Yuelai Restaurant — Restaurant in Shanghai

We were shopping nearby and came by here for our lunch. As it was almost lunch time, the restaurant was crowded and so we were led to the second floor and inside a private room. After browsing through the menu, at the recommendation of the staff, we ordered the 9-course set menu, that comprised of deep fried fish, sweet and sour fish, steamed garlic prawns, braised pork belly, stir fried vegetables, stir fried noodles, century egg porridge, the dumpling soup and deep fried pork.

Generally speaking, the foods were yummy and nice, well cooked.

However, the issue was with the serving of food. Not all the food were served at the same time (or almost the same), some came fast and some came much later (over an hour) and the sequence of serving the food was wrong too. Usually, for set meal, the light items would be served first, such as the soup, porridge and noodles, before the meat and fish dishes. However, right here, no proper sequence. The fish and prawns were served first, and the porridge was served last (over an hour later, despite of reminders). Possibly we were sitting in the private room and not "exposed" to the eyeballs of the staff?

While waiting in between the serving of dishes, we were crunching on the preserved melon seeds over the chrysanthemum tea that was super flavourful, thick and nice.

Our entire dinning took about 2 hours!

Service by staff was generally fine (just like most traditional Chinese restaurants), especially the cashier who ushered us in and took our orders. She also gave us some discounts because of the long wait.

If I didn't remember wrong, the meal cost around 280-300rmb, that was considered very reasonable.

One issue we had problem (many restaurants also had the same issue) was that they allowed diners to smoke inside with the a/c on. Although we sat in the private room, the room could not be closed and so from time to time we would smell the cigarettes that was quite disturbing since all of us are non-smokers.

Foodwise, no issue, very nice but you need to be patient in waiting! If you are rushing for time, you can eat at other restaurants or...

Don't ever come here. Super long wait for food. Still had to remind them of our orders. Tables that came after us get their food first Place doesn't feel clean. Save the trouble and find...

Wasn’t good at all. It tasted like they haven’t changed the oil used for frying in years.

Would...