LJ Shanghai, Cleveland OH

Awesome little hidden gem. Every dish we tried was amazing, it's definitely on the spicier side. Service was great, the ambience was nice. We had a short wait of 10 mins before getting our table. Definitely worth trying the Meatballs, the spicy Wonton. Will be back again, we couldn't get to try the chicken because it was sold out!

Visited for the first time in five years and was not disappointed. If you don't know where to start, I highly recommend the Xiao Long Bao (Soup Dumplings) which is what they're known for. I once again opted for the Chongqing Spicy Noodle Soup which was as good as I had remembered it. Some of the most authentic Chinese food you will find. The staff is delightful and there is a good amount of seating as well.

I read some of the reviews about the staff/owners being rude and brushed it off as I was super excited about the hype. But let me say the staff/owners were incredibly rude. Not just to our table but everyone within ear shot. The menu was snatched out of my hand while I was looking at it, there was an uncomfortable atmosphere when someone came to our table, and we went above and beyond to be polite. It wasn’t busy while we visited but from what I could tell it’s how all of the customers were treated. We tried a few things and left immediately, the food is not worth such an unhappy/ semi hostile feeling environment, the food honestly isn’t even worth making a trip to the restaurant. If you have a local restaurant that serves dumplings or get frozen dumplings from a store you will have the same thing that is served here.

On the quest to find some of the best soup dumplings in the nation, my humble opinion is that this clean and friendly place has one of the best dim sum options. Structurally speaking, the soup dumplings hold up during transport from kitchen, to spoon, and finally your pie hole. The flavor and textures of the soup dumplings exceed expectations and will give you 6 reasons (dumps per order) to give LJ's a try. The Chongqing spicy beef soup was also the perfect way to warm up on a cold January afternoon. The flavor profile had an enjoyable depth to it and the beef was tender as the sweet Mother Theresa herself. Though Cleveland is a hard sell on places to visit (per Joakim Noah), LJ's will enrich your taste buds to the point of nirvana for any food lover.

I go just to eat the soup dumpling like twice a month. They are so delicious. It’s the only thing I eat there. But always great service and if you go there even semi frequent they start to remember you quickly. It’s always a good time with wife and son.

This is a cute noodle and dumpling house! The soup dumplings are the star here and it's quite delicious. The rest of the food is also quite good. It's more of a place to grab a quick bite and I would definitely recommend it for lunch!

This is literally one of my all-time favorite spots to get soup dumplings and other tasty noodle dishes. It’s almost embarrassing how much I go here.

The pricing is fair especially for the quality you are getting. Also, I love LJ’s chili oil, it’s one of the best! I’d recommend anyone to eat here. Some of my favorite dishes are: pork soup dumplings, beef daoxiao noodles, pan fried flat noodles, and the spicy beef noodle soup.

I have attempted to give this place more than one chance but the service is absolutely atrocious. For example the first time I came for dine in with my spouse we requested to order the beef noodle and we were told it was sold out for the day. We politely ordered something else, another table came in after us about a party of 6 whom the owner knew one of the members of the party. She asked if there was beef noodle left for her friends and the owner told her yes two orders left. We were shocked at this when we had arrived prior to this party and requested this dish before them. This is not how you should treat paying patrons and on top of that l, lie about what is available. I will say some of the food we had was decent but there are far better places with much more polite service. Even after this we attempted to give the place another chance and we were given a cold pork dish. We were unaware it was cold and asked if we could substitute or even just have it warmed up. Both the owner and another worker came over arguing with us. We tried to explain this isn’t what we ordered and we requested if it could be warmed up we would eat it. They declined to accommodate us at all. After my many terrible experiences I will never come back. I do not recommend coming here for anyone either especially if you are not Chinese you will not be treated with respect. There are many other great Chinese places in the area. Please support other local restaurants with great customer service and food.

