Shanghai Garden - Seattle Reviews

Offer mainstream to more exotic Mandarin dishes. Looks to mostly be a lunch destination. Very informal, order at the counter, cash only. Looks like a dive but very tasty and good quality. Friendly service. Not expensive, under $7 for a healthy portion.

Went for lunch and it was oh soo good. I had the Pad Thai chicken and it was hot, fresh. There was a lot of food for a lunch. Took half home and was enough for my dinner

Based on others' reviews and the fact that it was across the street from the Kinokuniya bookstore, we had dinner there around 5 pm on a Wednesday evening. Maybe because it was early but the restaurant was not very crowded at all. We ordered the shaved noodles - both regular and green barley and in soup and stir-fried. The noodles are about a half inch wide and pretty thick. There weren't many strands of noodles but they were heavy enough to fill us up. We also ordered a vegetable dish - the pea leaves with bean curd sheets and mushroom. This dish was very tasty and we highly recommend it. The service was good with the waitresses speaking Cantonese, Mandarin and English. They also have a nice big salt water tank with clowns, triggers and other fish at the entrance.

The portions were large size with fantastic taste. The had a special noodle that was shaved unique to this restaurant. Green tea was hot and refreshing. Service was good.

So i have walked by this restaurant for the longest time before trying it, and unfortunately i have to leave the country and relocate, i will def miss this restaurant that has the most delicious barley green hand shaven noodles, healthy and tasty!! I really recommend trying it! The soup and their stir fried dishes arent as greasy as most americanized chinese food, which is really nice. The service can be a little abrasive sometimes but i think thats just how cantonese people talk :) thanks for reading, and try this place when you crave chinese food in seattle.

There is always so much to do when visiting Washington and the Seattle area it is hard to pick and choose the next excursion. Make sure however that you do not miss the International District and the many cultural sites and sounds. Enter on 6th Avenue so you can experience the Entrance Pagoda and stop for a picture with the light pole dragons. You should be able to park anywhere around here and walk through most of the district. Head over to the Uwajimaya Asian Market and take a stroll inside for some very local Asian flavor. Head up to Hing Hay Park and hopefully catch some locals musicians playing their ethnic instruments and music for the visitors and any money you happen to drop in there case of course. When you have walked and experience and have an appetite head to Shanghai Garden on 6th for what I presume is a very authentic Chinese meal. The restaurant has a deserved high rating from Seattle magazine, is clean and neat inside and the service is prompt. A less than friendly staff is more a cultural situation than anything else. When approached with a smile they quickly return it then hurry back to their task at hand. The food arrives at your table soon after you place you order and is hot and quite tasty. We ordered the Barley Green Shaved Noodle Chow Mein and the Pea Vine with a Black Mushroom add on. While both dishes were delicious, I enjoyed the noodle chow mein much more. While looking around at other dishes I saw green bean dishes that looked wonderful and moo shu being prepared. When in Seattle check out the district and get some International flair for lunch or dinner.

This is the place to go for hand shaved noodles. Consistently good food. I was here two years ago and sought it out again. Still good food and plenty of it.

Every time I visit Seattle I eat here. They make green barley noodles that are so tasty. You can get them with chicken, shrimp or pork. Comfort food.

After many visits over many years this is still our favorite. Good service and great menu at reasonable prices. We love their Green Hand Shaved Noodles, Peavines in Mushroom Oyster Sauce, and the best Orange Beef in Washington State.

It's a pleasant restaurant with a variety of Asian cuisine. We had lunch here and had the Sizzling Triple Delight Platter with with brown and white rice and it was plenty for two seniors.

We arrived on a Friday night at 8pm after the Seattle Boat show and were able to get right in. Hot tea and water delivered to the table along with menus. It took a little while to decide,but the wait staff was very patient, and when we did order, they made sure it was delivered to the table quickly, well presented and hot. There is something for everyone on the menu, so don't skip out if you are vegetarian or gluten free.

Don't get me wrong. We were looking for "normal" Chinese food ~ in a family style restaurant. However, there was nothing personal about the service. When we arrived, we were not greeted but simply led to a table. We felt as though we were simply a cog-in-the-wheel of the restaurant. The service was fast and there was no interaction with our server. The food was okay not great. Maybe it was an off night for the restaurant. It is hard to know. I don't think we'd go again next time we are in Seattle.

