Liu's Shanghai — Restaurant in New York

DECEPTIVE & DISHONEST BUSINESS (my experience) I included an honest review of my food order below. If you choose to order food at this restaurant then I hope you do not have the same experience.

The food was poorly flavored. The Soup dumplings were overly sweet and lacked the flavors normally associated with quality Asian soup dumplings.

I also ordered chicken and Broccoli and pork fried rice. Here was my experience:

There was Certain low quality food preparation. The pork fried lacked visible culinary effort and was greasy. A quality cook would use high flame in the Wok (an obvious thing) to obtain a nice quick smoky char to the fried rice. This pork fried rice was undercooked and greasy.

The chicken: They included a very small amount of finely chopped chicken meat with nearly half the portion being finely sliced chicken slimy SKIN. I was in disbelief and thought the sliced chicken skin was a random piece of fat, but I soon noticed a LARGE AMOUNT of uniformly sliced chicken skin added to the dish along with a small amount of actual chicken meat. This seemed to me as a deceptive choice made by the business to cut their costs.

I would not recommend this business, and my phone experience with the business owner was negative, as she was terribly rude to me. I give this place a two...

A hidden gem in the neighborhood.

Service was great and fast. We ordered the scallop soup dumplings, preserved vegetables & pork fried rice and crab meat and tofu dish. We got seated pretty quickly on a Friday night around 7PM.

The scallop soup dumplings was good, which had a scallop and some crab meat. The preserved vegetables & pork fried rice was something I had at Shanghai cafe in Chinatown. I would say this one is better since it's not overly salty and it doesn't make you feel sleepy cough MSGcough like Shanghai cafe. The crab meat and tofu was a new dish and it was good. There's a good amount of sauce (good to go with rice) and a slight hint of seasame oil on the tofu which elevates the flavor. Would recommend to others.

The place was full house as the night progressed and had a steady stream of take out orders. Would recommend to come a bit early to beat the dinner crowd since the place is small (about 5-6 tables). There's also complimentary desserts (sago with coconut milk and forbidden (black) rice. The sago with coconut milk was ok, it was a tad watered down but the black rice dessert was better. It had a slightly thicker texture/sweet and nutty taste refreshing taste.

Would recommend this place since it's the only Shanghainese restaurant in Bath...

RATING - 3.5/5 - Cozy spot that can get busy with neighborhood folks. They're mainly walk in, unless you have a party of 7+, then you get their bigger round table in the back. We were a party of 6 on Father's Day weekend and waited ~ 10 min for a table. What we got:

Pork Soup Dumplings: 7/10 - the skin was a bit thicker than l'd like, but the taste was there. I loved that we all got individual vinegar ginger dips Crab + Pork Soup Dumplings: 9/10 - better than the Pork! The skin wasn't as thick for our batch Scallop Soup Dumplings: 7/10 - not a huge fan of the flavor, but l like that they don't skimp on the scallop! Shanghai Lo Mein & Shanghai Style Rice Cake: 7/10 they could've had more wok fry, but good flavor Fried Wonton in Peanut + Hot Sauce: 8/10 - 1 really enjoyed this dish! It's not very spicy + topped with a crushed peanut/sugar flavor - so good! Braised Pork Belly: 8/10 - pretty heavy, unless you eat it with the bao buns. Very flavorful, and may go good with a bowl of rice as well! Scallion Pancake & String Beans: 9/10 - standard + yummy!

Overall, it was a good place for a meal, but I personally had better soup dumplings elsewhere. Otherwise, everything...