07/15/09

great place; one stupid rude waitress

by framura

This is my favorite Chinese restaurant, been going there for over 10 years.

Check out their cold appetizers, smoked fish, preserved duck, spicy five jewels, vegaratarian mock duck,..black mushrooms wrapped w/ bean curd skin.

There is one stupid rude waitress...she's short (around 5 feet) and wears a ponytail...the rest of the staff is pretty good.

• Pros: best soup dumplings , cheap , great food

06/10/09

Have right attitude, get good service

by ccfoodie

Note this is now called Shanghai Cafe, not Shanghai Gourmet.

Despite all the comments I've seen about unpleasant servers here, I decided to give it a try, as the food itself seemed quite compelling. I've found that if you approach the customer-restaurant relationship with the right attitude, people that might usually tend to crankiness will actually warm up and be relatively pleasant. If you are quiet and courteous, servers will respond in kind. I also recommend being ready to order when the server first comes, not ordering off menu, eating all or nearly all of the food, and waiting patiently when things are busy. Also, don't skimp on the tip because of perceived injustices.

Anyway, I ordered the spicy stewed beef with noodles in soup ($4.95), the steamed tiny buns with crab meat and pork ($6.95), and a hot ginger tea ($2.25). The stewed beef and tea arrived within five minutes. The beef broth was delicious, spicy/salty/sweet, and the beef itself very flavorful. The noodles weren't that exciting, but they just seemed like an accompaniment anyway, so no big deal. The ginger tea arrived very hot and was a good level of gingery zinginess but not overwhelming.

A few minutes later, the buns arrived. These "tiny" buns were actually pretty substantial--way too big to fit into my soup spoon--and there were 8 of them. The waitress thoughtfully reminded me that they were very juicy and that the juice was hot, so I should be careful. I was careful and avoided any juicy disasters. As for the filling, the flavor was quite good and the texture was exemplary. The meaty part avoided the hard ball you can often get, and instead was tender to the teeth but held together well so you didn't have to eat it all in one bite.

Everything was good enough--and not overly heavy--to motivate me to eat all of the buns and 90% of the soup.

The waitress brought me the check within a couple minutes of my finishing and she even smiled when she thanked me--admittedly a rarity there. Others thanked me as well when I left. Overall a very satisfying experience.

• Pros: Really tasty food and nice decor
• Cons: Bad background music

03/17/09

NEVER GO HERE, MOST HORRENDOUS SERVICE EVER

by californiagirl6641

The food was decent, but nothing to laud over. The service on the other hand was the worst I've ever had the misfortune to experience. When I asked them to take out eggs out of a vegan dish because one of my friend's had to fast for Lent, they threw a fit. They also decided that it was their moral duty to give all of us a lecture on ordering dishes afterward. Finally, the cherry on top of the icing came in the form for an avid demand for more tip, even though we gave them 12%, which was generous considering their treatment of us. NEVER AGAIN WILL I OR ANY OF MY FRIENDS GO TO THIS PLACE. IF YOU WISH TO BE ANGERED BEYOND ALL MEANS, THEN PLEASE VISIT THIS PLACE.

• Pros: Example: best croissants in town
• Cons: TERRIBLE SERVICE, GREEDY SERVERS