Customer Service: 5/5All the staff were really nice and polite. They also were really quick with getting us water, and serving our food.Ambience: 4.5/5The lighting was slightly off but it was a busy yet still not overcrowded restaurant.Food: 3.5/5It's like a hit or miss. We ordered two dishes and one turned out fantastic with a burst of flavor. However, the other one didn't have enough taste, and was cooked alright.Overall: 4/5The customer service was fantastic, and the food was alright.
Authentic Dim Sum here in Nanaimo? In the past us Islanders would need to either go to Victoria's Chinatown or cross by ferry over to the lower mainland for an authentic Dim Sum experience. At Shanghai City they offer a full menu Dim Sum only on the weekends 11 AM to 2 PM.We arrived around 1 pm and the restaurant was half full on a hot summer day. There are 52 items offered but a dozen weren't available. The current price as of July 2022 was a flat price of $7.95 a dish. The menu has your traditional Dim Sum and also some items you don't expect on a Dim Sum menu. I was curious how authentic the Dim Sum would be.We ordered the Seafood fried rice off the regular menu. The rest of the food we ordered on the Dim Sum menu (see photos). The Seafood fried rice was quite good, but needed a little bit more salt for my tastebuds but some will be satisfied. The chow fun fried noodles from the Dim Sum menu was okay but for a small portion for $8 they could add sliced beef (beef ho fun) and make it much better.The Dim Sum I won't rate it all but my favorite would be the sticky rice. It was better than most other Dim Sum joints. It has a great texture and flavor to it. My least favorite was the sui mai (pork & shrimp dumpling). It was as good as the ones at the buffets in town. It came without fish row and the meat was way too mushy. It's an item I hope they try to improve next time I go back. The overall taste and quality of the Dim Sum is good, but little adjustment would help go along way to getting it to great.My final thought is that Dim Sum is just authentic enough to pass when compared to the big city but good enough for Nanaimo. Hopefully they won't stay pat on the Dim Sum and look at ways to improve the quality moving forward. Service was quick and friendly. My biggest issue and why it lost a star rating is the flat prices of $7.95 as some dishes like the 4 rolls with condensed milk are not worth $8 and some dish like the shrimp haw gow are worth the $8. I would like to see them have a $5.95, $6.95 and $7.95 category of Dim Sum. This I feel would be a fair pricing system then just charging everything at the high prices item. I would return more often if this was the case. Overall it's nice to have an option for Dim Sum without leaving the city ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Went for Dim Sum. Many good choices. Because of recent problems, you order from a menu rather than having waiters bringing food around to choose. All tasty, even the chicken legs (first time for everything).
Absolutely the worst food I have tried to eat. No flavor. bland and boring. At$25 each for smorgasbord it’s a rip off. Will never go there again!
The buffet is average quality and overpriced at $25. Should be about $20 based on the quality of the dishes on the buffet. Service however was excellent. Staff were attentive and eager to please.
The sweet-and-sour pork was horrible and people were spitting out the fried tofu dish we ordered. We will never order food from here again! I was embarrassed by the food I ordered for my guests. The only good thing was the broccoli
Went for the lunch buffet. Food was fresh, and tasted good. Nothing special but not bad either
Had done takeout for years but last time was disappointing. previously had mushroom foo young and it was great but now only listed vegetable foo young when asked it mushroom could be substituted the answer was yes but found out later on the bill that they charged extra -never did that before - and this was an almost 100 order. The food was far more greasy and the chop suey no where as good as it had been years ago. The good thing was the almond chicken - still nice and crispy. But overall sad that the food had changed - perhaps it was a fluke during covid. We might try again sometime.
I used to love going there before the pandemic hit and then it seems as if some of my favorite dishes have been replaced with cheaper ingredients and premade/frozen things instead of it all being fresh. I used to frequent Shanghai City usually at least 3 or 4 times (once a week) a month but the last two visits have been substandard so I stopped going.
A nice old man forgot his wallet and tried other forms of payment but they wouldnt accept. Another customer ended up paying his bill but they were still rude to him. Walking around saying "broke man cant pay" and called the cops even after his billed was paid. Dispicable...Edit: the restaraunts reply is a lie. The young male server walked up to a group of older women and i heard him clearly say "broke man cant pay". The man wasnt being rude he was rasing his voice because he has hearing aids and could barely hear. You treated him like a lower class because he legitimately forgot his wallet. Why else would he try other forms of payment and sit around for the police? Ema