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There’s a couple of good Shanghainese restaurants in the San José/Milpitas/Fremont area and this one is one of the better ones. It started as a food catering group on WeChat (the “Facebook” of China) and they did so well that they finally opened their own restaurant. The only reason I’m not giving it a 5 star review is because the service wasn’t very hospitable and was instead downright pushy. (Yes, it’s common practice in Chinese restaurants but I would still like to see an improvement in that area.) I-Shanghai Delight is located on Stevenson Blvd. in Fremont. It’s located in a large plaza close to Highway 880. There’s plenty of parking in the large lot. You just have to remember to get there early or the wait will be pretty long. So I had thought that the popularity of this place had died down from their grand opening a few months ago. Nope, that’s not the case. We got there before the restaurant opened and people were already going in the door to put their name on the waiting list. So don’t be shy. Try to open the door as soon as you get there! Thank God we got in for the first seating of dinner. This place does stand out in the group of many Shanghainese restaurants for me, because they have a lot of the specialty street foods that you can only find in Shanghai. If you want to try anything different that’s not on the menu in other places, do try those items. Braised Rice w/ Green Vegetables & Salted Pork : This was good but not amazing. It’s always a good starch to order, because it’s one of the most popular home-style items people actually cook in their homes in Shanghai. The amount is good enough for 2 to 3 people. Deep-Fried Turnip Pie : This item is a great snack to order. It’s deep-fried and they use a lot of turnip slivers inside. Each order only comes with two, but they’re pretty big. I always try to find this on the street whenever I’m in Shanghai, because those are the best ones! Pan-Fried Pork Bun : This is one of the best things you can order here. Definitely juicy and the bottom is hard but not blackened. I would definitely order this again. Pork Dumplings : Not as good here as some of the other restaurants. The skin is thin, but the knob is way too thick on top. Also the flavoring is too bland. Egg Dumplings w/ Cabbage : This was the one item that I was REALLY excited for, because this is the thing my mom or other relatives will always make for special occasions. It was flavored perfectly! Not too salty. Each one isn’t too small either. My sister told me that this was the one item that always ran out within the first hour of posting on Wechat. You always had to order it as soon as you see it posted every week or else you’re SOL. My sister always gave me some extras if she got an order. Thanks Jane!

Shanghai Dumpling House Menu with Prices 37 Biltmore Ave, Asheville

Opened in August 2019 in the space occupied by Doc Chey’s Noodle House for 15 years, Shanghai Dumpling House has big shoes to fill. Doc Chey’s was highly successful and reportedly closed only because the operators, who still own the building and an interest in two Doc Chey’s restaurants in Atlanta, were tired of the day-to-day hassle of running a popular restaurant. Based on my initial visit, early indications are that Shanghai will have to make some menu changes and up its game if it wants the kind of success Doc Chey’s enjoyed. I am always happy when a new Asian food restaurant opens here, because Asheville is weak on nearly every Asian cuisine, but unfortunately Shanghai Dumpling didn’t live up to our expectations. First, some positives. We arrived around at around 6 pm on a Friday, and there were still a lot of vacant tables. (Within the next hour, it filled up some but was never super busy.) Service by our waitperson, Sharon, was very friendly, and the dishes came out in a timely manner. While the layout of the restaurant hasn’t changed much from the Doc Chey’s days, the atmosphere is pleasant, and I liked the murals (one is a black and white sketch of Chinese and Western celebrities). Auspiciously, the first dish we ordered, the signature soup dumplings ($9), was very good. A little hard to eat, but flavorful, and I like being able to make your own sauce (soy, ginger and vinegar). But the food went downhill from there. Our order of deep fried rock shrimp ($8) had delicious light golden shrimp, but the dish was spoiled by the mayo goop that was poured all over it. Suggestion: order the sauce on the side or without any sauce. Likewise, our calamari ($8) looked good, but in fact was tough and chewy. For a dumpling house, there aren’t many dumplings on the menu. There are only four basic kinds of dumplings on the menu — soup, fried (pork, chicken, shrimp or vegetable), won tons with spicy sauce and pan fried pork buns, which I don’t consider dumplings, although others may. Red Ginger has many more types of dumplings on their dim sum/tapas menu than Shanghai. And I would say the quality and atmosphere at Red Ginger are much higher than at Shanghai Dumpling House, at about the same price points. The two entrée dishes we tried, Kung Pao chicken ($15) and sautéed green beens with garlic and dried peppers ($11) were extremely bland. We couldn’t see any garlic or peppers in the green beans and ended up taking nearly all of them home. The Kung Pao chicken was virtually tasteless. I can make a better, livelier version of this dish using those little packets of Kung Pao seasoning you buy in a grocery. Entrées at Shanghai are $11 to $25. With three Tsingtao beers ($4 each) our dinner for three came to around $75 before tip. Shanghai Dumpling House had four local beers on tap, some bottled beers and a few wines. There were no mixed drinks, but perhaps the restaurant hasn’t gotten its full liquor license yet. I imagine this place will do okay for a while due to its excellent location on Biltmore Avenue, but for repeat local business and long-term success I believe the owners will have to make some menu changes, adding more dumplings and coming up with some more sophisticated entrées and other dishes. Strategically, the owners are going to have to decide whether this is a mass market low-end Chinese spot (one of the owners operates Shogun Buffet, I understand) or an interesting, more upmarket place like Red Ginger. I wish Shanghai Dumpling House well, but just based on our first experience, we probably wouldn’t come back and certainly would not be regulars.

