A Taste of Shanghai

“This tiny little storefront which you can easily miss is one of the finest places to order Xiao Long Bao, or the coveted Juicy Pork Soup Dumpling.”

“Scallion pancake with shredded beef and peppers – fluffy scallion pancakes wrapped in a spicy beef and pepper filling.”

“3 of us had the following:

Soup dumplings with pork & crab
Scallion pancakes with beef & peppers (FYI HOT peppers)
Shrimp cooked with salt?”

A Taste of Shanghai

Takes Reservations: Yes
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes

Price range.

$ Price range Under $10

8 reviews

  1. Wish I could give this place an additional .5 stars due to the fact that this dishes here are incredibly authentic to what shanghainese dishes should taste like, at least according to the parents.

    anyway the place here is nothing special, your typical chinese restaurant in terms of quality, service and taste. I ordered the shanghai style pork shops, shredded pork in garlic sauce, mushrooms with fried dough, pork soup dumplings, chicken gizards in brown sauce and fish breast in brown sauce

    the pork chops were too sweet and sour for my taste, the soup dumplings tasted average and didn't really wow me at all, which can be said for most of the dishes i ordered here. The chicken gizzards, is not really gizzard at all, but rather a whole assortment of random organ meats mixed in with green peppers, which wasn't bad but definitely not for the faint of heart as it definitely has a strong gamey taste to it. The best dish here was the fish in brown sauce, in fact its an incredible dish as the fish was incredibly soft and the sauce that accompanied the fish was a great mix of sweet and savory with a great thick consistency that definitely made this dish all the more amazing.

    again maybe I just didnt get the correct dishes, but overall the menu was pretty average with the fish being the only item that was amazing

  2. Taste of the soup in the dumpling was sweeter than other dumplings I've tasted, which I didn't mind.

    What I did mind was the service. I usually don't rate on service because food should be separate from service. There was a bug on the bottom of one of the soup dumplings. After several attempts to grab the attention of 1 out of 4 waiters, their apology wasn't too sincere.

    They seemed more interested in their big screen tv than the customers.

  3. A Taste of Shanghai saved me on a winter's day!

    The XLB place across the street was slammed with customers and we were super hungry and cold.  Maybe I was just super hungry, but I was just so happy to fill up here on soup dumplings, scallion pancake with sliced beef, stir fried sliced rice cakes, and deep fried pork chops in black vinegar sauce.  Everything was slightly better than okay.  My judgment is a little off because I'm from Florida, so gimme a break.  We do not even have Shanghainese restaurants where I come from, so I'm tickled just to eat it.

    I did not have any issue with the service.  But, I tend to be a bad judge of service because I am used to being treated like crap from wait staff.

    Interesting set-up they have at ToS— There is a narrow staircase that leads upstairs to more seating.  But, the upstairs seating is more like a homemade plywood loft.  Underneath the staircase is the closet bathroom.  Every nook and cranny is used for space, nothing wasted.  

    Where we sat, we could see right into the kitchen.  It was so nice to see the bustle going on back there.  The main chef had a white tank top with his belly hanging out— but, he was cranking out food with a sense of urgency so what do I care.

  4. I'm sorry, but being asked to move to another table twice to the wall as other customers were leaving and to accommodate someone else who wanted to be near the door is downright rude as f*ck.

    I ordered the chef scallion pancake. It was dry and tasteless.
    The tea was nice.
    The wontons were ok.
    Pan fried dumplings were juicy but where's the meat inside?

    Total $30 for 4 dishes, I think I was spoiled in Brooklyn.

    I went somewhere else afterwards to get food.

  5. My mom wanted me and my dad to try out this spot in Flushing. Typical Chinese restaurant…the servers just pointed to an empty table. Me and my mom sat a bit over 10 mins until the servers realize we didn't get any menus and a pot of tea.

    Dim Sum: Mooncakes with Pork (1 is $1.75), Shanghai Pan Fried Pork Buns, Xiaolongbao with Pork and supposedly imported Crab meat from China ($10.95), Half of Chicken with dipping soy sauce, and Dried Fish

    Take out: Drunken Chicken

    Honestly nothing special and such a waste of money! If I want  Shanghainese food, I will go to King Noodle at Whitestone is way BETTER than this C rating…smh!!

  6. Authentic shanghai food. Small but clean. My shanghainese bf invited me to eat there. He highly recommended this restaurant. We had a great time here. Shanghai food is famous for its sweet and fresh fish and vegetable. Crispy noodle and fried bun and seasoned fish.

  7. Let me start by saying I'm one of those people who finds something they like, at one specific place, and then sticks to that loyally. So it was a new experience for me to try a new restaurant for my favorite xiao long bao (XLB/ steamed pork dumplings), and also a huge risk!

    As far as XLB go, it can either be done very well or very poorly depending on the restaurant. I'd say the quality of Taste of Shanghai's XLBs were above average, the texture of the wrap was a bit on thicker side but it was strong enough for the soup to not break through which is the most important. I also tried their seafood Shanghai noodles and those also met my usual expectations from a shanghainese restaurant.

    Overall, this is a pretty good place food-wise. It'll meet your expectations for this type of food, but my only thing is that I didn't particularly feel attended to here. I totally get it, with most Chinese restaurants it's busy and hectic, and we just want to get the job done. But I came on a night where I was one of only 3 tables, and I wasn't even brought vinegar to go with my XLB. When I had finally asked for it, the vinegar didn't come with a spoon to scoop it over the XLB either. Now this might sound like an insignificant problem, but these are expectations that I've come to have for a place that takes their own XLB craft seriously. Not sure if you guys just don't usually do that, but these kind of details to me, are what makes the difference between a fantastic dining experience and a convenient fast food meal.

  8. The waiters are all Shanghainese!!!!
    It is very authentic. We ordered a fish wonton and some mochi kind of thing (see pictures). The wonton is amazing. It's like I was in Shanghai… For the sticky rice ball, it was authentic too! I haven't eaten it for several years and it made me real happy!

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Prince Street 39-07
11354 NY US
Get directions
Monday, 10:00 am - 12:00 am
Tuesday, 10:00 am - 12:00 am
Wednesday, 10:00 am - 12:00 am
Thursday, 10:00 am - 12:00 am
Friday, 10:00 am - 12:00 am
Saturday, 9:00 am - 12:00 am
Sunday, 9:00 am - 12:00 am