(650) 692-8858
Hours: Mon-Fri 11am-3pm, 5pm-11pm, Sat-Sun 10:30am - 11pm
http://www.shanghaibistrousa.com
Parking: in shopping center parking lot
Last Visited: September 16, 2012
Food: 3 stars
Atmosphere: 3 stars
Service: 1 to 2 stars
Price: $$ to $$$
I've been driving by this place for a while and decided to finally check it out. When we went it, it was packed with just one table free which we ended up taking. They set up the table as we were sitting and after giving us menus, it took them about ten minutes to come back and check on us.
After ordering, it had to be another ten to fifteen minutes before the first dish arrived. Like many other Asian places, items that are typically thought of as appetizers don't necessarily come first. - Beef Tendons Noodle Soup - Large chunks of beef with tendons are served with a few spinach leaves and noodles in a five-spice flavored broth. The beef was good and the noodles were al dente. I would have liked a few more spinach leaves to balance soak up the flavor. Good - on par with what I would expect elsewhere. $7.50
- Pork Potstickers (6) - The potstickers are filled with pork filling and fried until golden brown on the bottom. I thought the wrapper texture had a little more chewiness than usual probably due to rice flour. Other than that, it was fine. $5.50- Steamed Dumpling (8) - These steamed dumplings had seemingly the same filling as the potstickers. With a decent amount of soup inside and a dumpling wrapper that wasn't too thick, these were also good. $6.50
While the food as a whole was fine, the experience was not an enjoyable one due to the service. The servers are so busy trying to get tables in and out that they forget that we're not cattle. When our bill was almost ready to come, they pointed to the people waiting that they could have our table. The staff started to clean up the table and even took the tea away before the bill arrived. To add insult to injury, before I had even finished paying our check, while my dining companion had stepped away, one of the patrons waiting for a table headed to my table and sat down. The staff should have stopped this from happening. Saving two to three minutes isn't worth it when you rush people out and leave them stunned by the lack of service - we're not in a communal table setting so this was completely inappropriate. Lastly, they told me the credit card machine ran out of tape, so they couldn't produce a copy for me - huh? I've seen people put in a new tape and make a copy - this was just a sad customer service experience and the food just isn't superb enough to draw me back again.
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