Shu Restaurant — Restaurant in West Hartford

I was eager to try Shu, after having read the reviews. I enjoy every type of food, from all over the world, but Shu was a waste of time and money. We had the tingling chicken. It was in a green sauce with an herbal taste, similar to mint. Odd, and not enjoyable. We had the crispy shredded beef, which consisted of barely perceptible slender strings of beef in a ton of breading, fried. The dish couldn't have had even an ounce of meat in it. High calorie garbage. Also had scallion pancakes - not much scallion, mostly fried thin flour pancakes. Again, cheap starch. After that, chicken with Hoisin sauce - a ton of oil - literally in a clear lake of oil. Hoisin sauce was weak, barely perceptible. Lastly, beef in coconut. Again, tons of breading, also fried, and fried shredded coconut.

The meal wasn't helped by the fact that midway through it, our water acquired a very strange taste - I think that the pitcher had soap in it. We had to ask for fresh water glasses and fresh water. And believe me, we had been very pleasant to the waitpeople, and had not made any complaints.

What we ordered, plus a 15% tip, came to $75. Expensive for what we had, and what we had wasn't very good. Don't believe the hype. This place is not worth a visit. A waste of time, money,...

Shu's management needs to discontinue its claim of xenophobia as a result of Covid-19. They make this claim in the local news and even to customers of their restaurant. As a frequent customer, the volume of my visits have been curtailed as a result of Covid-19, not due to any racial hatred, but because I've curtailed all of my dining out activities. I'm confident other customers have scaled back their dining activity for similar reasons.

Shu's should focus its efforts on quality control in their kitchen. While the food can be very good, other times it can also be very disappointing based upon who is in the kitchen. There are times when servings are generous in portion size and content, and other times when you arrive home with slightly more than half a serving size and you will be hard pressed to find any meat in the dish at all. As Shu's is not conveniently located and its menu prices are far higher than other local Chinese food restaurants, it needs to offer a more consistent in the quality of the food it prepares and serves - both dining in and take-out.

Plan to spend at least $60 on a party of two for take-out and above $100 for a party of two dining in. For that money the expectation bar for Shu's is above the level of what...

Overall I enjoyed the food. The service was attentive and food came out in a timely manner. The staff were warm and friendly.

I will say some select dishes are overpriced for what is received - particularly the spicy dry pot. It should include shrimps,fish filet,squid ,beef, sausage,pork intestines, and mix vegetables in spicy sauce. The meal was 95% vegetable. There was a fair amount of beef, fish, and intestine. It had 2 thin slices of sausage (hotdog), 1 shrimp, 1 piece of squid. Me and the person sharing didnt get to try all the items because there was only 1 of a few of the included items. It was very disappointing. This was a $25 dollar dish of mostly veg bc the meat was scarce. For that, it loses one star.

However- everything else was great. I have no complaints about the peking duck, dumplings, cuttlefish, or noodles. The cuttlefish was perfectly fried and we enjoyed it so much that we ended up ordering another serving. The noodles were flavorful, light and fresh tasting.

Id say overall, this place is worth a visit if youd like to widen your horizons on some authentic...