Happy Garden 17 INC – Menu with Prices – 17 Division St, New York

I can only concur with the thrust of other reviews and what fellow neighbours have to say. The word on the street is by-and-large correct in this case. I ordered the sample appetizers platter (chicken tenders, fried pork bun, chicken wings, spring roll) and I was quite well pleased. Although a humble meal, the thing I noticed was that the battering and frying were all done (as the phrase goes) ‘to perfection’. I mean let me tell you whut. Everything was precisely, crispy crunchy, deep-brown, golden, fried. I gave particular attention to the wings because any red-blooded American male is always looking for a fail-safe back-up, keep-in-reserve wings place. Although these sampler-platter wings weren’t drumstick or 2-bone Buffalo-style wings they were more like full-size wings as you’d find in a bucket of Colonel. They weren’t “sauced”. But as I stated above, they were supremely, inordinately well-fried; like the tastiest fried-chicken you ever had. Big kudos as well go–and deservedly so–to the clever, deep-fried pork buns. Handled here, unlike I’ve tasted anywhere else in this boro. And I reside very near Brooklyn Chinatown. But see, most Chinese eateries don’t deep-fry their buns when asked for fried pork buns. What most joints do is simply toss buns in a skillet until browned crispy on one side. This is the only way they might differ from ‘steamed pork buns’. Not so, at Happy Garden. Nope. Not the case at all. Fans, I’m here to tell you that here at Happy Garden they take their pork buns and apparently hurl them right down into a bubbling vat of deep frying oil. Dunk them down until they squeal. The result are little pop-em-in-yo’-mouf morsels of pork and batter goodness. Unusual! My advice to you is to make these a standard part of any order here. The rest of the menu, I have yet to sample. But I did note that the prices were mighty easy to swaller. Verdict: cheap and good Far Eastern eats!

Fiesta Margarita – Menu with Prices – 179 Mall Cir Dr, Murfreesboro

I have been coming to this restaurant for about 3 years now. Now thereâ??s a new owner. Yesterday I called first to see what time they close and I was told 10 and it says 10 on there website. I get there and Iâ??m told they close at 9. So I tried to rush and get my order in they were closing in a few minutes. When I got my food out; my queso dip was cold. And my food order came out wrong. It wasnâ??t what I ordered at all and had bacon on it and I donâ??t eat pork. I tried to send it back and my server let me know that the owner said. I can either eat it or leave. I worked in the restaurant business for 7 years and Iâ??ve never heard of that. Whenever we close, we take care of the last customers until they are done. We just canâ??t let anyone else inside. But youâ??re never rude to the customer and say either eat it or leave. The table next to me, all white people, let me add. They got everything they ordered and as they denied me all I wanted them to do was fix my order because I didnâ??t eat pork or ask for pork, but the table of white people ask for more things after they closed and got everything they asked from the owner. She was nice to them but mean to me and my sister, we are black. It seemed like she stereotyped us. I do work in the tv industry and my sister is a nurse and we always tip good. Donâ??t go here. The new owners suck.