OK, when you walk into a Chinatown restaurant there are two things you should look for: (1) Chinese families sitting around a big round table, or at least an Asian majority customer-base, and (2) the outstanding aroma of tasty Chinese food to the point that it causes you to immediately salivate. Well neither of those crucial critera occur at Shanghai Garden. In their stead is a multitude of mainstream non-Asians, non-People of Colour sitting around, goo-ing and gah-ing over the most generic, tasteless Pan-Asian crap that Seattle has to offer. The crowd looks like they just got back hiking or paddling somewhere, as a huge group, don't ya know. Then, for an added treat, they pack along their ill-behaved children who whine constantly about the "yucky Chinese food." What they fail to realize is that this isn't Chinese food at all. It is one step above a "happy meal". There's a lot of sweet, sugary, syrupy sauce going on here that does not exist in Shanghai. Lots of greasy "crispy shrimps" with some sort of breakfast cereal toppings like stawberry, cranberry, mango, plum or lemon syrup, sweet (and I do mean sweet) chili sauce. The "Fourteen Flavored Bean Curd" should be renamed "14 Unflavorable Bean Sludge." Seattle is a city with loads of fresh, delicious tofu, especially in Chinatown. Shanghai Gardens' tofu tastes freeze-dried, like their string beans. None of the vegetables taste fresh like they do in the typical Chinatown restaurant. One is suppose to purchase locally and daily. I think the only vendor frequented at Shanghai Gardens is Birds Eye Foods.. For a restaurant that is trying to cater to brown rice (also dry and tasteless) eating vegetarians and vegans, it suprises me that their vegetables resemble something microwaved in a hospital commissary. The dim sum seems microwaved, not steamed as is customary in a real Chinese restaurant. And don't even get me started on the crappy service. Rude, slow, unattentive and disrespectful. The servers spend more time gossiping amongst themselves than they do attending to their customer's needs. If you don't believe me, just walk in the door and take a whiff. You will smell nothing but a faint greasy over-microvaved scent, like office popcorn. The tables are shabbily wiped down with musty, old kitchen smell wash rags. The dirty smell lingers in the air while tables dry with food particals still in place. The overall cleaniness level is well below average. Now I am no cheapskate by any means. I never go on about how expensive food in restaurants is as long as the quality and service is excellent. Shanghai Garden is so grotesquely overpriced (for no reason since the quality is so cheap and the staff is entirely unprofessional) that's it's actually insulting. I do believe that management highfives in the back amazed at how gullible the locals are. The so-called "dim sum" items (greasy dough balls, I like to call them) are twice the price of any other place in Chinatown and their frozen seafood dishes are also horribly over-priced. Stay away if you are a serious connoisseur of Chinese cuisine, or just an average person who appreciates real authentic Chinese food, atmosphere and service and don't like to taken advantage of. It is simply the worst in Seattle.

Every trip to Seattle I meet my friends for dinner at Shanghai Garden. We order the barley green noodles, the crispy shrimp in plum chili sauce, and the morning glory stir fry. We usually get a couple of order of the noodles and shrimp and it's very very delicious.

I've never walked into a restaurant before where I felt I was interrupting a family gathering. When we walked in the staff, waitpeople, busperson, and cooks were all sitting a large table chatting away. The waitress looked a bit put out that we were interrupting them and made short work of bringing menus, water and tea. We then went back to the conversation and required a bit of handwaving and desperate eye contact to get her to come over and take our order. The same happened when the next couple came in. After bringing the food and drinks I had to go through the same process to get the check. The food itself was outstanding: hand shaved chow mein with chicken and crispy beef. The hand shaved noodle totally rocked. I can put up with the service for the food. I'm looking forward to trying all the various dumplings next time around.

Great place to come for lunch and only a few blocks from the Metro bus tunnel. Big portions of tasty Chinese food.

Came here before a ballgame, so we were early on a weekday, before the dinner rush. Colleagues had ranted about the place and its "shaved noodles" which apparently were to die for. She had the tofu in black bean, and I had the shaved noodles with vegetables. Both those dishes were decent. Not spectacular, but decent. I can see the appeal with the shaved noodles, but due to dietary reasons it's not something I'm going to jump for whenever I eat Chinese. The hot & sour soup was a different story, and not what I was expecting. I'd call it mushroom soup. It almost had a beef broth quality to it....maybe it was the mushrooms, as it was super super heavy on those. It had a nice kick to it, but it almost seemed a bit old or leftover. Maybe I'm wrong about that and it was just the way it was prepared, but that was the impression it left me with. And it was only available in the $10 big bowl, which could easily feed a family of 4-6, so alot of it got wasted on two of us. The service itself was average, and the server wasn't very warm. Maybe she was having a bad day. Communicating with her was a bit of a challenge, and I didn't really have the energy nor desire to engage, so I just decided to take what was served and didn't complain. Sometimes you just want to let things play out, and this was one of those times. If I return (a big IF), I'll probably try other items on the menu....but a hot pot place in Seattle's International District is most likely what's next on my list.

