Wu's Shanghai Dumpling上海小笼- North Brunswick — Restaurant in North Brunswick Township

As a Chinese American who has lived in NJ/NY for more than 30 years, I have seen restaurants come and go. My husband and I always love to try new restaurants. Therefore when we spotted this new restaurant we wanted to give it a try. Dumplings are always a great draw for us, and we had many great ones before. We ordered the pork dumplings, shrimp har-gao, Shanghai stir-fry noodles, and cold curry noodles. The size of the dumplings were a bit small to our taste, what's more disappointing was the quantity of meat inside, way too small. The taste was the usual average, not bad, not super outstanding. My husband found the curry cold noodle pretty good, I think the presentation of his dish was quite creative too. The har-gao was fine, but we also had better ones in other dim-sum places. My stir-fry was the most disappointing. The dish looked dead on arrival on two counts: the color of the noodle had only one tone - very dark soy-sauce color which did not look appetizing; several blanched bok-choy were placed on top of the noodle, bok-choy that was boiled with no oil that did not look shinny at all. I have never seen presentation that poor. The meat that was used to stir-fry was so minced that the whole dish looked quite pathetic. Thankfully, the taste was still acceptable. We finished our dinner with an order of black sesame soup, which was the best of all. It did cost $8 for a dessert which was big enough for two. We spent more than $60 for the above. Will I recommend this restaurant? If you are not tech savvy, think again - once we sat down, the waiters asked us to scan the QR code to order. But I saw two menus lying on the table, so for argument sake, I asked her, "since you are here, can I not order through you? I prefer to talk face to face" She reluctantly said yes, and explained that through the app, we could see what items were not available. I am not a person who love to deal with tech for sit down dinner. If the restaurant is very busy, and if they are under staff, may be. I always prefer service. Anyway, there were at least three to four servers there, and I noticed during our stay, they hung out and talked, or looked at their phone. Some of the staff certainly were not well trained. When the server who served the dumplings and har-gao, she wanted to put the whole tray in the middle of our small table, without attempting to take them out and put them in the middle. I had to take them out myself while they were very hot! Just so amazingly bad. Another cheap thing was when we wanted to share the black sesame soup, I asked for two spoons, we were given two disposable plastic spoons. Really? For this price point, and for this seemingly upscale decoration? Well, we were given disposable chopsticks, and a larger plastic spoon anyway for the dumplings (not happy). The final draw, when we asked for the bill, the waitress presented us with two bills, one with the first 4 plates, and one with the sesame dish - we laughed - they operated like a fast food restaurant! With all the food prices being quite high, but the service, and the whole operation were all quite like a joke. I don't know whether I want to come back...As we walked out, my husband said, I know you will come back just for the sesame soup...I said, maybe....What do you think after...

When my husband suggested trying out a new dumpling spot, I eagerly grabbed my coat and purse, ready to go. Wu's Shanghai Dumpling has two locations: one in Edison and another in North Brunswick. For this review, I'm only focusing on the North Brunswick location.

Upon arrival, I was pleasantly surprised to discover the North Brunswick location, especially since it's closer to home. The entrance was marked by charming dumplings hanging from strings, setting the tone for the sleek and modern ambiance. The feng shui of the space was exceptional.

After scanning the menu, we made our choices: ~ Pork Xiao Long Bao - The dumplings had a thicker skin than I'm used to, but the filling was exceptional--plenty of filling and flavorful soup. ~ Cold Chicken with Chopped Scallions - A flavorful dish, though there were some sharp shards in the chicken from when it was cut into bite-sized pieces, so eat carefully. It was drenched in a delicious ginger-scallion oil sauce. However, it calls for a bowl of rice, which the restaurant unfortunately doesn't offer. My suggestion would be to add plain rice as a side. ~ Noodles with Wu's Signature Spicy Pork Egg - Delicious! If you've ever wondered what a scotch egg and a jammy egg would taste like, this dish has perfected that combination. ~ Shanghainese Salty Tofu Bowl - This was the standout dish of the meal. It was fantastic! The balance of sweet, salty, and spicy flavors was perfect. It left us craving more. Again, rice would have made this dish even better.

The service was good, though there were a few minor hiccups. Some of our dishes could have been cleared away sooner, as they stayed on the table while new dishes were brought out. Additionally, we had an order mix-up that caused a delay. When we asked about our missing noodle dish, the server checked with the kitchen and discovered it hadn't been entered. Thankfully, it was quickly resolved, and the dish arrived shortly after.

One thing I did appreciate was how efficiently the staff cleaned the tables as soon as guests left, spraying and wiping them down. The staff was also incredibly friendly and courteous, making us feel welcome throughout the meal.

A note for those visiting: some dishes on the menu had an "X" next to them, indicating they weren't available. The server explained this, and I'm curious to see if these dishes are available at the Edison location. That will be for another day and...

Want to start off saying that I was SUPER excited to try this spot. They opened this larger spot up and the other location is always busy and fantastic. Walked in and it was easy to get a table for dinner, no wait at all on a weeknight. The aesthetic is really cute. Gold and wooden decor. Dumpling shaped decorations through the restaurant. Loved it! The service was fine and servers were nice. Only odd thing was that they don’t have hot water. I usually don’t have that issue at Asian restaurants. Just cold water, tea, bubble tea options, etc.

Now onto the food. Very convenient to order via phone and QR code. Everything looked AMAZING. Unfortunately the taste was disappointing. Xiao long bao are not as authentic as I’d like. The skin is not made as thin as it should be. The shumai was oddly crunchy and had corn inside. We had a tofu skin dish with edamame and a rice cake dish with chicken. Those were pretty bland and the rice cakes were hard. Fried coconut milk was delicious with coconut flakes on top. Spicy beef noodle soup was not spicy at all and when we asked, they said we had to add chili oil to it ourselves. The special spicy pork noodle soup was good but not too much flavor. The picked fish filet noodle soup was the best of the three. Lots of flavor but you could tell the pickled veggies were straight out of the package based on the color. The panda red bean buns were adorable and I liked those! All in all, I enjoyed the experience. However probably won’t be back because while the prices weren’t extreme, the food quality just isn’t worth it. Would have rated lower but giving it 3 stars because they’re new and hopefully this is just them getting into the groove of things!

Now for my standard COVID comments as of May 2023. Employees are still wearing masks and the interior is very clean. Definitely no issues in...