This page is for archiving comments from 2005 for Shanghai Town.
2005-08-28 22:47:44 I ate their earlier this night, shortly before closing. They were out of most items, however they freshly cooked what we wanted -a nice touch. The two people seemed quite friendly. While the food was a bit greasy/oily, it tasted fine, and I have no expectation of being poisoned there. I'd consider them average (rating=5) for inexpensive Chinese food. —SteveDavison
2005-09-04 20:27:10 After eating food from there today, I'm dropping my rating of them one point to [Rating=4]. Just too greasy. —SteveDavison
2005-12-15 17:37:02 Random and useless tidbit: The owner of Shanghai Town moved her restaurant from San Bruno (about 15 minutes south of San Francisco) to Davis. I went to high school with her son and now her son goes to Davis so I'm assuming that they moved the restaurant here so that her son could help run the place. —EmilyTung
2005-12-25 22:23:55 Shanghai Town has fantastic food and intimidating portions. The biggest cons are that it sometimes takes a while to get your food and it isn't the cleanest restaurant in town— just be clear on your priorities. Starting with the front side of the dim sum menu ... the green onion pancake is fried goodness, and its sesame seed coating is a welcome treat. The Shanghai Style Chow Mein is made with rice noodles, and is better than any Chow Mein I've had elsewhere in Davis. The Tan Tan Noodles, which mix ground pork with a spicy sauce, are likewise good. The Chive Stickers are my favorite dumpling here. The steamed Shrimp Baby Buns always get points for good flavor, but one time they easily fell apart. The Spicy Wontons are numerous and very good. The rice cakes are greasy but yummy, notably the Seafood Rice Cakes, which have perfectly cooked squid, a rarity in Davis. I didn't care for the Vegetable Buns, which were too dry, or the Pan Fried beef cakes which were unnecessarily greasy. The rear of the dim sum menu is where meat lovers should pay attention. The Shanghai Soy Sauce duck is a great buy at $3.95. With four 2.5 inch diameter meatballs, the Lion's Head Clay Pot Soup, pictured above, was gigantic and well worth $8.95. These meatballs also made an appearance in the Braised Pork Meatballs, where they are coated in a dark soy-based sauce with hints of star anise. The sauce goes great with the meatballs, but even better in the Shanghai Style Braised Pork Ribs. These ribs seem to be their signature dish— the waitresses eyes lit up when we ordered it. The Sauteed Eel and the Braised Pork w/ Bean Curd are tasty dishes, but are a bit overwhelming by themselves. I recommend you order them only when splitting a few different dishes. That goes double for any of the Rice and Meat Clay Pots— I tend to enjoy the first few bites, but find them a chore to finish. As they specialize in Shanghai cuisine, I'm not a huge fan of their "Americanized" menu. That said, I've enjoyed most every chicken dish except the ones with deep-fried battered chicken. The General's chicken is flavorful but too tough, and the Mongolian Chicken is consistently one of their best overall dishes. The heavily battered sesame chicken is also worth mentioning if you like this dish— most places simply garnish with sesame seeds. Here the sesame seed flavor really comes through. Two final dishes are the Bean Curd with Vegetables, the one that comes only with Chinese mushrooms and bok choy, and the Candied Rib dish, which is the the upper left-most item on the chinese only section. Both are sensational. —CraigBrozinsky