We enjoyed our meal; the restaurant was crowded. I'm picky (not quality - just enjoy limited types of food), and I enjoyed every dish we ordered (beef/green onion with sweet bun, honey almond shrimp, shaved noodles, moo shu pork) although I couldn't make myself eat the shrimp which looked to be wrapped in green jello. The rest of my group enjoyed that dish. The food was light, not heavy. The fried rice wasn't outstanding, but it was ok. The waitress was very nice and helpful; she brought silverware for the half of us who do not use chopsticks. I enjoyed that she stayed at the table and filled the buns with the beef mixture and the pancakes with sauce and meat; she was very pleasant. It added personalized touch. As to people complaining about the food, my brother-in-law and sister lived in Asia for quite a few years and visited local restaurants; they found this restaurant excellent and haven't made to the other restaurant on the list. The only negative was the food could be a little hotter.

I enjoy the moo sho chicken or shrimp here, whenever I can actually find a parking place to stop to eat. I always order it, because it is so long between visits, since it is 5 hours to Seattle That is my favorite Chinese dish. Only once 30 years ago in Texas, did I have it as prepared as well. Always a pleasure! While I have eaten at fancier, Seattle seafood restaurants whose dishes were as well prepared, I still stop here as the cost vs. pleasure is far greater value.

My sis and I wanted some authentic Chinese food while visiting Seattle. We selected this place as it had an inviting, positive description in the AAA travel book. We asked a mailman nearby to point us in the right direction and he laughed, then pointed. We wondered why he laughed, and then we found out. What fools we were! It was a Thursday evening at 5:00 and we were concerned that it would be crowded, especially for its large corner location with lots of traffic exposure. Ha! There was one person finishing up a meal in the whole place. We weren't seated right away as the 4 Asian waitresses were much too busy standing around and yakking (no pun intended). And we certainly weren't greeted, or what I consider a welcome into their "home"--no communication at all until she eventually came back to take our order. We were surprised at the lack of variety in the menu--meats and vegetarian with the same sauces and a variety of noodles, and a la carte we found out by default. We just assumed that the meals were served with rice even though the menu didn't say so, at least for the prices. Our food was okay but nothing special--tastless deep fried chicken pieces with an overly sweet chili sauce. The only positive experience was the soothing Asian music, but even that was drowned out by the constant loud yakking of the waitresses who obviously had nothing better to do. And then, to top off a horrible dining experience, one of the waitresses was pointing to blemishes and picking at her face, only to be outgrossed by one of the other waitresses reaching over to also pick at the other's face. Yuk!

Worked in downtown and decided to hop on the train and venture out to the Int'l District for a Chinese lunch. Did my usual test of Mongolian beef here. All I can say is it wasn't worth the effort. "Meh ... " no heat, bland watered-down sauce (well, they may have deliberately made it that way, I don't know ...). Over cooked rice and a greasy egg roll. By Seattle Asian restaurant standards this meal was a bit below average so that's where I rated them. In just about any other west coast city, such as San Francisco, Portland, or Vancouver BC, this meal would have rated a TERRIBLE! For some reason Seattle seems to have the worst Chinese restaurants. Don't know why and it doesn't make sense. Sizable Asian community but horrendous Asian restaurants. I always find myself rating Chinese food with a slight leniency because for Seattle this place ranks just below average. Like giving the slow kid in class a little extra patience and praise. That's how you have to approach Chinese food in Seattle. If this restaurant were in San Francisco or Vancouver they'd be out of business within a month.

Restaurant is in Chinatown diagonally from Waji and is a good place for those in the neighborhood for a sports event or other activity at one of the nearby venues. The menu has been expanded and includes hand shaven noodles (both regular and barley green), a variety of chicken, pork, and beef dishes, veggie options, sizzling platters, and good appetizers and soups. If you come midday during the week, you can get a special combo deal. It's open on Christmas (naturally) and stays open late most nights. Close to the light rail, new trolley car, and a host of bus lines. You might have to ponder the menu a while, but I think you'll find something suitable to your taste. Prices are up a bit, though, since Seattle became the incubator for higher minimum wages.

We were part of a large group spanning three tables. Nevertheless we were treated to a wide variety of Chinese food that satisfied one and all. We were impressed that the food was brought out in a "flow" such that as one or two dishes were emptied they were soon replaced. Because it is Seattle parking can be challenging. Most people park on the streets, but remember to "pay to park."

Seattle's International District offers many opportunities for Asian dining. I had selected Shanghai Garden because it looked like a good place to have our last dinner in Seattle. The place looks very nice -- pink and black. Lunch is served from 11:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and wife and I arrived approaching 2:00. It was obviously well past the busy time, and our server did not seem pleased to see us. (The serving staff eats together at 2:30.) Wife had Crispy Beef with Orange Flavor and I had Kung Pao Shrimp. I enjoyed my meal, but wife was not happy with hers. Dinner prices are double lunch prices. All in all, we felt that the food did not rise to the level of either the prices or the ambience.

