Shanghai Bun — Restaurant in Matawan

I wanted to try something different and I stumbled upon this place. I looked around their photos of their dishes and thought it looked pretty good. It's tucked away in a little strip mall. Upon entering, I noticed there were only around 10 tables. Not many, but enough for their small space.

I ordered what I though looked good. I went with the chicken with mustard greens noodle soup and the steamed dumplings. The host brought me utelsils while I waited. And I didn't wait but 4 minutes for my soup to arrive at my table. Now I should tell you that the soup bowls are huge. I could make three portions out of it. I don't know how to eat food like this so I just used a fork for the noodles and the spoon for the broth. The soup that I ordered was a little bland but it was good. The mixture of spinach and noodles was decent. I just wish their was a little bit more chicken in it.

This is where it got a little uncomfortable. I think the host guy was watching me eat and talked to the chefs in the back. I looked up from eating a few times and the chef was seriously staring at my. When he noticed me looking at him he quickly hopped back into the kitchen.

After about 15 minutes, my dumplings came out. Now these dumplings had soup in them and they're a decent size but I didn't know how to eat them either. So I just dipped them into some soy sauce (because soy sauce is the bomb) and shoved it into my mouth. The soup inside was good and the flavor all around was definitely good! I think I liked them more than my soup.

All-in-all the food was decent and I will most likely be back to try more items on the menu.

PS: If you go while it's cold out, wear warm clothes because it's chilly inside. Maybe turn the thermostat...

I really had high hopes for this place. I drove 15 min out of the way just to try it based on its reviews. To say I was disappointed, is an understatement. The best thing about my order was their spicy beef soup. On it's own, it gets a 5 star review for taste but they are extremely stingy on beef as I had around 5 pieces of beef for the whole soup. However, all the rest of the food was underwhelming and had strange flavors. Got their, flavorless, pan fired chicken dumplings. Literally had zero flavor outside of the dough. There was very little meat inside the dumpling and it was mostly dough. Sesame chicken was way too sweet and chicken was extremely dry. I never ate sesame chicken like this. Chicken and broccoli in garlic sauce should be renamed to "mostly garlic sauce with brocolli and very few pieces of chicken." Their chicken wings were over fried. Beef fried rice had hints of white rice which made me think that they just added some soy sauce of food color over the white rice and call it fried rice. I eat Chinese food a lot and have never been as disappointed with the taste as I was in this place. In fairness, I only went to try this place based on the 300 amazing reviews. Not sure what all, or any, of the hype is about. Maybe I had unreasonably high expectations for this place because of the great reviews. Literally any other neighborhood Chinese restaurant would blow this place away. Seems like they are on the cheaper side BUT, if you factor how stingy they are on their proteins, then they are actually overpriced for the product they deliver. Either way, I wish them luck but sincerely hope they improve...

Overrated, but adequate Shanghai food here, but it's the closest (dare say only) Shanghainese place around. Ok juicy buns to hit the spot when you don't feel like driving to Edison, but you might as well drive to Edison if you order by phone because chances are you'll still be waiting for your order when you get there to pick it up (happening more often to me than I can count on one hand, weekend and weekdays alike). Shanghai rice noodles (the thick oval ones) are a simple "no, thanks" here. I can't give 5 stars for failing to have good Shanghai rice noodles from a Shanghai restaurant alone. The waiting time for pick up is minus another star.

Update 2020: Thank you for being open during COVID 19 but I will look this gift horse in the mouth. Efficiency was not their strong point before COVID and it has only gotten worse. Customers who ordered ahead and arrive to pick up their order will have to wait behind customers ordering ahead because they can process only one customer at a time. You had better hope you don't have any indecisive customers ahead of you. Don't come here for a quick pick up. Ever. The attendant should have the sense to ask who is here for pickup and take care of us so we don't have to wait extended periods because of Shanghai Bun's inefficiency. Or have a...