Shang-Hai Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in Universal City

Another place to add to my General Chicken list.. today I returned to Shanghai on Pat Booker Rd. Its been at least 10 years since my last visit.. I was seated immediately, given the choice of a booth or table. The decor was interesting, tables had diamond checkered table covers, which looked more Italian than Chinese.

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The menu had a vast selection of items, and a few combo items. Lunch menu combos were listed as being $11 and dinner combos were $14. After asking the waiter what the top selling items were, I was split between the shrimp and beef combo plate, the general/sesame chicken, or the spicy shredded beef. I asked if the general chicken could be done as a dinner combo, and he said yes, even though the menu said "no substitutions please".

The combo came with a bowl of soup, I opted for the wonton, and an egg rolll or crab rangoon, I went with the eggroll, and fried or steamed rice, I went with the fried rice.

My drink and soup were delivered first. The soup looked pretty good, but had an odd flavor.. I've experienced this at other restaurants before, and Im not sure if it has to do with an ingredient or a cleaning agent. When the main plate came out it looked good as well, I had noticed the subtext stating the general and sesame chicken were made with "dark meat" but figured Id try it anyway..

The meat had a noticeable dark meat flavor, the batter was barely crisp at all. The sauce had a more vinegary flavor. The rice was very fluffy, not sticky, not crunchy.. and had visible onion, egg, peas and carrots, but ultimately failed to deliver the flavor it would appear to have. It was very bland, I think it needed salt or oil of some kind. Almost like it was steamed and the vegetable egg mix was just added in.

Last up was the eggroll, it was crispy, not chewy, the cabbage had a nice crisp crunch to it, as did the slivers of carrot inside, and overall it was pretty decent, but not amazing.. maybe a 8/10.

My waiter came by several times, my drink was refilled, my request for an item off menu was made, and as far as the service goes it was a solid 9/10.. I was just left a bit disappointed by the food. Overall, I might be tempted to go back and try something else, but based on the items I had tonight, I found it less than impressive..

Value: 7/10 Flavor: 6/10 Portion Size: 8/10 Ambiance:...

I thought Shang-Hai would have been one of the least popular restaurants in Universal City, given its nondescript strip mall location. The lunch crowd proved me wrong, and I found a nice Chinese restaurant run by some very nice women. I typically use the garlic chicken as a measure of the restaurant's quality, but Shang-Hai didn't offer this as a lunch special. Instead, I grabbed the Mongolian Chicken because of its offering as a spicy dish - one which I ordered to the spiciest degree, much to the shock of the woman taking my order. They use "X"s on the order ticket to indicate spiciness, and we stood there debating just how many "X"s one ticket could hold. It was five or six, but I'm sure the cook got the message either way.

The meat portion was simply prepared with chicken, peppers and water chestnuts. The sauce in which it was covered was thick, slightly sweet, and completely chock full of Tien Tsin chiles and seeds, so much so that the sauce took on a completely different consistency. On one hand, so many of the seeds in the sauce were a bit unpleasant, but on the other hand, they brought the spice, so I was kinda stuck.

The fried rice was unique with bits of onions, carrot and peas. It was more similar to some of the Mexican saffron rice that I've had here than traditional fried rice, which is something I enjoyed. The cheese rangoon was fairly standard and slightly under-fried, but the egg drop soup I accidentally received was very nice and full of mushroom.

In the end, the restaurant may not be what many people have in mind, but my meal was definitely up to snuff. You could do worse in Universal City than Shang-Hai, curious...

We usually love the service and a long time customer. But today my youngest son(two) started acting out when we sat down. Well I picked him up and took him outside for the courtesy of the other guest. When I went back in to try for second time. He acted out again. So that's when I said lets go. My husband had ordered our drinks already. Eli didn't even get I take drunk out of it. When we leave. My husband asks how much do we owe you? The owner started to ring him out and I said to her. You already are going to charge us for drinks? Which we didn't even drink? She said hat she has too!!! I got more upset and walked out. I still am applauded that she charged me $9.31 for drinks. That we couldn't even drink. I felt that she should have been more compassionate and let us go. I love their food and had always been happy with their service. But today just made me aware. That we were just another customer and they needed to charge us. I even called to apologize for my child's behavior and mine as well. She said that she was sorry and would refund me. But I just felt that she should have been more compassionate in my time of need. I am now looking for another good Chinese restrauant to take my crazy...