Shanghai River Restaurant

12/26/11

Terrible Chinese

by Jeff 77008

My wife and I ate here regularly for years but the last several months things have really gone down hill. There are just so many great places to eat in Houston way waste money on a bad meal. If you ask they will bring out a pickled cabbage which is great but you have to ask.

Generally we dine early and usually ate simple selections like hot and sour soup, wonton soup, barbequed ribs, fried rice and their house specialty whole crispy fried fiush. The soups have failed being consistent, If the won ton soup is good it is usually great, but often it is served warm (not hot) and the won tons taste uncoojked? The ribs when fresh are also tastey but we gave up the last time after eating ribs which tasted like they were cooked a month bvefore we arrived. The whole crispy fried fish was typiucally a very good dish but the last time we ordered oit the fish smelled like fishg and you know what that means.

We will not go back.

10/20/09

really good food

by jamani03

my family and i love the food. we will go back. the dinner for four was more than enough

• Pros: dinner special for 2,3,or 4

04/28/09

Not made to order

by ADSpreeman

The food was not bad, but it was not the best either. Ming's restraurant was a lot better than this. I had asked the server for sesame chicken with noodles instead of fried rice. She said, "I'm sorry, but we do not allow that." I said, "Why?" She repled, "We just don't." That made me angry, but I was hungry, so I figured I would just eat what I could. There was no way for me to even get noodles on the side! The noodles they make have shrimp, beef, and chicken in it. It was good, but it frustrated me that I could not just have prepared noodles with my sesame chicken. I won't go there again.

• Pros: Nice atmosphere, quick food delivery, great noodles
• Cons: Food was not made to order, over priced for what you get

02/16/09

Still searching for great inner loop delivered chinese

by imajin8

In the endless pursuit to find the best chinese food delivery we decided to try Shanghai river, which I hadn't tried in a couple of years. It's more expensive than Auntie Chang's. But then again, A. Chang's has started halving the size of their portions and using lots of cheap fill ingredients.

So, here was the order: hot & sour soup, spring rolls, moo goo gai pan, spicy fried tofu and veggies, and spicy walnut chicken w/ brown rice. Overall, the food arrived hot and promptly. I don't know if it was an off night for the chef - but it was all incredibly bland. Off to a bad start with the soup - it was neither appropriately spicy or sour, and seemed mostly to be bamboo shoots and eggs without all of those luscious exotic mushrooms or flavor I could get at PF changes. The spring rolls were better - large and filled with meat, but again pretty bland. The entrees were better (even if the spicy ones had no spice). They were all filled with luscious real chinese vegetables - baby corn, straw and shitake mushrooms, huge chunks of fresh bamboo... Still because of the blandness of the sauce I ended up soaking them in soy sauce and hot mustard to gain a bit of flavor. They charged extra for the brown rice which wasn't particularly cooked through all the way. The saving grace, was the Walnut Chicken which actually managed to have at least a bit of zing to it and great ingredients. But, I could have paid less and gotten a better meal by just picking up food at PF Chang's (gee, I wish they had delivery). Anyway, I think it'll be another year or so before I give this place a try again. But, if you like bland vs. spicy it might not be a bad option for you.

• Pros: High-quality entree ingredients, no MSG, fast delivery
• Cons: Bad hot & sour, very bland food even when it says it's spicy

01/19/09

Worst meal we've had in a long time!

by missarugula

I cannot believe that anyone would rate this place highly, much less return after one visit.

Although it was nearly empty at 7 pm on a Thursday night, there was no one at the hostess stand when we arrived so we loitered about and then finally ended up sitting at a table on our own. I ordered their steamed chicken with vegetables and special sauce. All I received was vegetables - no chicken or special sauce. My vegetables had been steamed so hard that they were literally slimy and brown. My boyfriend had their tofu/vegetable dish which was so awful that he only ate half of it (and that NEVER happens!).

And to top it off, this place ain't cheap. For the food mentioned above plus 2 small cups of soup and 1 house wine and 1 beer, our bill was $50 (before tax and tip). I don't care if Marvin Zindler loved this place before he died, Shanghai River is not somewhere I will ever return.