Shanghai Cafe

We were told that Shanghai Cafe had dumplings that rivaled Joe's Shanghai. I'm not sure that's true.

Shanghai Cafe is definitely cheaper. We ordered a ton of dumplings and didn't pay all that much for them. Joe's was one of the first places I ate when I moved here and it was also the first time I had ever had soup dumplings. These two things are possibly making it fonder in my memory than it really is but as of now (not having gone back to Joe's yet) my opinion is that Joe's is superior. Shanghai Cafe is good but it's not getting Joe's status just yet.

Aside from dumplings, dumplings, and more dumplings (see pictures below), we ordered hot and sour soup (just okay), and pig ears. We tried to order duck web but they were out. The pig ears came in roughly 80 thin strips piled on top of each other and made me wonder how many different pigs were represented by those ears.

We went on a Friday night and it wasn't completely full which is both good and bad. Overall this place is pretty good. The waitstaff were pretty funny. There was a portion of the menu that was only in Chinese (sans English translation) and my friend asked what it said. The waitress looked at my other friend (who's Korean) and said "You can't read this?" as if all Asian people could read Chinese. We then listend as she read (or at least we thought she read, she could have been making it up) the menu to us. The Chinese only section had a ton of really good dishes. It was confusing as to why it was in Chinese only. Oh well.

Shanghai Cafe
100 Mott St

Pork soup dumplings

Pig Ears

Hot and Sour Soup

Crab and Pork Dumplings

Fried Dumplings

Dumplings in soup.