ShangHai Restaurant+ZhangLiang Spicy Hot Pot 张亮麻辣烫 — Restaurant in Fort Lee

This was our first time trying a restaurant like this, and we truly loved the experience. From the moment we walked in, the environment felt warm and casual. The restaurant isn’t very large, but it has a modern and interactive setup that makes the visit unique and enjoyable. One of the staff members was especially friendly and helpful. She kindly explained how the ordering process worked, which was very helpful since it was all new to us.

Once we understood how things were done, we went over to see the large selection of fresh ingredients. That’s when the fun really began. You get to hand-pick everything you want to include in your bowl. We picked a variety of items like lo mein, squid, mushrooms, tofu, bok choy, and more. At first, I thought we might have gone overboard with the mix, but to our surprise, everything came together perfectly after they cooked it.

The process is simple: choose your ingredients, they weigh your bowl (you pay by the pound), then you choose your soup base or sauce and they cook everything for you. We chose the Mala Xiangguo flavor, which had just the right amount of spice and bold flavor. It was delicious, full of depth, and cooked perfectly. Every bite had a balance of heat and umami that made us want to go back for more.

The dining area was clean, organized, and well-lit, creating a comfortable place to enjoy the meal. There is space in the front with outdoor seating tables, which is perfect if you want to enjoy the fresh air or relax on a nice day. It’s a great option for anyone looking to enjoy a flavorful meal with a bit of sunshine.

Overall, this was more than just a meal; it was a fun experience. Watching your own selections come together in a delicious dish makes it feel personal and satisfying. We’re definitely planning to come back soon, and next time, we’ll bring a few friends along to share...

Came here with a friend on a Sat morning. Pictures are NOT what they seem, so don't go by the pictures on the menu or what's posted all over the walls. We ordered pork soup dumplings, shao mai, potstickers, and liang pi. The meat part of the soup dumpling tasted a bit funny but the sauce covers up the taste so we still finished all 2 orders! The skin was the right texture, just chewy enough and not too thin where the soup is already dripping as you pick it up. My only problem was that there was not enough soup. Usually it's spilling out with the first bite, but this one doesnt even fill up the whole spoon. The shao mai has sticky rice and mushroom- taste was great but a bit soggy. The pot stickers were a huge disappointment. Wish I'd taken a picture but it was individual dumplings coated in oil, barely "pan fried." The skin was too thick, but the meat part was good. The only item I'd order again is the liang pi, which is a cold noodle dish with cucumber and hot chili oil. Usually it's either too hot or too salty or both but this place did it right!

Came here at 11 and by noon it was already filling up. The metered parking on the street also full by noon. If you wanna come on the weekend, get here early! It's a pretty small restaurant with small wooden tables and chairs, so not convenient for large parties.

I gave 3 stars because, although the food was not spectacular, the service was pretty good. The waiter came by often to refill our teapot and our food came out ina timely manner, granted that there were only 3 other...

I am disappointed at the quality of food we received from this Shanghai place. Their food quality is way below par. the dumpling skin was thick and chewy, unlike what a typical soup dumplings light and thin skin. We tried both regular pork filling and crab filling. The meat tasted stale and not fresh. The dumplings were under-cooked, as we could tell from the dumpling skin’s raw-ish looking dough. so we ended up eating mostly fillings and left the last few dumplings skins untouched.

We also ordered a veggie dish, which we tasted sand (possibly from under-washed?), eggplant dish where the eggplant skins tasted burnt. Dish was oily and spicy? What’s most bizarre dish, the shrimp dumplings, the dumpling skin was made of doughy skin, versus the translucent skin like their menu advertised for (or Ha gao in cantonese).

I gave them a 3 star for the service, because the server returned the shrimp dumplings after he saw and agreed that this is not what’s expected. The server had seated us down on one side of the restaurant and later on directed us to move to another table so to accomplish other customers. We still tipped the business 10%, which is more than what they deserved consider only service we had received was so to be served for dishes and returned dish upon we requested.

For this so called “hole in the wall” place. other than the ambiance, i cannot say for the quality of the dumplings or the dishes has any advantage competing with any other typical hole in the wall place...