Shanghai Saloon

I LOVE this place! Their salt and pepper wings are very tasty! I haven’t had a bad meal there yet!

Am I missing something here?!? Came here based on the positive reviews only to find out that they have terribly let me down. I think people come here for the Chinese Saloon style atmosphere cause it sure can’t be for the food. We ordered the small wonton soup, deluxe noodle soup, sea bass w/​string bean and pan-​fried dumplings. Wife had wonton soup and complained of the broth being bland. I had the deluxe noodle soup and boy did it hit me hard when the waiter brought it over I was overwhelmed with a strong raw animal type odor as if it wasn’t cooked! The longer the meat simmered in the broth, the more the smell went away! I’ve never in my life eating noodle soup at many Asian restaurants have I ever experienced anything like this. Broth was also bland and had to add soy sauce to give it some flavor. Ended up only eating half the meat and left most of the broth. Normally I would finish the entire dish but the damage was already done. Surprisingly the sea bass with string beans was a hit. Very flavorful in dark sauce with steam rice. As for pan-​fried dumplings they where okay. My wife swore that the frozen dumplings that we normally buy at the local Asian store have more flavor than the ones served to us. One observation that I immediately noticed was that there were twice as many non-​Asian customers as oppose to Asian customers which I thought was odd. And we all know Asians don’t mess around when it comes to Asian soup regardless of décor or price.
Chalk this one down as a bust!!!

Great spot for a date night — we skipped the long wait and sat in the back left-​hand corner of the restaurant. This open bar style seating area made it great for us to have a view of a TV and ample «elbow room». Obviously took advantage of the dumplings, but also had success with many of the other smaller menu items. Sculpin was on draft and very cold!

Took my boyfriend here for the first time! He loved it. I can’t remember what day it was but I know we came for dinner and it was packed. Wait for a table was about 45 mins to an hour. But somehow I found two open seating at the bar for my boyfriend and I. They served the full menu at the bar anyways.
Our bartender was super cool, I believe his name was Scott. We order the wontons, steamed dumplings, and some kind of spicy shrimp. Everything was really good and came out at a reasonable amount of time.
Overall, food was good and service was good. Just make sure you come when its not busy or try to find a spot at the open seating bar!

I wanted to grab a drink and play a couple of short board games. The husband wanted a place that served decent appetizers. This place totally fit the bill.
It was a Saturday in the late afternoon and although the Dumpling Inn side of the house was packed, the bar area was empty.
Pros:
Great bar area with loads of seating and some hilarious leather furniture and low tables that make it perfect to play cards or a board game with friends.
Brittany — our server, was incredibly attentive
Dumpling Inn food menu — soup dumplings are the best. Yes, it’s a limited menu but this is the best «bar food» you’ll find.
Cons
The mixed drinks were… terrible. Way too sweet. Stick with their beer menu.
Televisions everywhere. LIKE everywhere. Tuned to golf? I mean, at least go kitsch with a crappy B movie on a Saturday afternoon.
I would definitely try this place again.

The wor wonton soup had a tasty broth and good dumplings but the meat seemed undercooked and had too much fatty tissue for my taste; the variety of vegetables in the soup was lacking. Beware of ordering shots, one shot of fireball cinnamon whiskey was $ 7 (excessive!). All in all, it’s a good ambience and cocktails are nicely decorated but the food is average and the price of shots is a bit much.

Bar service was miserable. My wife and I came in on Friday, July 3^rd around 7:30 and got two seats at the bar. Ten minutes later someone asked if we wanted a drink. It basically went that way for the entire, semi-​miserable hour and a half we were there. Each thing we wanted to order was a chore, requiring serious eye contact and waving unfortunately. I spent 10+ years as a server/​bartender and am not just being an asshole. The two bartenders spent 99% of the night talking to each other and staying out of sight.
I have had Dumpling Inn dumplings a dozen times prior, and this was the first time I was disappointed. Seems like the restaurant is having a management/​supervision issue with their quality control. I hope they get it together.

Shanghai Saloon was awesome. We had a large group and they were very welcoming. As we love dumplings, and usually eat Asian food every Sunday, we knew we wanted to get as many different types as we could. The pork and chive dumplings were my favorite and the Egg Flower Soup was amazing, and could easily accommodate 10 people-​such large portions.
Overall, if i’m in town again, I would come back!

If you want great dim sum and a killer wor won ton soup, this is the place to go!!!

