Shanghai Chinese Restaurant, Austin TX

WOW! Austin, you guys are missing out! At the time of this review, this place is criminally underrated (3.9) when this is definitely at least 4.5 or higher in terms of taste and authenticity. I grew up in the San Gabriel Valley in Los Angeles and I've been to Din Tai Fung, Mama Lu's, and all the other famous Dim Sum and Xiao Long Bao places you can name and this place delivers the authentic Dim Sum experience with my favorite sautéed green beans so far and juicy Xiao Long Bao flavor among the best of them. Everything else on the menu was also delicious. We had perfectly buttery and flaky egg tart, tasty Har gow, juicy shiu mai, well-filled BBQ pork buns, etc. All DELICIOUS!

Edit: I was scrolling through the reviews because I was curious about why the rating was so low. I didn't experience the issues they had. I liked the convenient QR code ordering system! Also one review compared the taste to canned dog food- all I have to say to that is that I wouldn't trust the opinion of someone who has eaten canned dog food and knows what it tastes like. Cheers, Austin!

This restaurant charges an additional 20% service Covid fee. This is illegal. There is no additional service being provided. In fact, this restaurant provides less service because they do not take phone orders, which is a necessity to mitigate Covid risk.

I am very supportive of local restaurants, especially mom and pop restaurants during the pandemic, but this restaurant really needs to go out of business. Raise the price of your food. Pay taxes on it. Do not insidiously add a "Covid service fee" that actually results in increasing the risk of Covid.

Best dim sum in Austin (IMO). Even if you don’t make it for brunch, they still have great tasting entres. A favorite of ours is the Spicy Fish Soup. Not fishy at all, definitely spicy!

Thought the service was slow due to short staffing the food and attention to detail made your experience worth it. Hope they get more team staff because I can see potential gain if they have a process and staff onboarding.

I must say, as empty as the restaurant was, the food was delicious! Each dim sum plate was absolutely freshly prepared & delivered while still piping hot! The food was flavorful and actually really good! Even the glass of water tasted quality water as well as the French press coffee.

Suggestions for some change:

- Wipe clean all of the items on the table such as the soy sauce bottle, scanable menu, sugar container. They were all super sticky!

- Lacked human interactions. Too much automation with ordering & payment process. The payment was complete even before the meal was brought out. Actually, the meal prep could not begin unless the ordering and payment were complete via an app.

- Service fee of $11.82 for food order total amount of $59.10? We're vacationing here from California & didn't know what this fee was for nor did we inquire. Is this type of fee a norm in TX?

Good dimsum with strange way of service. Could have been more happy if things were properly explained of how to order and etc.

I came here with my mom who appreciates authentic Chinese stir fry and I have a more Americanized palette. This restaurant caters to both our tastes from the Kung Pao Chicken, Beef Chow Fun, Veggie Egg Rolls, and more. The kitchen staff definitely knows what they’re doing! It’s a must have every time my parents come to Austin.

First dim sum experience. I absolutely loved the tofu rolls, chicken feet, xiu mai and turnip cakes but was very disappointed with the short ribs. I’m sure they are very diligent in care with their preparation, but that day was not it.

Very poor customer service! Was treated like a stranger and unwanted customer. Never was asked to take my order.

Terrible. No wait staff, had to order my food for dine in service online and paid a $7.98 service fee and had to tip all before my food even got to the table. Never again! Lunch came to $51.00 for 1 order of General Tso chicken, 2 chicken egg rolls and chicken dumplings! NOT WORTH IT

This is without a doubt my favorite Chinese Restaraunt. The soup and dessert dumplings are the best I’ve ever had, as is the chongqing chicken (hope I spelled that correctly). Above the great food however, is the first class customer service. I had gone to the Restaraunt recently to celebrate a promotion, and the owner and staff let me and my friends order items which weren’t on the menu that day, and gave us complimentary wine with our meal. She spent time getting to know us individually and congratulated me - something most places wouldn’t take the time to do after receiving payment. Please visit this place if you haven’t and support a fantastic family business!

We had dim sum there. The good was very salty and poor quality in general. 4 dishes costed $30.

Great Chinese food. The service was great and I really liked the all mobile QR scanner ordering and payment.

Stopped in while charging our car across the street to use the facilities, purchase is required to do so and well worth it.

Clean establishment. Super friendly staff. Ordering process was super simple and touch free.

Ordered some fried bread sticks and they were delicious! Thanks Shanghai Chinese Restraunt!

$100 for 13 dishes. The rising costs and labor shortages that restaurants face are well documented. And I get that the food runner is busy so there is a long wait to get the food, but why couldn’t all the food be kept warm in the kitchen? Several dishes such as the juicy pork dumplings were literally served at room temperature.

Went there for the first time the other day. I was pretty hungry and not in a great mood.

We had very good service. It's somewhat annoying to have to use your phone to order, but the restaurants wasn't very full and my idea of them coming around with Dim Sum carts wouldn't have been very practical. There's also a service charge for ordering that way, but I'm guessing this modest restaurant can't afford a programmer and needs to pay the website for the service.

The food was a very pleasant surprise. We had several different Dim Sum dishes and shared them all. EVERYTHING was freshly cooked, piping hot and DELICIOUS!

The restaurant itself isn't in great shape, but at least it was clean. Will definitely come here again.