Shanghai Alley — Restaurant in Cary

UPDATE: After I submitted this review, they refunded my $67.93. It's absolutely ridiculous one has to go to such lengths as this to get even the most basic customer service. Placed an on-line order directly through their website (not UberEats, etc) on Monday 5/26/25 in the early evening. Went to pick-up the order & was told it was not ready even though I got a confirmation email stating it would be ready in 20-minutes from the time of the order & I got there 25 minutes after placing the order. I waited almost another 30 minutes before being told my order was ready. I paid $67.93 for it & as I was leaving, I looked over the ticket & realized it was completely wrong. Went back to the counter & showed them my email confirmation that showed my actual order & the order they gave me & charged me for. They refunded me & said it would take 24-48 hours for the refund to appear on my credit card. They then looked at the waiting takeout orders behind the counter & realized my order had been sitting there the entire time & it was ready when I had arrived. The gentleman offered to make me a new order as it was now cold or give me a 50% discount. I took the discount & the total charge was $31.36. I appreciate they tried to make it right.

The refund appeared on my credit card the next day (Tuesday). However, on Wednesday, it re-appeared as a charge for the same amount of $67.93. I called them & spoke to someone who said since he didn't work there on Monday, he could not do anything for me. He asked me for my phone number & said someone would call me the next day (Thursday). Today, Thursday, no one had called by 8pm me so I called them. I spoke to someone who asked me for my number & they would call me back. An hour later, no one had called me back & the restaurant had just closed. I called but got no one.

This is not acceptable. I will not go back there again unless they make significant efforts to make it right. Their customer service is terrible even though the food there is really pretty good. They essentially stole $67.93 from me. I will have to contact my CC company to...

Decided to try Shanghai Alley for dinner after seeing a few local foodies reels. First off, I’ll say that the hospitality of the staff and manager was A++ they were extremely nice.

Photo (1) when the first batch of order came in. Shrimp noodle roll was as expected, chicken feet was larger size the first one tasted really good then the next batch tasted like the sauce got watered down. Sui Mai was also pretty good portion (it was big like Neo-Asia’s) and tasted as expected. Congee to me was really good! The tripe- I didn’t try but my husband did, and he was not impressed.

Sam ordered the half portion of duck we sent it back because it had HUMAN HAIR on a piece 😵‍💫 Which the manager didn’t charge us for and let us order a substitute free of charge; which was fried pork, the fried pork had a unique taste, It was way too sweet for me.

Photo (2) what my mom saw on a reel and on the menu, and wanted to order because it was cute———

photo (3) is what it came out. LOL (it was a durian filled pastry, it was pretty good without the picturesque swan) 🦢

Where we sat you could see half view into the kitchen/how your food was prepared etc. my mom saw a kitchen staff wipe their prep table with a rag, and without washing their hand, start prepping a dish.

The table beside us also got served raw chicken.

Again, the staff was super nice. And the manager was really sweet.

The check came and kinda surprised that a party of 4 (me, my mom, my husband, and a sleeping toddler on his lap) automatically 18% service charge. I guess party of 5 if you include my 4 month old baby.

On an upside, Shanghai Alley is right...

First time trying this place. I ordered on a Sunday at 2:43pm, but didn't get my food until 3:50pm. For a couple of steamed dumplings and a Mongolian beef, does it really take that long? Most Chinese restaurants take one third the time, sometimes less.

The place was half full and kind of busy when I first arrived, but by the time I got my food, the place was nearly empty. During this hour, I myself had to come up and check on the status of my food repeatedly. Each time, I didn't get any apologies, explanations on what's going on, or an accurate update. On my way out, they talked trash about me in Mandarin. I know I am quiet and don't say a whole lot, but is that really necessary? As far as I know, I did nothing more than sit there and waited patiently for my food.

To be honest, the food itself was unremarkable and mediocre. The Mongolian beef, for example, was just a plain bowl of beef and onions. That's it. For supposedly fancy restaurant, they made no effort at all with it, not even a small sprinkle of green onions or something. The dumplings were cold by the time I got home to eat it. To be fair, I will chalk it up to the time it took me to drive home, even though I have had dumplings from elsewhere and didn't have this problem. However, the prices they charge are slightly on the higher side compared to other Chinese restaurants.

To end on a better note, the restaurant itself is quite pretty. Quality and price aside, I think this would be a good place to take a date to. However, I will never come...