This place was relatively even bigger than it looks. There’s lots of space inside, and it goes all the way to the back and the bar area is right in the middle of everything. We got here around happy hour on a Sunday and it was pretty busy, the wait wasn’t bad though. Me and my family love Chinese food, but this place wasn’t exactly what we expected for such a huge venue… The servers were fine, they recommended lots of options for us since we’ve never been, but we knew what we liked from other times having Chinese food. First off the portions are not enough. We came as a group of 5, and got the shrimp fried rice, deluxe chow-​mein, orange chicken, salt&pepper calamari and egg drop soup. The fried rice, chow mein were probably enough for 3 hungry people, we had to order more but it was taking quite a long time so we ended up taking the rest of it to go. The food wasn’t bad, but I’ve had better at certain spots that aren’t expected to be delicious looking from the outside. I don’t know if it was an off day, but maybe I’ll come back I’m not entirely opposed to it.

Parking was awful at noon. Probably worst possible time to try this place for the first time. Cool spot inside, Wild West meets the East. Beef shank noodle soup was delish and they brought our food out quickly. Will definitely come back for dinner soon and visit the bar area.

the food was great and love the atmosphere!

Finally tried this place with my girlfriends! I think i enjoyed everything! It was so yummy. We started with some fried noodles which was tasty. After the noodles we ordered some dumplings. We order the pan fried pot stickers, steamed pork dumplings, and steamed xioa long boa. Everything was excellent, but the xioa lobg boa was sooooooooo good… I think i can eat the entire plate my self. Oh and you can’t forget to get the housemade hot sauce for a $ 1 more. Ridiculous that they charge for it but it’s really tasty with everything. Then we shared a few different entrees. We ordered the black peppered steak, black bean seabass, and the honey walnut glazed shrimp. Everything was so flavorful and cooked well. My favorite would have to be the black peppered steak though

When I heard Dumpling Inn was moving next door and expanding I was excited for the larger space and worried it may change. There is SO much more room and a bar. Great atmosphere, and décor, and the food is the same amazing food everyone knows and loves. Can’t say anything bad about the new place. Delicious and fast food, no more long wait for a table. There is something for everyone, traditional Chinese food and some Americanized versions as well.

I gotta say, this place has a little bit of an identity crisis, but I kind of like it! It’s a mash of traditional chinese and a modern lounge, making it an interesting concept. It comes down to the fact that they still serve the yummy food from the old Dumpling Inn, while having daily drink specials and a bar area «the Saloon» for people who want to hang out and nibble while they enjoy a very large selection of craft beers. Thank goodness we don’t have to wait hours to eat here anymore! However, no more BYOB. Boo.
I had the pork dumplings, shrimp and chive, and of course the soup dumplings. I gotta say, their dumplings are pretty good. They’re not SF good, but, they’re good. I got a great round of soup dumplings that actually had lots of soup in it. This is a rarity these days here. I also had the green bean sea bass, which was bomb. I of course had a tasty craft beer to drink with my meal. Yum.
Happy hour after 9-​close. They also have some other happy hours. Woo hoo!

Delectable dumplings~
Last Saturday night I tried Dumpling Inn — Shanghai Saloon and was excited to try the food for the first time. I came here ready to try out the restaurant and we put our name down for an hour wait. It was that packed!
But luckily we changed our mind and decided to post up at the bar, which was perfect because I was starving. The only bummer with the bar is that it does not have the full menu. it is more limited and a minimal selection. We ordered: Steamed Xiao Long Bao, Juicy Pork Bun. this has Pork, Napa, Green Onion & Peanut Sauce, it came with ten of these dumplings and had a soft spongy taste with all the moisture and flavor of the inside. It was quite satisfying and I totally would recommend getting two rounds of those. And we ordered some chicken wings. wing lovin’. I wanted to try the salt and pepper wings (MmMmM), but the bartender insisted the other wings were better which had some tangy spicy asian glaze taste so I took his opinion and tried it. The wings ended up being yummy, but I still want to try the regular salt and pepper wings next time and decide which one is better at this place. It had a tangy and flavorful moist, which took away from how I like the crunch of fried chicken wings.
As for drinks my friend got the East Meets West Sour, which is pretty much whiskey sour and I got the shanghai cocktail which was made really good. For round two I decided to do a Mai Tai, and it was also crafted well. Both cocktails I had were really good with Ballast Point Three Sheets Rum in the mix.
The ambiance is chill as the inside of the restaurant & bar, we were there around 6−8pm. so the bar slowly got busy then slowed down and the restaurant wasn’t packed anymore. At the bar they had the Padres game on the TV’s at the bar. The view around the bar is the fun restaurant which I also still want to try next time to experience the full menu. And the customer service is great as the bartender was following up on how we liked the food and drink, and was friendly and attentive.

Good way to start things off. Sean, the bartender was polite and went above and beyond to take care of my wife and friend who wanted specialty mixed drinks. Its brand new. only been open a couple of days, and the bar is not fully stocked yet. free beer tasting while you wait to be seated in Dumpling Inn. Nice design, lots of TV. s ad room to sit. hope it stays good. we will see