My friend and I went here because we heard such good things about the soup dumplings, and we were not disappointed with them! We thought we would split an order since we were both ordering a noddle dish as well, but let me tell you, we both wished we had gotten our own order because they were so good! We were there around 4: 30pm on a Thursday and shortly after we ordered, the server announced they were temporarily out of the soup dumplings and anyone ordering them at that point would have to wait about an hour. So we were glad we had apparently just gotten there in time!
I got the Shanghai Scallion Noodle dish which was very simple, but I really enjoyed it! I'm a bit of a picky eater and don't like a lot of vegetables in my food - there was nothing but noodles in the dish, which made me very happy! Whatever oil they were cooked in was very good!
My friend got the flat noodle and beef dish and said she enjoyed it! Had some pea pods and onion slices in it along with strips of beef. I tried a bit and it had a really lovely grilled flavor! The flat noodles were different - very long, but a lot of fun to slurp up and eat!
They brought out my dish pretty quickly and then my friend had to wait quite a while for her dish to come out. The table next to us had also ordered the flat noodle with beef dish and theirs came out much later as well - guess it just takes longer to cook!
We had to wait quite a bit for the check and then more time to have our credit card run. They have a $15 credit card minimum and an extra $2 is added if you use an American Express card.
And we ended up parking at the nearby asian plaza with Park to Shop and just walking to this restaurant because it was pretty nice out and not far away.
Overall, a pleasant experience with great food! Will definitely return for more soup dumplings!

My dad and I stopped here after the frigid cold Christmas Eve Browns vs Saints game, and it was the perfect end to the day. As everyone agrees, the soup dumplings are phenomenal, so DO NOT pass on those. I got the pan-fried flat noodle and my dad got the pork w/pickle noodle soup, and both of us loved our meals. The staff were incredibly personable, and we couldn't have asked for a better meal. I'll definitely be returning with my friends to try some of the other dishes!

I’ve been here a bunch of times and the quality of the food has been excellent every time. The spicy chaoshou dumplings, stir fried rice cake, and dao xiao beef noodles are my favorites. Would love to see them expand their menu with more main dishes like braised pork or Sheng jian mantou.

The food here was very good but the servers and busser were being very rude about tips! I don’t know if it was a race issue or they were trying to count our pockets based on looks but me and my friends were hassled about a tip and to be completely fair we are in a recession and we didn’t have it to give to them.the whole environment was completely shifted after that incident.definitely will be getting take out from now on and tell your servers to work on their attitude.

Poor service. The waitress are rude and impolite. She asked us to move the car which park at curbside in a tough tone, without even say hello to us. And she kept chatting with other staffs when she was working. Absolutely disrespectful and rude. She should learn how to be courtesy as a person work in the service industry.

PS. We paid 15% tips. It’s the kind donation to the waitress’s courtesy class fee.

This place has the best soup ever! I got the spicy beef and noodle soup and it was everything I ever wanted in a soup. The beef in it was literally the best meat I have ever had in a restaurant. It was cooked perfectly. Also the broth was amazing. My boyfriend got the salted vegetable soup and that was also really really good. And the staff was so nice. Everyone was very friendly and they let us stay after close because it was pouring rain. I will definitely be going back!

Update:
Post pandemic we returned to find the shop less crowded, but the menu seemed bigger than we remember.
I tried the spicy pork wonton dish. So spicy and yummy. Love the staff here as they didn't hesitate to joke with me. Such a great meal.

Hot new spot. Noodle dishes we're superb. Don't miss the soup dumplings!

This is hands down my favorite place to get very delicious soup dumplings, all types of noodles, and wontons! As a spice lover, they actually make their beef noodle soup at a wonderfully spicy level! The owner is always so welcoming and hospitable. I truly feel the warmth of everyone there and not just of the perfectly blended spices! As an Asian American that came from California, I think they give Din Tai Fung a good run for their money and I am so happy to have been able to find a great Shanghainess restaurant in Cleveland! Everything here tastes extremely fresh and made with love and care. Now if they offered delivery, I may never leave the house.

We had dumplings, braised duck, and noodle soup. Our food quantity was very small for the price. The size of the dumplings were about half as large as what we received in China. Flavor on all the items was average.

A lot of unique menu items - things found in China but not in Cleveland up to now. But, more than that, the execution is at once traditional and excellent. Every dish is flavored to perfection, then cooked to bring out its absolute best traditional flavor, look, and texture. I have enjoyed the progress in Cleveland from cherished memories of the classic Chinese-American restaurants in the 1970s, to today's profusion of places serving an ever wider array of fine Chinese food like you would find in China.   Now LJ's Shanghai is raising the bar in terms of sheer excellence of preparation of traditional dishes.