Shang Hai — Restaurant in Florida

( See Updates near bottom part of review ). (They do not control price/menu info on the menu on Google maps. Sime items and prices are not there and not accurate. Grab a paper menu when you go there for next time.) Review starts.. (Updates follow) So far I've had two takeout lunches in two weeks. They say 10 minutes and I'm there in 10 minutes and it's ready both times..

The first takeout lunch was Shrimp and Lobster sauce and also Bourbon chicken. Both = tasty and good amount of fried rice and good size/taste egg roll.

The second takeout lunch was not so good..but not 'completely' not so good. The good = Chicken with garlic sauce= that was good with a little heat from garlic, good amount of fried rice and I chose wonton soup option. That lunch combo was good. The not so good = Pu Pu platter.. I know, I know, Pu Pu platter is mostly fried items (crab rangoon, battered shrimp, shrimp toast, chicken wings, and egg rolls), with teriyaki beef sticks and BBQ style pork ribs. The chicken wings, egg rolls, teriyaki beef sticks and ribs were ok, BUT the shrimp toast, and battered shrimp were not very good. .. See pics.. The shrimp toast looked like it was a frozen, prepackaged product, and was greasy. I ordered takeout and it took only 20 minutes from ordering to picking it up and bringing it home and the oil from the shrimp toast had accumulated in the section of the Styrofoam container that it was in.. It would have been better if they 'could have' let it drain or pat it with a paper towel before packing it. The taste was not really good either. I didn't bother biting into the bread part, I just forked and sampled the 'shrimp' part. The battered shrimp looked like a big coin pouch. It was one shrimp with a lot of batter around it. It looked interesting, but just didn't need ALL that extra batter.(see pics). I think a better value would have been 4 simply battered fried shrimp instead of 2 'shrimp coin pouches'. As mentioned earlier, the chicken wings, egg rolls, teriyaki beef sticks and ribs were ok.. If you get the Pu Pu platter, maybe just sit and eat it there.. Value for money = fair to good, depending on what you get, and what you like. Portions are generous, so far. Staff are very friendly.

Update... 2 weeks later.. Orderd more takout for dinner this time. Forgot to take pics, again, before I ate the 3 dishes. Chicken curry with onions - tasty with aittle kick from the red pepper flakes. Balanced though, I could taste the curry without the peppered heat overpowering it. Tender chicken slices. Bourbon chicken was also tasty with the familiar flavor that we all recognize. Pork fried rice was also tasty with abundant pork and veg mixed in. Ordered the quart size and the box was BULGING with rice..Nice! Crab rangoon was an unexpected treat in my bag, but it was plump with cream cheese filling, fried well and yummy. I did take a pic of that before I ate them all... This time it was a hit! Thank you Shang Hai staff!. Added a Star from last time!

Update 08/10 Last weekend I tried sweet n sour chicken, bourbon chicken, and chicken w/mixed vegetables lunch specials. All 3 tasted good and as they should. ( yes, I ate them all..) Today am trying Mongolian Beef lunch special....later that day... Mongolian beef is a good one. Tender beef strips with onions and green onions in a mild sauce with a kick..

Update 10/11 - ordered the Chicken and Eggplant .. Wow. Tender chicken pieces with thick pieces of eggplant about 1" thick, green pepper, carrot and onions in sauce. Look at the Before and After pics. Lots of chicken and even more eggplant! Other veg were cooked but crisp, eggplant was cooked well and toothsome, NOT mushy. Very tasty dish. 5 minutes later is the "After" picture. I ate it that fast and i ate the chicke and eggplant pieces at the same rate....

I will never order from this place again. I ordered the quart of Mongolian beef & Received a pint & The rest of the container was filled with at least one WHOLE, chopped onion. The container was leaking all over in the bag. After taking out the half pound of onions from the container, There was less than half of beef in the actual order.

I go to put some cornstarch on the beef and put it in the iron skillet in order to cook it because when I bit into it, it had zero texture almost like a Scramble egg. Red Flag #1 🚩🚩🚩 the 2nd 🚩🚩🚩 was After 10 minutes on the skillet, The “beef” Didn’t get cooked, Nor was it crispy. I go to pull apart the “beef” and it was spongy in texture….🐕??? 🐈???? that was NOT how 🐄 is ssupposed to cook on high heat! Beef normally gets tougher and dry when it’s overcooked. This type of meat was impossible to overcook. I’m pissed!

The health enforcement agency needs to shut this place down or at least do an investigation because something isn’t right! I should’ve stuck with PF Chang like I had last night, And the flank beef was nice and crispy.

Update : after Doing some research on the Internet I am highly suspicious that this was dog meat! Given the texture in the comparison with cooked dog meat images, this seems to appear...

So on Monday September 11th, after Hurricane Irma passed, nothing was open to eat out at except for a couple of privately owned Asian takeout restaurants, Shang Hai being one of them. We got there, place was packed with a 30 minute wait time for your food. We didn't mind that part, it was understandable. They were obviously overwhelmed with the amount of food orders, and it was a little chaotic. I wasn't too optimistic about the quality of food but when we got home, we were very surprised that the food was amazing, as always. The sweet and sour chicken was on point and so was the chicken fried rice and the barbecue short ribs. I also ordered some steamed dumplings and although they forgot the sauce I still thoroughly enjoyed the meal. Thanks so much, Shang Hai, for continuing to be excellent even when overwhelmed and right after...