We had a party of four and had to wait quite a long time for a table, and once we were seated it took even longer to take our order. The food was amazing so we could over look the wait. So authentic and delicious. This is a no frills restaurant is located in the heart of the International District.

Wow, what a find. We had a great meal at Shanghai Garden. Very comfortable for families. My kids (13, 9, 4) all found food they loved. As a family, we ordered the vegetable barleygreen noodle soup ($8.75 for enormous family portion), pepper salted squid app ($9), sizzling seafood platter ($21), and beef with snow peas (don't remember price). The kitchen was out of vegetarian pot stickers; bummer. We weren't sure what to expect with the green noodles, but I'd read positive reviews here. OK, wow, GREEN NOODLES. Clearly house-made and fantastic. Great soup, lots of shiitake mushrooms and other treats. Squid dish was also amazing -- my son's favorite. Quite salty and the dipping sauce had serious zing, but all within the comfortable range. Sizzling seafood had fresh REAL crabmeat, scallops, and shrimp, along with lots of broccoli and other veggies. Very very good. I did not taste the beef/peas, but my spouse was very happy and ate it all up. Would we return? Yes, oh yes!

Excellent food and service Easy to get to from hotel area was highly recommended to me and did not disappoint

Shanghai Garden is an absolute gem! The food was delicious and service was absolutely top notch, friendly, helpful and sweet. There is a fantastic selection of dishes. We had Honey Walnut shrimp, general tso’s, house fried rice, mu shu pork, and delicious noodles. Highly recommend a visit here!!

I like the garlic shrimp very much and this place is more than fast. The shaven barleygrass noodles are a different treat and quite delicious!

duck.

love, love, love the barley noodle dishes. Not a fan of the dumplings. Everything else we tried was yummy. Don't go for the wine list.....and the service is of a typical oriental restaurant variety....they want to get you in and out as fast as they can.

Great food, simple ambiance, very attentive, smiling, and helpful waitstaff. The food was delicious. Best fried rice ever - light, fresh, and delicious. Dumplings were great, as was the Barley Noodles house special - don't miss out on these. Crispy shirmp w/chili sauce was the best dish on the table. Great place. Took a small baby with us and the waitresses doted on her.

First thing I notice was before you walk in the rating is on the window. They were rated as good not excellent, so after my family and I talked about it. We all decided to give a try and very glad we did. We ordered the sliced fish with sweet and sour next was the shrimp with sweet and sour after that we ordered the crispy beef and lastly was the chicken with garlic and ginger. Let me break down the food. First was the sliced fish it was good lightly fried with just the right amount of sweet and sour sauce. Second was the shrimp with sweet and sour sauce. I didn't eat the shrimp but the ppl that did said it was good but too much sauce. Third was the crispy beef. I have to say I really enjoyed it cooked just right. Fourth was the chicken with garlic and ginger. It tasted good but a little too much sauce for me. The waitresses was very attentive to our needs and very courteous. Look of the inside is nothing to write home about and the chairs was not comfortable for me but it's all good. We enjoy our dinner and will recommend this restaurant and plan to visit again sometime in the near future. Sorry I almost forgot we also ordered egg plant in garlic sauce. Delicious!!!!!

For value and friendliness, I recommend Seoul Tofu House two doors down on 6th Ave. They serve a decent portion of rice with each meal and don't charge extra like Shanghai does.

We enjoyed an office party lunch here recently. A table for 8 was reserved and ready for us on arrival. After many years of coming here we found the quality again to be consistently good. Service is also good and friendly. We always order the Green Hand Shaven Noodles which is a house specialty. Another superior dish is Orange Beef, better than any in the region. Another favorite is Pea Vines with mushroom. High quality food attractively presented and served, with enough left over to take home, came to less than $25 a person for this midday feast.

Predictable Cantonese but with a unique option, homemade wheatgrass noodles

....... "Do Not feel desire to return here" [and that is an awful indictment on an eating establishment]..... My friend took me to this place she visited only sparingly in the distant past. FOOD: The "Shanghai" cuisine here tastes and appears as standard "Chinese" food to me -- I have been eating this Cantonese style for 65 years. It is adequate. STAFF: In addition, the Wait Staff are -- more than in most Chinese restaurants -- abrupt, ignoring of customers, seemingly undesirous of being there to serve and deserve their gratuity. Though we walked into an entirely empty space just a few minutes after opening, we were made to wait while the staff just ignored us. And it got worse. RETURN? NO. The attitude of Staff repels -- detracts from what should be pleasant and enjoyable. Thank goodness there are so many, many other Chinese outlets in this area of the Seattle International District. They exist cheek-to-jowl here, wonderfully! Not returning here would make not one iota of difference to the staff. When will folk learn from whence their bread is buttered? It makes all the difference in how I view my dining experience, and to who I give my return patronage.

