Shanghai Cuisine 33
“I would come back on days where I want to satisfy my xiao long bao craving but don't want to make the trip all the way to Flushing.”
“I actually liked these more than the Nan Xiang dumplings because the soup and meat weren't fatty.”
“If you have a car, there is free one hour parking around the back after you make a right onto Booth Memorial from Main St.”
Shanghai Cuisine 33
Takes Reservations: Yes
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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Good,but mediocre soup dumpling place. The pork and crab dumplings are just eh…I personally think Nan Xiang's soup dumplings are top numero uno. The soup dumplings here weren't even hot! It was a bit on the cold side, which was disappointing because I would've loved some hot and scalding soup cause of the cold weather outside. We also got the scallion pancakes, which was pretty good. It wasn't doughy, but it was thin and very crunchy. We got the Wuxi ribs, which was good as well, but it was a bit too sweet for my taste. For dessert, we got the steamed black sesame balls. Fun and slimy texture, but the black sesame inside was way too sweet. Overall, just okay soup dumplings restaurant.
That Rich W. and Sally W. sure know how to find all the good spots that satisfy your tummy. Hungry after we visited the New York Hall of Science, Rich W. suggested Shanghai Cuisine 33. A little off the main drag of Flushing, this place has a more relaxed and more upscale atmosphere, and higher prices than the dives on Main St. This restaurant is worth the trek; it simply puts out what is extremely tasty Shanghai food, though Hong Kong style, Sally W. told me. I call it yummy style. Sally W. was enough of a fan of the soup buns to put in two orders, and also of the little steam buns with pork. I don't eat meat but I gather they were good as no dumpling was left behind. Rich W. and I split the Enoki with Watercress, a dish I haven't seen anywhere else, and the vegetable Shanghai rice cake. The former had one of the tastiest brown sauces I had ever had, with golden enoki on top of watercress cooked to perfection. I could have eaten two plates of the stuff but I didn't want to scare my dining companions into thinking I would cannibalize them next. I was sated, but that dish was so good I just wanted more. The rice cake had plentiful veggies– baby bok choy, the ubiquitous baby corn, button mushrooms and snow peas and unlike in so many places, didn't taste of cheap, overused oil. Service here was friendly and efficient and unlike some of the Flushing restaurants, most of the waiters here spoke English also. A winner for Chinese food and one for repeat visits.
Came here to grab lunch with my dad since we were too lazy to go into Flushing and this place was close by us. It's a fairly small restaurant although it has a moderate amount of seats for small or medium sized parties. The service was okay, all the waiters mainly just stood by the front talking with each other and after making eye contact then they'd come to your table.
I ordered their soup dumplings and it was a let down. Out of the three orders of soup dumplings we've had, more than half of them broke as we'd take it carefully out of the tray and onto our spoon. The dough was very thin, easily broken, so if you order it make sure you're extra cautious with handling it. Otherwise you'll just be eating the dough and the mushy meat inside. My sister had also ordered a dish of their string beans, but it had no taste to it. Maybe this place is known for some of their other dishes, but from the dishes that I ordered definitely not. Would have much rather gone to my usual soup dumplings place in flushing to get my money's worth.
My coworker and I dined here for our lunch break. I've worked in this area for 8+ months and never thought to step foot into Shanghai 33.
I'm so happy I did.
This place is not for the theatrics nor pleasantries. You are asked how many, seated, handed menus, and expected to have your selections ready in two minutes tops.
She raved about the delicious food here. I was starving and trusted my coworkers judgement. We went along and ordered the Crab and Pork Soup Dumplings and the Shanghai Rice.
Both equally flavored options the dumplings were made with pure love and the rice was to die for. Definitely worth writing home about two or three times. I tasted more crab than pork in the dumplings, but that was fine by me.
She taught me how to eat the tiny delicious gems by busting it open to slurp up the soup. Followed by devouring the dumpling in one chew.
Albeit the food is exceptionally tasty it doesn't mean that we shouldn't be checked on from time to time. Our waiter didn't come back around until it was time to pay.
Tsk Tsk.
I came here on a Sunday afternoon in a party of three and was seated immediately. We ordered the steamed tiny buns with pork, steamed tiny buns with crab meat and pork, Shanghai lo mien, and the hot and sour soup.
