Shanghai Pine Gardens Restaurant — Restaurant in Newport Beach

We made a reservation here for Xmas dinner, but we were not seated for 30 minutes. The food did not get to our table after we placed an order for an additional 45 minutes. 75 minutes (with a reservation) until ONE dish got to the table is a nightmare.

3 other tables that were all walk ins without reservations were served their food, paid and LEFT, before we even got 1 main dish. HOW.

The time between the soup and appetizer was another 25 minutes! We also ordered drinks, 4 times but they still did not bring them to the table, until we asked one of the bussing staff members to grab them for us.

It appeared that there was only one woman allowed to be taking orders. She did not know how to prioritize or organize at all. You could tell the kitchen was a mess, even with a limited xmas menu.

She forgot to place our order correctly with the kitchen also and came back to our table to take the order again, which was a very bad sign. They do not have an effecient system at all. If they can not handle their own dine in customers on a busy holiday they should also limit their take out to not overwhelm the kitchen. So many people were just standing around IN the restaurant waiting for their take out for a very long time. They also sat a table of 4 directly in front of a fire exit.

The dining experience was overall very uncomfortable.

The soup came out barely warmed, and the appetizer too. And the food following was mediocre. The Mapo tofu had no flavor (like a light soy sauce at best) not spicy and tasted nothing like what it's supposed to. The schezuan eggplant was also not spicy at all like the traditional dish. This place is more like American style Chinese food in case anyone was wondering what to expect.

On any other day we may have enjoyed this spot. But because of how neglected our table was I don't think we would come back. The woman was not friendly at all, no apology, almost like they didn't even notice we had been there for over an hour twiddling our hungry the thumbs at the table.

Overall, the food was just not anything special vs the price and...

Told them 5 times my wife is vegetarian, no fish sauce, no oyster sauce in anything. String beans and some other tofu dish she ordered came out funny smelling, so she asked what's in the sauce, and they said oh there's oyster sauce in there. My shrimp low mein came out with deep fried shrimps with no mention on the menu that they were gonna be fried. Didn't eat the low mein, but said to myself hey that's just how they do the shrimp here so I'll just pay for it and go feed it to a dog or something, no lunch for me. They offered to redo the string beans for my wife with just garlic sauce, but no mention of the tofu dish with oyster sause that just sat there awkwardly. Redone string beans came out, she started eating it, 5 minutes into it she discovered a piece of beef in there. Lunch ruined. We're both hungry and just want to get out, asked them to charge me for the low mein only and leave the other 2 dishes out of the bill because those were supposed to be vegetarian but weren't. Check was laid in front of us with an attitude, we were charged for the garbage low mein (which I expected) and also for the tofu dish that had oyster sauce. Didn't argue, paid for all of it, left all the food on the table, and got the F out never to...

Nice corner spot with big bay windows to people watch while sitting comfortably inside.

Food came fast. I was in and out in 20 minutes, tops. But I could've stayed. It wasn't terribly busy while I was there, maybe 5 tables, I just had somewhere else I had to be.

Portion size is average. The item that stood out to me was the hot n sour soup. It really had a nice smokey savory flavor and the little scallion garnish on top was a great burst of flavor that complimented the base of the soup perfectly. Was really impressed with the soup. I ordered fried rice with my kung pao chicken. Fried rice was a little dry but not bad. The main entree was just average to me. I've had better but I've also had worse.

Overall was not bad. Price was reasonable for that area and place was clean and service was friendly. (Noted : my criticism for these types of Chinese restaurants is high since I make a point to try them whenever and wherever I see one. I've been to over 40 in Southern...