Homemade Southern Cuisine – Menu with Prices – 3240, 1706 Main St, Green Bay

Wow! What a hidden gem in Green Bay. My sister and I traveled to Green Bay for a weekend and while we were there we did some research, looking for a unique restaurant for a home cooked meal. With this place we hit the jackpot. The word “Southern” in the name beckoned us and the reviews sealed the deal. It is a little off the beaten path, but definitely worth the short drive from our hotel. The place is owned and operated by the nicest woman I have encountered in a long time. She cooks all of the food from scratch, which includes tasty sides like black eyed peas and mac and cheese. The hand cut fries were our favorite! We split an order and brought one back to the hotel. That’s how good they were! Every dinner comes with 2 sides along with a huge hunk of cornbread which was the best! My sister had the fried pork chops and I had the fried chicken wings and talk about comfort food! The flavor was outstanding and brought back memories of our Sunday Dinners when we were little girls, growing up in North Carolina. The portions are large as you can see by the pictures and the atmosphere and outstanding service were top notch. Skip the chain restaurants and the usual places you might go for lunch or dinner and take a drive to this restaurant. I can promise you the first bite of cornbread will have you smiling and thanking me for my recommendation. One thing is for sure, you won’t leave hungry and you will probably take some cornbread home!

Kimchi House – Menu with Prices – 500 Oxford St W, London

Just came here with my Dad and younger sister for the monthly tradition of driving me back into London. My sister decided to order the ddeokbokki with cheese, while my dad and I decided to share a large gamjatang. One thing that has definitely improved since my last visit was that they now offer tea as a beverage option, whereas it used to be only cold water before. Like most authentic places, the tea is also free with free refill. However, we were quite disappointed with our orders. The large gamjatang was neligibly larger than a regular sized pork time soup… there was only an additional bone, yet the entire thing cost an extra $3. The ddeokbokki wasn’t good, to say the least. My sister found it overly sickening sweet, slightly ketchup-y, and not at all good. In fact, she barely touched it.

Bangkok 54 Restaurant Menu with Prices 2919 Columbia Pike, Arlington

Decided to try Bangkok 54 with a group of my friends on a weeknight. I had seen the restaurant before because I have gone to Boru Ramen a couple times before (right next door). Not a fan of the parking in this area because it is very limited. Bangkok54 is a little better with their own lot in the back, but it is a little tight and can fill up quickly depending on the day. Service is always very friendly at Bangkok 54. The restaurant is very large, so I have not had to wait for a table yet. Dishes here range from maybe $12-15 on the menu with the classics like Thai curry, stir-fried dishes, noodles, soups, etc. Food: Mock Duck (vegetarian) – My friend ordered the mock duck the past two times and it is sooo good. It is crunchy, crispy, savory, and spicy!! Stir-Fry Kaprow (pork) – This is usually my go-to dish at Thai restaurants besides Khao Soi. It’s just stir-fried spicy pork with basil and peppers. It was pretty standard here and a little more on the pricy side. Mango Sticky Rice – Really good mango sticky rice here! Mangos were fresh and ripe and the sticky rice was sweet and delicious. Overall, food here is pretty solid and the restaurant is large. Parking can be a bit of a hassle sometimes, but not too bad since they have their own lot. Would recommend for some solid Thai food in the area.