While we were were waiting for the food to arrive, we were served peanuts and hot jasmine tea. The peanuts were not just any typical salted peanuts, it was covered with a delicious sauce… I'm thinking XO sauce? Either way, I loved them! Peanuts are frequently served in Chinese restaurants, but never in this way. It was a little spicy, a little salty, a lot awesomeness. The tea was very fragrant. Jasmine tea is my favorite tea so naturally it was a winner for me and I was a happy little camper.
The "steamed tiny buns" here are also known as soup dumplings or xiao long baos elsewhere. While they were fairly good, they are nowhere close to the ones from Joe's Shanghai or Kung Fu Xiao Long Bao. The soup dumplings here are more bland in flavor in my opinion. I do prefer the crab soup dumplings over the pork alone.
The Shanghai lo mien was nothing particularly special. It wasn't as oily as it is in many other restaurants so I do appreciate that.
The hot and sour soup seems to be a very popular option here. I noticed the table to my left and right both ordered it. It is supposedly "Hong Kong styled," but I simply could not tell what is the difference between this nor any other hot and sour soups I've had elsewhere. Nonetheless, the soup was good.
I did find the service here to be quite excellent. All the servers were young men who were very friendly and did their jobs with a smile.
Overall, the food here is decent. Would I come back? Maybe if I was really craving Shanghainese and did not want to wait for Kung Fu Xiao Long Bao a few blocks over.
Ahh~ I was excited about coming here, as a Shanghai and Hong Kong descent, what else can you ask for! And realizing now, we didn't get any HK dishes. haha.
Of course, you have to get xiao long bao when you go to a Shangainese restaurant. It didn't blow me away, I've had better when the place on Prince Street was still good. It is decent here. If you want compare it to Kung Fu, which is futher down and across the street, I think the soup is better here and the skin is better at Kung Fu. Haha. But since I haven't had Kung Fu in awhile, I don't really remember the taste too well.
Next thing, one my favorite dishes that my grandma used to make, Kao Fu. (Of course, my grandma made it the best). It was sweet. Aahh~ A little too sweet, but I guess it's better than being bland.
The next app was a cold fish dish, that I don't remember the name of.. But it was okay. Average compared to other places. The scallion pancake was pretty good, quite a bit of scallion and crunchy.
We had a soup which was really good. I think the English item is called Salty Pork with Bean Curd Soup. It was flavorful even though the pork was still salty. I really liked it.
The next dishes were okay, which was a crispy whole fish with a yellow sauce, and the other was Stir Fry Eel Ninpo style. I think my dad just ordered this because it's Ninpo style. My relatives say the eel was not cleaned well. And that most people do not order this. Haha.
I was not in charge of ordering or put any input. But I definitely should've suggested some sort of noodle.
In terms of the restaurant and service, it was all good. The restaurant was clean and organized. We didn't have any problems with delayed food or long wait. (that might because it was like 2PM). The restaurant expanded, I believe, the next room had more tables, a bar and like a lounge type area. There is parking, but it comes with a price.
I would come here again just to try other dishes.
The bubble tea phenomena is really nothing new in the Flushing, Queens area anymore but recently a new phenomena has emerged- Soup Dumplings aka XiaoLongBaos and it is taking over Queens by storm.
Enter Shanghai Cuisine 33- another location that serves this hot phenomenal dish. it's the sister restaurant to Shanghai Asian Manor and Shanghai Asian Cuisine in Chinatown, I only know this cause my dad said their soup dumplings in Ctown was awesome. But Interesting how this one actually felt off my radar until one day my friend asked if I have been there? And Having been to some pretty bad soup dumpling places (you know what I'm talking about, dumpling skin thick as snake skin- you can drop it and it won't pop, soupless inner and greasy flavorless meat), I make sure to keep my expectation LOW so if it did suck, I wouldn't be too sad.
Shanghai Cuisine 33 is located on Main street between 57th Rd and 58th Ave, about 2 blocks off Booth Memorial and Main St. If you been to Yeh's Bakery, it's right next door to them.
