Shanghai Restaurant — Restaurant in Virginia

My family has gotten takeout from Shanghai for many years, and while the results have been a little variable for specific dishes, we've always very much enjoyed them, and Shanghai remains our go-to. Last night my wife and I were especially wowed by two of the 4 dishes we got: Chicken Pad Thai and Kung Pao Chicken. Both were incredibly bright and flavorful, probably the best we've ever had here or anywhere. Will definitely try those again soon to see if this is a consistent result! The other 2 dishes were also excellent: General Tao's Chicken had large, very gently breaded chunks of chicken breast and plenty of tangy sauce, while the Chicken Singapore Rice Noodles -- our first time trying this -- was slightly salty but loaded with chicken and egg, mild curry flavor, and those wonderful thin noodles. All portions were very generous and will provide leftovers for at least a couple more meals. We were so impressed with the entire order that we called the restaurant to let them know. The owner was appreciative and, as always, so pleasant. I asked the name of whoever prepared the food and she told me it was Mr. Xu, and that he is always the cook. I will remember that! I'm always happy to give this family-run restaurant our business, and today a 5-star review for particularly...

Whew... Well tonight was a first. We picked up carry-out tonight. Once we got home, we realized we were missing two items from our order -- one of which was NOODLES for the CHOW MEIN!!! We called to inform Shanghai of the error and the woman working told us she'd send it right away for delivery since it was their error. Considering that this is the SECOND time that this has happened in as many visits, we assumed that the delivery would be quick. ONE HOUR LATER -- still no food. The woman working was never honest about what was going on and ultimately we had to return to the restaurant to pick up our order...again. There was never an attempt to make up for our extreme inconvenience since it was now 9pm and there was not even an apology for our trouble. I've never been so disappointed in a restaurant experience. My suggestion is to go somewhere else with your business since Shanghai seemingly doesn't care about their customers once the bill...

My family used to always go to Shanghai on Sunday afternoons for the buffet, but we visited for the first time in years recently and it has definitely gone downhill.

I didn't think the food was not as good as it used to be. Most annoying, the buffet is not kept stocked like it should be. There were multiple items that were empty or very low on our first trip. Several of those items were not replenished at any time during our hour-long stay.

I get it. The place isn't packed like it used to be and they don't want to waste food by cooking large batches of buffet items that stay out for extended periods of time. But most of these items were favorites like General Tao's Chicken and it was very frustrating.

Other reasons we used to love Shanghai were the great service and cleanliness. Those have also declined somewhat. Nevertheless, the service and cleanliness at Shanghai is still probably better than most Chinese restaurants.

Overall, I probably...