Boiled Skewer – Menu with Prices – 2180 Pleasant Hill Rd B3, Duluth

I really like Boiled Skewer. This is a Chinese hot pot restaurant that offers a plethora of skewers (various meats, animal parts, vegetables, noodles, and more) for only 50 cents a skewer. The ingredients are fresh and of decent to good quality for what you pay, making this place an excellent value, not to mention a fun experience (assuming you’re a fan of cook-it-yourself hot pot). The restaurant opened September 2016 and is one of three hot pot restaurants at GW Marketplace (Sweet Hut Duluth shopping center); the other two hot pot restaurants being 89 Hot Pot (traditional Chinese) and Pop Pot (Taiwanese). At the time of writing this review, there are about five other hot pot restaurants, mostly Korean, within an approximate half-mile radius. I think this makes 2180 Pleasant Hill Rd in Duluth the de facto hot pot center of metro Atlanta. Boiled Skewer differentiates itself from the competition by offering a self-serve smorgasbord of kabobs or skewered items which you cook yourself inside a hot pot at your table. Electric flattop stoves are installed at every table. Each table seats four. One table shares a large communal hot pot as opposed to there being an individual hot pot for each customer. Split hot pots are available if a table wants to order two soup broths instead of one. Soup options include classic spicy, double flavor, original bone, mushroom flavor, and seafood flavor. Soups cost about $4-6 each, but are free at lunchtime (12-3pm, daily) and free at dinnertime if you spend at least $25. Extra spicy soup costs a dollar extra. I’ve tried the classic spicy and double flavor and like both, though I prefer classic spicy. Both are seasoned well with the double flavor having a milky white broth and the classic spicy having a red oily broth. Unlike other hot pot places like J’s Mini Hot Pot or 89 Hot Pot, Boiled Skewer premixes sauces for you. Sauce options include classic peanut sauce, sesame paste sauce, sesame oil sauce, oyster peanut sauce, and original sesame paste. Sauces are included with your meal and you can ask for as many as you want. I’ve tried them all and think they’re all pretty good. My favorite is the sesame oil sauce. By default, all sauces come with chopped cilantro. Plates of sliced raw meat are ordered off the menu for about $5-6 a plate. They have beef, lamb, pork, and chicken. I recommend ordering at least one plate of meat for every two people. Other menu items include Chinese bread, dumplings, fried pumpkin pancake (tasty and suggested), and fried chicken nuggets. These are mostly $2-5 an order. Boiled Skewer’s claim to fame are its three double-door refrigerators featuring a wide assortment of self-serve skewered items as well as bowls and plates of food, all meant to be cooked in your hot pot. Put on a pair of restaurant-supplied food prep gloves and go to town. Below I’ve compiled a comprehensive, but not exhaustive, list of things you can expect to find: Fridge #1 – Fish tofu – Chinese sausage – Imitation crab leg – Octopus – Pork intestines – Chicken hearts – Fish sausage – Quail eggs – Pork luncheon meat (Spam) – Sweet sausage – Fish balls – Beef tendon balls – Shrimp balls – Clam meat – Squid – Fresh shrimp – Pork – Chicken – Prepared pork intestines – Beef omasum tripe – Beef tripe – Fried tempura Fridge #2 – Broccoli – Lettuce – Bean seedling – Watercress – Napa cabbage – Vietnamese chrysanthemum – Taro – Chinese yam – Shanghai bok choy tips – A choy – Spinach – Mushrooms – Enoki mushrooms – Cilantro – Tomato – Cauliflower – Pumpkin – White radish Fridge #3 – Bean thread – Pork bone noodle (ramen) – Fresh corn (mini, on the cob) – Rice cake (tteokbokki) – Sour cabbage – Bamboo shoots – Frozen tofu – Dried soy bean knots – Dried bean curds – Lotus – Seaweed – Fungus (wood ear variety) – Udon noodles – Shanghai noodles – Flower petal pasta – Eggs – Vietnamese rice noodles – Green bean noodles – Sweet potato noodles – Fresh tofu – Konjac silk – Fried tofu – Fried round gluten – Chinese twisted cruller – Chinese egg noodle

