Shanghai Restaurant 上海饭店 — Restaurant in Beyoğlu

Truly a disastrous experience. Strap in, folks.

We (3) arrived at the restaurant very hungry and with fairly low expectations. After a full month of travel in the Middle East and Turkey, we were homesick and craving classic Chinese dishes. Anything of decent quality would've been great for us.

We ordered a few items—fish sauce eggplant 鱼香茄子，homestyle tofu 家常豆腐，mixed vegetables 混合炒菜，veggie fried rice 素炒饭，beef noodle soup 牛肉拉面—staple dishes that one can find on most Chinese restaurant menus. As food in Istanbul generally leans 重口味 (heavier/saltier), we requested the kitchen to use less oil, less salt, and no MSG. In other words, homestyle.

One by one, the dishes arrived.

The mixed veggie lacked wok hei and was criminally underseasoned, while also managing to be greasy (puddle of oil). A head scratcher, but maybe just an accident. We immediately told the kitchen, and they used hot water to blanch the extra grease off, along with whatever salt flavor the dish had left.

Then the tofu and eggplant came.

The fried tofu pieces were not very fresh (slightly acidic) and lacked some ingredients, both of which I expected, but the real disappointment was that the sauce had zero flavor. To add to my sadness, my favorite fish sauce eggplant tasted nothing like the classic dish that every Chinese person knows and loves. We signaled to the staff that something had gone wrong—perhaps some sort of miscommunication—but this is where things really went from bad to catastrophic.

The Chinese kitchen staff came out to explain to us that these dishes require using premixed sauce base, which contains a lot of MSG. They (one lady and the chef) said that these dishes do not taste good unless they use MSG, so the dishes being bland was not the chef's fault; rather, it was because of our requests. We told them that if the chef was not confident in making this dish without the aid of the MSG sauce base, they should have told us and we would have happily ordered other dishes. // Side note: most competent Chinese chefs can accommodate this change and still make the dish taste great, as we made a common request (少油少盐，无味精). Rather than acknowledging the problem or exploring a solution, they kept shifting the responsibility to us.

At this point, the Turkish manager stepped in, so I switched to speaking in English to explain the situation. We were genuinely trying to find a solution (i.e. re-sauce the dishes in the wok), but the manager began to question our taste in "authentic" Chinese food, culminating in a bold proclamation, "How can you claim to be from China if you speak English like this? Real people from China do not have good English."

Ooof.

We made it clear that what he said was not only utterly irrelevant but also deeply offensive, especially considering the vast majority of his customers are Chinese tourists. Hearing this, even the Chinese staff dipped their heads in embarrassment, at which point the manager could only tell us, "Shut up and go." So we did exactly that.

To the restaurant's credit, the waitress was quite nice and the other wait staff were polite about the initial mishap. This could have been an easy fix, but was completely detailed by rich hubris and a poor attitude.

To the owner/manager—if you're planning on making Chinese people's money, it is best to not insult our palate or our intelligence. What you said was ignorant and shameful, and your behavior raises a massive red flag for future customers.

Full disclosure I am 100% Chinese and live in mainland China, where I've been eating the food there for...

Best experience of Turkish hospitality - what a delight. Came in at 2 pm, seated fast, only one other table was occupied. Don't underestimate the fact that all staffs are Turkish, they speak perfect Mandarin!! 😊 My parents were very happy to be able to converse with our server in their native language. He was kind and funny. We settled on chow mien, hot and sour soup and mix vegetables stir fry. Chow mien used dried noodles which not necessarily bad, just different consistency. Vegetables stir fry were very good, perfectly done👌 from fresh vegetables. Soup was also delicious. Service was the highlight. He made sure we have everything we need. I also asked him a favor to help us find a taxi to the cruise port. I told him that I don't have Lira, only €. He told me not to worry, that he will arrange it once we are ready to leave. After we settled the bill, he made sure we stayed inside the nicely air-conditioned restaurant until the car he arranged for us arrived. His kindness and generosity were highly appreciated. We arrived back in Galadaport in time and will always remember fondly of this Turkish...

Food: Average. You have good dishes, but you have very bad ones too, spring rolls better not to order them!, or chicken noodles.

Service: bad, really bad. Restaurant was empty and the waiters were totally forgetful. We had to ask twice to clean the table, and for other things. Besides, not a single smile in their face or visual contact. Like treating with zombies. Very disappointing.

Ambiance: cold ambiance, very cold. This is more a personal taste, but some facts: It opened 3 months ago and all chairs are rusty (!!), furniture is definitely second hand... Besides temperature is HOT, really HOT because there is no air conditioning. I have read that some other reviews complain about it. There is definitely a problem here with the A/C. In Istanbul it's very hot in summer, and not having A/C it's quite deceiving.

Price : a rip off. Same prices than big European capitals or Hong Kong, although we are in Istanbul, Turkey! where the salaries and the cost of live is much lower.

My advice : not...