring on top leaves questions whether xlb is homemade, seen elsewhere.
–beef tendon noodles (7.50)
average commerical noodles with lots of tender tendon and gai lon
broth a miss-​mostly soy, salt, msg? and star anise. where’s the beef? (flavoring)
*noodles not hand pulled, homemade.
leftoverers:
–less impressed with the food here than at shanghai east.
–vast menu. my favs not a hit.
–pricing higher than other shanghai eateries.