Hawaiian Style Grill – Menu with Prices – 5000 E 4th Plain Blvd A106, Vancouver

My sister was craving some Hawaiian Food. We came across this place on Yelp as it is the closest to where we are staying. We got in about 30 minutes before closing and the cashier greeted us with “Hi Friends! Are you ready to order?” She suggested that we order all at once and then she can separate the payment, that way we can get our food at the same time. We ordered two of the kaluha pork mini with rice and macaroni for $6.99. Our food came pretty quick. My sister was looking forward to trying this place but we were both a bit disappointed. The kaluha pork was VERY salty for our taste compared to other Hawaiian restaurants we have been to. We had to eat a chunk of rice to balance out the saltiness of the kaluha pork. The macaroni salad was a bit plain and was nothing special. You can taste the salt, pepper and mayo but it was missing flavor and maybe needs vegetables (like carrots?). The cashier asked us a few minutes later from getting our food, if we wanted cups and ice for our Hawaiian sun drinks (which is $1.95). Although we declined, I feel that was courteous of her to ask. Overall, I give this place 3 stars since they have good customer service and good portions. We are willing to give this place another try (probably not near closing) however we would need to order something different from the menu as the kaluha pork was not our favorite.

Luckhaus & Brubaker Sweets & Treats – Menu with Prices – 1939 Maybank Hwy, Charleston

We just used Luckhaus this past weekend for my mom’s 70th sweets birthday party! While I did the cake and some of the desserts, we also contacted Luckhaus to handle some as well. Setting up an appointment to meet with one of the owners was easy. We appreciated the fact that my sister and I were both coming from out of state/country and were only going to be in town for one day, that she was willing to meet with us on that one Saturday in August. It was comforting to be able to chat about options and thoughts on flavors and ideas that she may have for a fall dessert party. We made our order through e-mail a few weeks in advance for pick up on Saturday. Ordering and pick up by my sister was a breeze. My only gripe…while we don’t necessarily feel entitled to anything free, we did not make a cheap order. On the day of, when my sister went to pick up the sweets, she wanted to try 1 pumpkin macaroon that they had in store that day. She loves pumpkin – which is not easily available in Italy. She was asked if she wanted that one item rung up separately or with the order. I mean really? It is just one of those gestures that would have been nice to say, on the house, thank you for your large order and we hope your mom enjoys her party!

Golden Seafood Restaurant – Menu with Prices – 2425 Nanaimo St, Vancouver

We came here because I had bookmarked Phoenix Garden. Walking up I realized that it was no longer Phoenix Garden and is now Golden Seafood. We considered leaving but we were hungry so we decided to give it a try. Our low bar dim sum is Pink Pearl so we thought as long as it was similar quality, we’d be fine. There’s signage that it’s under new management and offers 20% off dim sum during the week and 10% on weekends. It’s chaotic in there. There is absolutely no order at all. There’s someone giving out numbers to people. Some people before us never got a number. They let their regulars get better and bigger tables which was frustrating. They also seemed to have gotten tables even though they arrived after us. They made a new table for us right in front of the seafood tanks. They jokingly kept saying it was the best seat in the house with ocean view. They were not stingy with the tea leaves. Our tea was dark AF. I had to take 80% of the leaves out because no matter how much water we added, it was just too dark because there were too many leaves. The service was lacking. We only had our tea water refilled twice and they took up to 10-15 minutes before they noticed it needed a top up. Onto the food. There were two star dishes in my books: deep fried squid tentacles and xo sauce deep fried radish/turnip cubes. I’ve never had the latter anywhere else and it was really tasty. Everything else was meh. The worst was the bbq pork rice flour rolls. The shrimp and pea tip dumplings had way too much dough that we spat it out and just ate the filling. The steamed spareribs had 80% fat so the dish was left untouched except for the meat we could pick out because we didn’t actually order straight up steamed fat, did we? They didn’t wash the gailan well because I chewed pieces of sand in my mouth. Crunch crunch crunch – ick! The service was the absolute worst. Dim sum can be erratic sometimes with the amount of people and food everywhere but they clearly need to be under new new management because their new management still sucks. They’re understaffed and there’s no order to anything. The payment area is also where they shove dirty table cloths. So while you’re paying, how would you like to be inches from that? Put that in the back or somewhere away from customers trying to pay. Also, they need to reorganize seating because their service station just doesn’t work. Their area with napkins, chopsticks, etc was behind tables next to the seafood tanks. They’re constantly replenishing chopsticks, plates, bowls etc and it’s inches from our faces and people’s backs. That area should be easily accessible and away from people. It took almost two hours for 2 people to get in, wait, eat, pay and leave – that is ridiculous. As much as I loved the two dishes previously described, it’s not worth a return trip. I’d rather eat at Pink Pearl where the service is infinitely better and the food is actually better than this place (minus those two star dishes I mentioned earlier).

