Shang Gong Chu 尚宫厨 — Restaurant in Jersey City

I dined at Shang Gong Chu a week ago today after hearing rave reviews about their food.

The minute we walked in, I noticed how beautiful the restaurant is inside. I saw the fantasic looking bar, empty (I assume they’re waiting on their liquor license), and the dragon-like, light-changing decoration on the ceiling—really beautiful. They ask you if you want to spin a wheel to win a prize in exchange for a review.

We ordered the food and the server came by to confirm our order almost immediately after we placed the order. We ordered the soup dumplings, General Tso’s Chicken, a “sticky rice,” fried rice, and Shrimp Lo Mein.

We waited for the food for what seemed like an unnecessary amount of time given the fact that the restaurant didn’t appear too busy for a Tuesday night. I saw a large flash of fire reflecting on the wall in the kitchen area (behind the curtain) and many people walking hurriedly around and staring at the smoke alarm. I get it, things happen. I bring that up because I wondered if that caused the events that followed.

It appears that their practice is to bring out the food as it is ready and not wait for the whole table to be served—not a fan of this. We received the General Tso’s Chicken but no rice. We received the soup dumplings, but no spoons. We never received the sticky rice nor the lo mein. That was the dish specifically ordered for one of the diners at our table. The staff apologized and then rushed to get the food to us . Frankly, we canceled the sticky rice because we had already eaten the General Tso’s chicken and weren’t going to just eat white rice.

Feedback on the food itself… The General Tso’s Chicken was bland. Lacking seasoning and the chicken seemed to have some kind of filling that was quite noticeable and unpleasant.

The soup dumplings were fantastic. However, they easily fell apart. I’ve had many soup dumplings in the past and this never happened. Each order (we had 3), was the same. You would extract the soup and they would immediately fall apart. Not quite the best experience eating those.

The lo mein was very good. Don’t have any feedback on the rice as it never came to the table. The fried rice we very good but super spicy. I didn’t mind the spice, maybe I missed it on the description on the menu but it was surprising how spicy it was.

Overall, the restaurant’s atmosphere is very nice. The service was awful! I hope they get the service issue straightened out. If this is how it works during a presumably “slow” Tuesday, I can’t imagine the experience on busy weekends. I wish them well and will likely return but it won’t be for a while. They need to get...

What happens when wealthy Mainlanders grow out of their wild Manhattan party days (and nights) to settle down in Jersey City?

The authentic, high-quality Chinese restaurants follow suit. You go where the money is, folks.

Shang Gong Chu is yet another example of this trend, opening in a haunted restaurant space that never saw much success and was most recently occupied by a place that offered Japanese-Malaysian food (wut?).

While SGC has stiff competition from some top-notch Chinese restaurants within the immediate area, it quite admirably holds its own as a newcomer. Our dishes, from best to worst:

Braised Hyacinth Beans With Pounded Chili: I don't see these beans often, and they offer that wet crunch that I love so much in beans. Get this for umami legume goodness.

Pork Belly With Shredded Bamboo Shoots: Channel your inner panda with this tasty dish. Bamboo shoots also offer that wet crunch texture I love, and this comforting dish made great use of them.

Salted Egg Yolk Mushrooms: Well-marinated and perfectly seasoned

(Free) Yunnan Spicy Minced Pork With Chili And Herbs: We spun the wheel at the entrance and won this tasty appetizer. It was savory and delicious, like your grandma's heartiest stir-fry.

Claypot Tofu: Solid tofu texture but a bit under-seasoned

Crispy Fried Pork Bites: To satisfy all our inner Popeyes kids

Garlic Shrimp On Ironplate: Not really sizzling, like ironplates usually are, but loaded with enough plump, juicy shrimp for our group of 6. Be warned: You have to reeeeally like minced garlic (and don't kiss anyone for like two hours afterward)

Chongqing Style Fried Chicken: Just okay. Not spicy enough and not crispy enough, especially with Peppercorn Station around the corner wearing the crown for years

Steamed Egg: We actually forgot we ordered this, and so did the staff, so we didn't get it until we were nearly done. I don't know if the late serving influenced my perception, but I found the dish lackluster and not worth the price.

Service was decent overall, though they were a bit busy and hard to flag down in the middle of our meal. The decor is on par with most of the good Chinese restaurants in downtown Jersey City, mixing classical Chinese aesthetics with modern touches. Shang Gong Chu might carve out its niche by being the most spacious of the top-quality Chinese restaurants--great for large groups. In fact, given the price points and portion sizes, I don't think I'd come with any group smaller than five people.

Also, it's always fun to spin a wheel of...

Honestly, I haven’t had such a terrible dining experience in a long time—especially not at a place that clearly spent a lot of money on interior design.

From the moment we arrived, the service was disappointing. The hostess was unprofessional and gave us no useful information—just told us to stand and wait without any estimate of how long or explanation of the process. We were eventually seated at a greasy table with oil pooled underneath and a wobbly surface. It took over 20 minutes just to get a glass of water, and the servers seemed busy but disorganized and inefficient.

The food took nearly an hour and a half to come out, and even then, we were served the wrong dish. Instead of acknowledging the mistake, the server implied it was our fault. The food itself was bland and overpriced—small portions with barely any meat, the portion of the food seems to be different from many people's post on XIAOHONGSHU and I wonder why. You can easily find much better spots in Jersey City for less money.

No one offered a water refill throughout the meal. We had to go up to the servers—who were just standing around—to ask. One server came over, refilled one glass with an attitude, and walked off, leaving the rest of us with empty cups.

For a place that invested so much in decor, they should have spent some of that money on hiring a competent chef and properly training their staff.

Don’t come here! Save your money and go somewhere that actually cares about the food...