This is one of our favorite Asian restaurants anywhere. Highly recommend Green Handshaven Noodles and Pea Vines with Oyster a Sauce. Also try their Orange Beef, Outstanding. Great service and consistent good food for reasonable prices.

I stopped in on a hot afternoon for a drink and an appetizer. I asked the waitress to recommend something spicy and chose the Spicy Beef Tendon appetizer and a Tsing Tao beer. It was very good! The restaurant is not large, but the decor is nice and the waitress was very helpful. I don't think they have a parking lot; most people park on the street.

I don't know how authentic Shanghai Garden is. I have never been to China. That said, I am a 20 year veteran chef. I have eaten in some of the best restaurants on the planet and have worked in many world class houses. I would rather eat at Shanghai Garden than any other restaurant in Seattle. The pan fried meat dumplings have a simple savory flavor. They are served with a salty dipping sauce containing sliced rounds of Serrano peppers if you care to heat things up. The Barley Green Noodles with Chicken are hand shaved, simple wide green noodles, stir fried with vegetables and scrambled egg. They make a fantastic leftover breakfast. The Orange Chicken is my favorite item on the menu. The complexity and intensity of the flavor pallet in this dish is incomparable. The Green Beans with dried Shrimp have a sweet salty quality and fully round flavor that satisfy clear down to the soul. The Mongolian Beef is excellent and well above the standard of the average Chinese restaurant. When in Seattle, take a walk off the beaten path. If you're attending an event at Safety Field, or Century Link stadium, it's within walking distance. After having spent over 20 years in Seattle I have no reservations in stating that Shanghai Garden is among the top restaurants in the city

We were directed to this restaurant by a local after her first choice noodle parlor was closed for the week. There was a line at the door and the restaurant was full so we hoped we would get a good meal. We were not disappointed. I got a lunch special and my husband tried the hand shaven noodles which he'd never had before. Both meals were excellent. Mine came with a hot and sour soup which I didn't care for but he enjoyed. The hot tea that came with the meal was excellent. We almost returned another day at dinner time but that just didn't work out.

The best part of Shanghai Garden in the international district is the Barley Green Noodles. They are hand shaved and sautéed with your choice of protein. They are a must have when you go. their other, more standard choice are very good too. The soups are not thick and gelatinous, but rather fresh and delicious tasting. The atmosphere is what you would expect in the ID, but it is among the cleaner, brighter spots in town.

A friend suggested we go here. We all enjoyed ourselves. We had the house special hand shaved noodles, I would come back just for these. We also got a chicken dish and sizzling beef dish. This is a good place to go and share entrees. For the most part, I'd say one entree can easily feed 2 people.

I live in Florida and was visiting family so it was a special treat to visit a restaurant that has real Chinese food. The vegetable dumplings were lightly fried and were much better than the steamed pork dumplings, We ordered egg plant, shrimp with walnuts, sauteed green beans and a chicken dish and all were well prepared. Definitely recommend this restaurant.

We ate here with the famliy. It is a typical Chinese restaurant. Nothing is spectacular. The do offer green barley based noodles. If you are right in front of the restaurant and decide to eat here, you will be ok.

My husband and I returned to one of our favorite restaurants and it continues to offer delicious food. We ordered the pork dumplings (pan seared), Kung Pao shrimp, pea vines, rice and house shaved noodles with chicken. We knew we would have left overs for lunch the next day but were surprised to find we even had left over noodles for an additional meal. The dumplings were my favorite. They are so good, moist, bursting with flavor and the pea vines are the perfect balance of crunchy and soft cooked in delicious broth. My husband loved the spiciness of the Kung Pao shrimp and I loved all the peanuts in it. The noodles are thick, cooked to the perfect bite and served with tons of chicken and spinach So good...all of it. Take the light rail to the International District and walk up a block to this family friendly dinning destination. And if you order too much, the left overs the next day are just as delicious. .

you must have the hand shaven chow mein!

There are tons of Chinese restaurants to choose from in Seattle and this one is a winner. General Tso Chicken is best we've ever had. Great service. Reasonable prices.

The food was so good... Service the best cozy great location park across the street to make it easier for you. Don't miss the hot and sour soup....

The food here was frankly inedible and the service was horrible. We went in on the basis of the Seattle magazine award as 'Best Chinese' and if this is the best in Seattle, then pick an entirely different genre of food. What was supposed to be braised pork ribs came out as clearly frozen pieces of pork cutlet pounded until they were leather pucks in a cornstarch tasting sauce. Ok, the green onions were on as advertised. The chicken dish had no chicken -- just pieces of breading deep fried in a sickenly sweet sauce. We had to ask for rice and that was decent. We left nearly 7/8 of the food on the plate and not once did we get anyone to ask how things were. Servers were far more interested in sitting in their own corner and talking. Do not ever ever ever go here.