Parking: There are metered street parking on Main St but it's usually pack so instead, save yourself a few bucks and find parking in the residual area (58th rd and 58th ave are a good place to start)
Decor and ambiance: Clean, Causal (let's ditch the heels and dress shoes shall we?) place with plenty of Asians but fear not, all the waiters and waitresses speak fluent English. Decor wise, nothing too crazy, pretty much what you expect what a Chinese (in this case Shanghai restaurant)- round wooden table w/ Lazy Susan, gorgeous fish tank and even some booth seating. Bathroom is clean and that's a plus. By the way they actually own two store fronts, so there's actually another room with bigger tables aside from the main dining area. Seating wise I'll give it a rough estimate of 60 seats.
We came on a Thursday night at around 6:30 pm, you know how I remember, because Shanghai Cuisine 33 have different cocktail special every night (weird) and Thursday night was Margarita night haha. I got one just to try and since it was only $4.25, why not?
The menu is exactly what you've expected from any other Shanghai restaurant but with a Hong Kong style twist (Scallion Pancake, panfried dumplings, soup dumplings, rice cake, noodle soup, panfried noodles- this is pretty HK but you get the idea). They also have dishes you can order for a family style meal but I'm here for the main event only and that's the soup dumplings or Steamed Tiny Buns w/ Pork, but I also got off tracked and ordered the scallion pancake and the Noodle w/ Meat Sauce (Cha Chiang Mein)
Steamed Tiny Buns w/ Pork- I have had many soup dumplings before and pretty much been to all of the soup dumpling restaurants in the Flushing area and I have to say, Shanghai Cuisine 33's soup dumplings tasted different than other places. While see many people think the soup was bland but I actually think the soup was quite delicious, it's light, clean and flavorful, it tasted healthy and doesn't leave you with a greasy feeling like other places do. Even the meat itself was not fatty, but still ended up melting in your mouth! YUMM!! The skin was very light and thin in comparison to Joe's and NanXiang, you get 6 buns to an order but what I love most about this is the short wait time and the super affordable price: 6 for $4.95 (less than a $1 a bun!!!) MUST GET!!!
Scallion pancake- I actually love this dish, it's just simple comfort food at it's finest! I love how this dish made me feel healthy instead of a fatty (remember those days when you pick up a scallion pan cake and pat the grease out with your napkin, well gone are those days!). These pancakes are filled with plenty of scallion, plenty of flavor even without the sauce, very little grease, giant portion (I believe it came with 8 pieces) and affordable price ($2.5) definitely made this a MUST GET!
Noodle w/ Meat Sauce (Cha Chiang Mein)- I'm in the middle with this dish, I want to say I like it but this is one of those times that a healthy alternative don't help. The sauce just had very little grease and therefore didn't really blend with the noodles. So you ended up eating the noodle and just before you finish all your noodle, you discovered a pile of meat in the bottle- don't you just hate it when that happens??? The meat and sauce was still flavorful, it's just missing that simple element that blends the noodle and the sauce together. but hey at least it's a giant bowl that you can share with two people for $6.50!
Service: Our waitress was super cheerio and was very attentive so props to her! I also looked around and all their wait staff were very friendly and carry a smile on their face.
Price: Very little damage to your wallet- excluding the family style dishes, most items cost less than $10 (most around $5 range)
Overall: IMO the soup dumplings can compete with the big boys, along with the excellent service, generous portion and affordable price, this place is a must-try in Queens!
My mom chose to come to this place to have dinner with the family one night and I love how cute the interior is. The walls are decorated with old photos of Shanghai many years ago and my dad actually recognized a few places from the photos. It was the first time coming to a shanghainese restaurant and not being able to order their soup dumplings because my parents say we eat it all the time; no fear, I will return to try your soup dumplings one day and see how it fares with nan xiang's. We had the pork spare ribs which was melt in your mouth delicious (I highly recommend ordering this when you go), as well as the spicy wontons (found on the appetizer side of the menu and it was delicious), the shanghainese stir-fry noodles (average), and some amazing fish. The restaurant is clean and the waitstaff was very friendly and helpful. I will definitely return in the near future to try other items on the menu. Parking can be annoying on the main road since the restaurant is along main street but one block in is all residential parking.