Shanghai Dumpling House — Restaurant in Asheville

I had high hopes walking in today, because of all the different choices I saw on this strip, I was really in the mood for some good dumplings.

It was just me, and I accepted the suggestion to sit at the bar. The first issue was no one greeting me after I sat down to take my drink order. I finally started looking around, until someone asked me if I had been served yet.

When they did find someone to come greet me, she asked if it was okay to start with water. Strange question, but sure. I actually only wanted to drink water. But she didn't ask if I wanted anything else.

I put in my food order immediately, since I had already been looking at the menu for several minutes.

I was a little disappointed that the soup came out first without my dumplings, but whatever.

The soup was okay. Certainly wasn't bad. But for "Seafood Tom Yum," I was expecting more than a single shrimp and a single cut-into-pieces scallop amidst the mushrooms and a whole tomato that had been divided into quarters. I would have liked to have ordered some steamed rice, but I was starting to get the impression that the server didn't want to be there, as she wasn't really paying me any attention.

When the dumplings came, I was not brought a separate soup spoon. I had to repurpose the spoon I got with the Tom yum soup, which mixed the flavors. The dumplings themselves were excellent.

But the most disappointing part of the experience was the server spending my entire meal sitting at the other end of the bar looking at her phone and eating her own food. I emptied my single glass of water, and when I realized no one was going to offer to refill it, I started looking around making eye contact just so I could ask someone for the ticket so I could go.

I think the management really cares about the establishment, so I really don't want to rate it two stars on account of one experience. And I think I'd like to give it another chance someday, so I'll settle for saying 2.5 stars rounded...

We’ve been coming to Shanghai Dumpling since they opened. It was one of our favorite restaurants in Asheville… With as much loss as we suffered since Helene, we make a point to only support our favorite local businesses these days. However, after recently visiting Shanghai after Helene, we will not be returning or recommending it to anyone ever again. The restaurant gave our takeout order to someone else, told us they would make it right, & we waited for half an hour for them to remake our food while our guests from out of town waited at our house.

Everything seemed fine until one of the staff members (Evelyn) “changed her mind” after we waited, instead of making it right as promised, she started to insult Our party. Ultimately our family visiting from out of town went back to their hotel hungry and disappointed after a long trip in town volunteering over the holiday weekend.

It was the worst experience we’ve had ordering takeout from any restaurant, period. We were embarrassed for having recommended the restaurant and felt terrible for our family to end their trip this way. After our family left, we called back to the restaurant and asked to speak to the owner, Angela Wong, who is a fantastic chef, small business owner, and upstanding member of the Asheville community. Evelyn answered the phone, claimed that she was the owner, and continued to insult us. I would never recommend anyone order from Shanghai again.

Unfortunately I’m sure had we had the chance to speak to Angela or Sandy (the actual owners of the business), they would have made things right as promised and wouldn’t have condoned an employee insulting local regulars and leaving a family hungry who spent their holiday weekend volunteering to help our community recover.

It’s sad to see the community struggling as much as it has been since Helene and very unfortunate to see service go downhill so much over the last...

I'm a local and didn't want to write a public negative review based on my first visit, but they don't have an email posted on their website or facebook to send them direct feedback on my experience.

This was our first visit and we, (3 adults and a toddler) arrived at 5:30pm before the rush. We have a 2 year old and find dining out earlier is best. When we walked up to the host stand there was a server sitting on a ledge between the host stand and bar who looked sullen and disinterested. He didn't smile or greet us, just tapped the hostess to make her aware of us. After we were seated he dropped off waters without a greeting, introduction or asking us if we had questions. He just told us he'd let us have some time to look at the menu. When he returned to take our order he kept up the same disinterested unfriendly attitude, but did the bare minimum. We placed our orders, each ordering an appetizer and entree and requested an extra plate to share food with our daughter. The food came out almost immediately, with some entrees coming out before the apps and some coming out together which crowded the table and made it impossible to have time to enjoy each. The extra plate we requested was not delivered and I had to get the server's attention by audibly saying "excuse me" across the restaurant (which i hate) to our server who was back on the perch behind the host stand staring at the floor. No one ever came back to ask how everything was. Eventually the server made his way back and delivered the check with a to go box I requested without asking if we wanted anything else or how our food was.

Overall, the food was ok, not amazing and not bad, but the service was TERRIBLE and the fact that they don't have an email to contact them directly is further frustrating and I don't think I...