First time here - not a buffet. Lunch menu was good. Had the triple special and it was good. Get about one cup of rice and hot and sour soup. No silverware on the table - hope you know how to use chop sticks. No spices on the table, either. Guess you have to ask. Seemed a little pretentious for my taste - and I lived in Japan for almost four years. Service was pretty good. Next time thou I think I'll try the Dim Sum place. As restaurants go, it's pretty good!

Go for the shaved noodles and the 14 flavor tofu.

This Chinese restaurant has been here a long time. For some reason we stopped going there and had been gone for a few years. Well we went back yesterday and the place still has great food, in fact, all our favorites were there and tasted as good as ever. The ambiance has changed very little too and is still one of the nicer places in the ID. This will become again one of our go to places for Chinese food.

While most snobby foodies will hate this place because it caters to Americans, it did a great job of recreating the East Coast Chinese food I grew up eating and was the best alternative I've had living on the West Coast. I was in Seattle for Jewish Christmas and wanted to eat some Chinese food. I went to the International District to find something - I followed the first few top rated places on here but they all were more authentic actual Chinese food and while I understand the appeal, it's not what I wanted. This place was great with fast service, friendly waitstaff and really tasty food. If you only want traditional Chinese food, this may not be the place but if you want General Tso's Chicken, Mongolian Beef and Pan Fried Pork Dumplings - this should be your place.

Our family has been going here for Sunday dinners for forever. We see the same families here week after week. Kids love the barley green hand shaved noodles with shrimp and the steamed dumplings are succulent little gems. The sweet and sour soup packs a nice spicy punch.

this place was right around the corner from where I was staying, what a great find! I loved everything that I tried, and wished that I had been there as a part of a group so that I could try more. the waitstaff was really helpful in explaining the menu items, and very nice to a woman solo traveler.

We arrived in the ID hungry for Japanese food but couldn't get a table for several hours on a Saturday night. After looking around the neighborhood we settled on the Shanghai Garden to feed the two hungry teenagers with us who were starting to get a little testy. They devoured an order of potstickers, broccoli beef and fried rice and quickly returned to normal. We would have chosen some of the more interesting noodle dishes on the menu if it weren't for the hungry kids, but we're glad to have found a standard, reliable Chinese restaurant in the neighborhood. It is clearly a favorite with many families, as most of the tables had kids with them. What they lack in atmosphere and service is made up in predictable dishes made from fresh ingredients that are served quickly.

We were excited to experience the food and flavours of the International District and decided to go for Chinese. It was past lunch and we were hungry so decided to stop in. The decor was nice, but our first indication to get out was when we asked and was told that they didn't serve Chinese brocolli. No Chinese brocolli in a Chinese restaurant? Really?! We ended up ordering an appetizer of salted pepper squid (which turned out to be more like calamari than the salt and pepper squid we're used to), beef with green onion and ginger (barely any beef and a plate full of green onion), chicken in black bean sauce (diced up cubes of chicken which tasted nothing like black bean) and a seafood platter with special sauce ($20 for one piece of crab, 6-8 pieces of shrimp, about 5 scallops and a ton of brocolli all tossed in a sugary oyster sauce). Definitely not worth the money! We paid over $80 for a terrible meal. If you want to have a good, satisfied dining experience, go elsewhere. Looking at other menus as we walked the street afterwards, no other restaurant charged the ridiculous prices this place did! Very disappointed experience - overpriced and a waste of time and money.

I had always enjoyed a tasty Chinese meal in the past, but this time - no flavor or heat in the kung pao beef and the moo shu chicken was bland and uninspired - chicken and bok choy, no other vegies or egg, unlike before. Tougher pancakes troo

A Seattle friend introduced me to the Shanghai Garden, on 6th and Weller Street, a block from the International District transit stop and the Bolt Bus. The Shanghai-style food features homemade noodles, green or white, dim sum, many dishes with vegetables, and lunch specials every day. The green noodle with vegetable and egg dish is not available anywhere else that I know, and they made up a combination of chicken with ginger, garlic, and snow peas that was outstanding. I would definitely go there again and recommend the place to those looking for something near the Chinatown Gate.

Excellent authentic food. Accommodate all kinds of choices, Veg, Chicken, Seafood etc. Good place for Vegetarian too . Most of the dishes they can make vegetarian as per request, string beans, pee vine, Chef special tofu is very good. Try hand shaven noodles etc..... The servers are very good and friendly A++

the green barley noodles are incredible.

Best Chinese food ever, wish I had their recipe for Hot and Sour soup. The hand cut Chowmein noodles is true comfort food.

