Shanghai Brothers — Restaurant in Melbourne

Dined in today with 4 of us and a pram. Would not recommend dining at this restaurant. We walked in and was seen straight away. There was no hi how are you he just looked at us said table for four and then we were sat. Menus were given to us and thats about where the customer service stopped. I have to hand it to them the place looked super clean because the waitstaff were too busy cleaning the empty tables then serving the customers they had in there.

We wrote our order down and waited for someone to approach us to see how we were or if we wanted drinks to start with. No one came to our table. As we were looking around there were 5 other tables dining in and we were probably the biggest table. So very quiet lunch period. We had to call out for service to give our order, ask for a drink menu, ask to clean our table, ask for straws or glass for our drinks. The only thing they initiated on their own was replacing our empty water and giving us our food. I felt like we did everything except cook the food.

Once we finished our bulk dumpling order we decided to order some more with dessert. 40 mins went passed when we had to ask where our food was. The lady came back to us and apologised that our order hadnt been put through the system. 5 tables and not one wait staff noticed our food wasnt coming out. She asked if we still wanted it and said no thank you we are just going to leave.

We got to the front and approached what looked like the manager. He didnt even smile or ask how our food was he just gave us the total amount of the bill. He literally looked like he had no idea what he was doing. We explained what happened and asked if we were charged for the extra food that wasnt delivered. He couldnt give us a straight answer and just said yes and the total amount again. We kept going around in circles and i asked to see the bill myself to make sure. Once he gave us the bill he just walked off. We were left to settle our own bill. He didnt come back at all and we reached over the counter to take our reciept. No apology or compensation was offered to us.

1 star given for the food because it was actually great food but without customer service you have no restaurant. We wont return nor recommend this place. Good luck...

I’ve eaten at a lot of restaurants in my time, but never one where I needed to crack a code to order dinner. Upon being seated, the server handed us a piece of paper, I was confused by what I can only describe as the starting point of an alphabet game. Apparently, I had to translate my order into an alphabet-coded message to order. I wasn’t aware the chef moonlights as a Cold War-era codebreaker, but hey, maybe the dumplings taste better if they’re decrypted first? Perhaps next visit I’ll bring an Enigma machine for dessert. Would be much easier to say “I would like fried rice” than find the code R2D2 in the menu.

Now let’s talk about the “value.” The menu clearly advertised bottled drinks at nearly $6 for 385ml. Imagine my surprise when a 330ml bottle landed on the table. So… I’m now paying more to get less? Impressive business model — I’ll be recommending it to my accountant (as a cautionary tale).

And a special mention must go to the tables themselves. They were impressively sticky — so much so that I applaud the engineering department for clearly applying book contact adhesive across the entire surface for that luxe, up-market feel. Where else can you rest your elbows and feel permanently one with the table? It’s rare to encounter furniture that doubles as both dining surface and flytrap.

Finally, for our table of six, two meals arrived a full 30 minutes after the first meals were served. Nothing says “shared dining experience” like watching half your group eat while the rest sit awkwardly, alphabet-coded slips clutched in hand.

Won’t be returning. But if I need help sending a coded message, I know...

I was once a regular at Shanghai brothers and unfortunately I had to delete a 5 star review from years ago so I could upload this one. I came back tonight after long while and was so utterly disappointed to see what used to be a homely authentic chinese restuarant become a mere shadow of itself. I ordered my favourite dish - the cheese flaming dumplings and became appalled to see that the dumplings are now half the size, the cheese you get is a fraction of what it was and you now don’t get spring onion and shallots anymore. I took a photo to compare the two side by side and it honestly looks like two different restaurants. The life is completely gone from the dish as you can see in the photos Even our steam prawn dumplings were half the size they used to be. The restaurant now lacks life and personality. The staff are nice enough but pretty consistent with the entire restaurant - lacklustre. It would’ve even been nice to hear some different music. I’m not saying it has to be traditional shanghai songs, but I just felt like I was listening to Nova FM. It’s so sad that what used to be an authentic, humble and wonderful restaurant is now just a cheap takeaway joint. Definitely disappointed more than any...