Shanghai Blues

Truly terrible....slow service, average food - a high price for a gimmicky Chinese
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3 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 3
Thursday, February 03, 2011

Had an excellent lunch there yesterday. Very good food, subtle, well presented and the staff all seemed charming, in fact unusually so. There is a proper cocktail bar and the whole experience was very positive. The restaurant was crowded and deservedly so.

How can my experience have been so different from other reviewers?
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Richard C
9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Thursday, September 30, 2010

This place is terrible, i will not be going back and do not recommend it. One of the worst restaurant experiences ever.

The blend of poor quality overpriced chinese food with bad blues music doesnt work at all.

We were a group of 10 sat at a large table next to the piano bar. The music was quite loud so it was difficult to talk, the lights were so dim it was hard to read the menu and we were initially given 1 menu for 10 of us. After insistent requests the waiter brought 2 more.

While the place tries to be posh (waiters unroll your napkin and place it on your lap, continuously come and refill your glass etc) - the service is terrible. The waiters are rude and extremely clumsy, dropping and spilling things.

The food is extremely overpriced for the quality - which is the same as in any cheap restaurant in soho, and one of our group got a bit sick from the food.

Their website says there is a menu for £24 but in reality the cheapest menu available is for £45.

Awful place.
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erica
2 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 0
Sunday, January 24, 2010

Absolute rubbish. We were made to feel unwelcome from the start (even before if you count the 4 pestering calls reminding us if we didn't turn up we would be charged £20 a head anyway) and it got worse from there. Sullen waiters and waitresses, overpriced poor quality food and wine and we were told the kitchen was now shut even though 5 of the dishes we'd ordered we were still waiting for.

The prices are far too high and the quality of the dim sum is rubbish. And £26 for a bottle of wine I know cost them £5 to buy.

Overall a terrible experience, I will definitely not be going back.
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dcnbwz
1 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 0
Monday, November 23, 2009

I like this place. It's stylish without being over the top and the service was excellent. The vegetarian dim sum was surprisingly good, considering many people don't seem to 'get' the concept of being vegetarian.

This is 'real Chinese' rather than the take-away style most people in the UK are used to. I'd recommend it.
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Eloise
8 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 7
Thursday, September 03, 2009

very good service, nice staff, good food ,i love that place!
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6 Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 5
Sunday, August 30, 2009

well, very disappointing...

food is overcharged and the staff are quite rude....

not worth the money really...
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Smith
2 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 1
Monday, August 17, 2009

Food was excellent and good size portions. the service was exceptional and the decor and the music was absolutely perfectly matched. Can't fault anything about this restaurant.
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10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 9
Friday, July 10, 2009

We're from San Francisco and knew this restaurant (recommended by our hotel) was not going to work out for the food alone. It's a gimmicky type of place that tries to be some sort of old school nightclub mixed in with modern, minimalistic design. Gads, it's so dang dark as well as the tables and floors are terribly dark it's like a cave.

As we guessed the food was mediocre for the high prices charged. Their crab and corn soup lacked crab and for the prices we paid per person/per bowl we could get two soup tureens full of the same soup to feed a family of five from Chinese restaurants at home. They try to be inventive which really doesn't work with the fried rice. For goodness sakes instead of traditional fried rice with bits of egg mixed in there was one huge omelette made with the egg enveloping the egg that the server needs to open like a package. Sure it was interesting and odd, but it made the rice seem not as tasty with the egg separated instead of combined. The crispy duck with pancakes we expected to be what we get at home like Peking duck, but sadly the server disected the duck and basically shredded the meat so it was like eating hard, dry bits of duck. The pancakes were crepes so basically waht we got instead was a mu shu duck dish! Somehow the scallions they served had no flavor. They also served celery with the scallions. Celery? Never had that one with either Peking duck or mu shu. Nineteen GBP for this! Gads.

Generally this restaurant is all for show and I suppose the locals who dine here find it to be pretty special judging from the pleased patrons seated nearby. But we didn't consider it to be special at all. It's just overhyped and overpriced to us.

As for the service, we found it to be just as perfunctory as any Cantonese Chinese restaurant we can find at home and that is not saying anything good. And we don't need someone to open up our dinner napkins. They try too hard to be something different.
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Alane - View all reviews by this user
1 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Sunday, June 21, 2009