So, I was at Elliot Bay Bookstore in Pioneer Square and knew we were headed to nearby International area, so I asked the clerk for a restaurant recommendation. His first one was for Szechuan Noodle Bowl at 8th and King for their outstanding dumplings - but they were closed on Mondays. He was nice enough to call ahead for me! So the 2nd choice was Shanghai Garden on 6th and Weller (you can see Uwajmaya's from there). They have these shaven noodles that I have never had in my life. There was a line at the door - good sign. And when seated - hot tea at the table. Perfect for warming up after all the site seeing. I ordered the green hand shaven noodles chow mein. And then we ordered a lunch special General Tso's chicken. I am not sure how to describe how the noodles tasted - thick - pasta like - melt in your mouth - swoon with delight! You simply must try them yourself! And the chicken - just okay - a little too crunchy for my tastes.

Many of the dishes are old family favorites, one my mom or dad would make when we were kids. The food is fresh and delicious every time. There are inventive dishes, i.e., strawberry beef. This is a great place for vegetarians as well. Service is friendly, quick and efficient. We have celebrated birthdays, anniversaries here. It's the place we always bring out of town visitors. Do yourself a favor and go here. You won't be sorry.

This is one of the best "off the beating path" restaurants. I'm a fan of low brow Asian food that's about the food and not over priced presentation. They are great for family dining and offer large tables with lazy Susans that are perfect for sharing. The pot stickers were an unexpected, flavorful surprise and the perfect appetizer to the garlic beef.

We had 5 dishes and except for the beef shaved noodle soup, the rest was salty, overcooked and oily. I doubt I will be back here since there are so many options in China Town. The service as others have noted was really not good. They were very rude when we asked for warm water as if they had never heard what warm water was and were chatting with others servers loudly. Noticeable to other guests as well. Oh well..

I grew up eating in NYC's Chinatown so I consider myself knowledgeable of the various types of food served. While in Seattle and visiting the tiny Chinatown here, we ate in Shanghai Garden as it appeared clean for lunch. We were given menus that featured Combo dishes but not served on the weekend. My wife wanted a small serving of soup. Not here. You have to order a gigantic bowl of soup. So we didn't order soup. I wanted Chow Fun that I have always found in 99% of west coast cities. Not here. So we settled on a chicken dish and a serving of dumplings. The food was served and was OK but took over 20 minutes to arrive. The place was not crowded. Our server after taking our order disappeared near the kitchen door talking to the other workers both servers and the kitchen staff wearing their white hats. Shanghai Rest did nothing to entice me to come back........probably because 90% of their business is tourists like us. Why go the extra mile to provide outstanding customer service? Oh.....when going to the bathroom and waiting for my wife in the restroom hallway, I was able to look into the kitchen. I didn't like the dirt around the mixing machine and the dirt on the floor. One of the kitchen guys wearing a white hat spotted me looking in and slammed the door in my face. IF you want some GREAT Chinese pastry go next door to YUMMY HOUSE BAKERY 522 6th Ave South where they do Chinese pastries right. The gal at the counter was pleasant and answered our questions. We bought a couple of Roast Pork Buns for later as a snack. If I hadn't had lunch already, I would have loved having lunch here.

The barleygreen noodles were yum, as was the ginger pork. Area around restaurant seemed a little dodgy to walk through, so ended up getting cab back to our hotel.

Always hit Chinatown while visiting a city as my wife is Asian and we try to find authentic Asian food. Everybody has their idea of what Asian food should be like but we were both very pleased with out noodle meals for 1/3 the price of some of the waterfront restaurants. Granted this seems to be a family operation and the service is spotty but the food is delicious and we would definitely return for a follow up meal in the future.

I just started a new job and my new colleagues love Shanghai Garden. The hand shaved noodles are super delicious - the texture is just right, the seasoning is spot on. I highly recommend the pumpkin hand shaved noodles. The service Is efficient and friendly. It is now a "go to" place for me!

Hand shaven noodles are deliciously thick and chewy.

This restaurant makes the kind of Chinese food that non-Asians eat. We ordered barleygreen chow mein (their specialty), handshaven soup noodles, and steamed dumplings. Okay cooking, but very overpriced. Flavour so-so, mostly MSG salty, greasy and doughy, very thick dumpling wrappers and noodles. When we were there the place was relatively full, but I was the only customer of Asian descent, which was a red flag for me. If you like take-out Chinese, the kind that comes slathered in corn-starch thickened fluorescent sauce, you might like this place. If you've had real dumplings or noodles, go somewhere else. Servers were old-school. They came by to take our order and deliver the food and that was it. They spent the rest of the time hanging out gossiping with each other loudly in their native dialects. Not a problem if you're used to indifferent service.

hand shaven noodles...

I started my lunch with a cup of their hot & sour soup; sadly, it was quite mediocre... bland with a rather thin consistency. For my entree I got beef with black bean sauce; this was actually a good dish. It consisted of beef, mushrooms, and some spinach. The spinach was slightly garlicky and the beef, the beef was well cooked, and the sauce was well flavored, though the mushrooms were slightly undercooked. Overall, relatively good quality and a nicely sized portion of food for the price.