Foodie Spot – Menu with Prices – 1032 Florin Rd, Sacramento

The food is awful. I guess I should’ve realized what I was in for when I saw the name. I even actually detoured as I was on my way to L&L but then noticed that this place is a Chinese restaurant (thought it would be a sandwich shop given the non-descriptive name). I like giving new Chinese restaurants a try so I headed on in. While I’m not sorry I gave them a shot, I AM sorry that the food was so bad. My go-to items to try out Chinese restaurants are their wor wonton soup and house fried rice (wor wonton soup because I love wor wonton soup and house fried rice because while I also love fried rice, house fried rice usually has a variety of protein so it’s a good way to try them all out at the same time). After learning that the house fried rice doesn’t include pork (and I was, mostly, ordering it for my husband, who loves pork and isn’t so fond of beef), I decided to order BBQ pork fried rice instead. I also got the wor wonton soup and a dinner combo of broccoli beef with pork fried rice (which, apparently, is just their shortcut way of saying BBQ pork fried rice). First, the wor wonton soup, while the broth was actually tasty, had a few pieces of chicken and limp leaves of napa cabbage, in addition to the wontons. That’s it. I’ve never had a wor wonton soup that was so bare; it seemed more like a wonton soup. I wasn’t impressed with the utter lack of anything else. The broccoli beef was watery and came with some rather light-colored, mushy pieces of beef. The broccoli was cooked nicely — not overdone. The beef didn’t seem to have much flavor. The fried rice was not good and rather tasteless. The small-diced BBQ pork didn’t seem to have any bearing on the rice. The restaurant was devoid of customers when I walked in so the counterperson only had me to wait on. She was quite friendly and did carry my food out to me when it was ready but, unfortunately, that’s not enough to render a positive review. The food was simply terrible. The good customer service and the fact that there’s actually one other Chinese restaurant with even worse food earned the second star (Panda Wok at the other end of Florin has the worst Chinese food I’ve ever had; however, the one time I went in there, it was packed with customers and a long line so I guess they have their own cadre of fans of their horrible food).

O’Daly’s Hole in the Wall – Menu with Prices – 562 Dauphin St, Mobile

The LODA entertainment and restaurant district desperately needed a place like this very badly. Attached to O’Daly’s Irish Pub, this small counter service restaurant is open till around 2am! The front of the restaurant is a counter service that has a garage door that opens on Dauphin Street; Inside of O’Daly’s there is a small window where you can order the entire menu and then receive a pager and come back when your food is ready. Now for the food, I have a few favorites that are usually what I find myself ordering when in the position. First the Conecuh corndog, an oversized corn dog made with Conecuh sausage with and awesome batter and then deep fried tastiness. Its served with an awesome sauce to dip it in and some fries! The pizzas are handmade with fresh ingredients and awesome dough. These are full sized pizzas and can be split amongst all whom you choose. Lastly, when you’re really feeling like treating yourself or feel like a french fry overload, the Trash Can Fries are amazing. Literally its everything you can think to put on a french fry and then covered in cheese. They are awesome and without a doubt will satisfy that late night craving for deep fried food. The only reason that I give them four stars is because they can be a little slow, I am not sure what if anything they can do about it but sometimes they simply get backed up. Otherwise give it a shot if you’re in the market for a late night calorie fest or just have a hankering for some deep fried food!