We ate at the Shanghai Garden twice during September, each time the food was delicious. I loved the hotplates especially the prawn one, they certainly don't stint on the quantity, at first I wondered if I'd be able to eat it all but it was so tasty that it proved not to be a problem! The restaurant is comfortable and highly recommended by all of us (three family members).

Awesome food, huge menu, not much for ambiance. Great for big groups.

Hand-cut barleygreen noodles are fantastic. Great service.

My husband and I stopped here before a Sounders game. I had read about it on TripAdvisor and wanted to try the green noodles. We got those and moo shu chicken. The noodles were good but I actually liked the moo shu better. There were a lot of other Sounders fans eating there and it was very busy. They did a great job working out ways to fit everyone in and get them served quickly. I may be getting jaded because we have so many great Asian restaurants in the Seattle area - unfortunately not many left in the Internatlonal District. This was a good location to go to before a game but I would not make the trip just for the food. BUT I did see some great looking dishes at other tables so I am going to give this place at least one more try

Excellent food, friendly staff and efficient service. Highly recommend the steamed dumplings and sweet chill prawns.

We enjoyed the food and the great service at this restaurant. I had the barley green noodles and they were fun and delicious. Food is a 5, restroom a 2... just saying.

My buddy and I visited here before the Hawk's vs Brown's game on Sunday December 20th. Mostly because it was the only place that we could get a table. The staff was very friendly but also overwhelmed. Once we made our order however, the food came out quickly and was nice and hot. The pork dumplings took a while longer though and the sauce that they served with them just ruined the dumpling. Eat them without the sauce is my advice. Our other entrees were good and we got full on just two of them and some steamed rice. We had a few orders of hot sake but it seemed like some really cheap stuff. Overall, not a bad place, you just have to watch what you order and be specific with your requests. Thanks for reading.

I have been coming to this place for over twenty years. I skipped the lat few years but decided to venture back again tonight. When I walked in, everything looked the same - no change - but when the menu came - the prices had considerably increased. That's what happens in Seattle. When we ordered the two dishes, the food came in a square 9" plate - with he top 2" of the plate uncovered - so the food was in the 7" square - not much let me assure you. We ordered the barley green hand shaven noodles - it costs $13, and there were exactly 12 barley shaven noodles - so about a $ per 5" inch noodle. The other dish we got was mu shu and it was so bland that you could have gone and boiled some cabbage, and served it - and by chance if you had added salt then your dish would have been upgraded to a 4 star - that is how bland that dish was; and the "wrap" - ok we all know that the mu shu wrap has to be served warm else it becomes hard - the one we got served must have been cooked in the morning, and twelve hours later it was rock hard - so you get a mu shu wrap in a cold hard wrap - can you see yourself eating a cold burrito at chipotle? and the cabbage was utterly tasteless. This place is obviously under new ownership who decided to increase prices as if they were on capitol hill, reduce the portion drastically, and serve tasteless food. There is no reason to go back again. None. Totally disappointed and I hope someone new takes over and brings back what this restaurant used to be.

I don't go here very often, but it does have really good food and probably my favorite Chinese meal in the Northwest (3 cup chicken - I can remember the name they call it, but something like spicy garlic chicken). I have never been disappointed here and the barley shaved noodles as well as the rice cakes are really worth trying. We also get the pea vines. The meals are average size and I find it more expensive than the average Chinese restuarant, but that said the meals I have ordered are good and I go back time and time again. Decore and service needs improvement, and if that is your thing this place will be a mistake for you to visit.

Why this restaurant has a Wifi Server (Shanghai Gardens) but the staff does not know the required password because the owner doesn't share it with them will just have to remain one of life's mysteries. Apart from that the staff is friendly, courteous and efficient. The wine was good but not cheap. The lunch special (Szechuan chicken in HOT garlic sauce) was pre-prepared and I tried in vain to detect any traces of spice. The whole thing looked and tasted boring. No desire to go back !

This is the first time I visit this restaurant. We were late at night and look for the simple meal. There are variety of hand shaven noodle soup in the menu. I ordered the special hand shaven noodle soup. The noodle soup looks very simple with chicken and shrimp. But it is tasty. I can say that it is a good comfort food when you get sick or tired. We were working all day and this is very good meal that not too heavy or oily. The restaurant environment is ok. Not a fancy restaurant. It is pretty busy even in the late night which is a good sign. The waitress is pretty busy and slow to take our order. It is quite typical for chinese restaurant.

love the hand shaven barley noodles =)

My family is obsessed with the Green Barley Hand Shaven Noodles and Shanghai Garden in Seattle is one of the few places you can get this dish! The only other place is Shanghai Cafe in Factoria...I think the two places were at one time related. Across the street is Young Tea (best bubble tea in Chinatown) so it is worth the extra stop to do both!