Shang Hai Cafe

Ok food. Needs to be more clean so people can get their gains. There needs to be more deals and cheaper prices. Also there could be bugs in the food so watch out for that. They also have a child that works at time and she looks like she is ¹³⁄₁₄.

As good as it gets for Chinese food in the culinary hellscape that we call College Park. Before we go any further I want to start with the caveat that this restaurant gets ⁵⁄₅ stars for what it is: cheap fast Chinese food.
During most of the day this is the place to go for good quality Chinese food, take out, and limited delivery. My favorite dishes are the dumplings and teriyaki chicken. I cannot say enough good things about quality for price of this restaurant.
Where Shanghai really shines is in late night service:
Picture yourself in the shoes of a college student at 1:30 in the morning. You’ve probably struck out at C-​stone, Bentley’s, or Turf by now and are feeling pretty hungry. You and your buddies are staggering back from your night out and are jonesing for something to compliment your night’s consumption of cheap beer. When in the not too far off distance you catch a glimpse of the beautiful blue awning of your gastronomic salvation: Shanghai.
The intoxicating smell of spices and battering that greets you as you cross the threshold welcomes you like the prodigal son returning home. As you gaze across the crowded lobby you see the familiar sights of «big box», «small box», and «$ 9 credit card minimum» (which is frustratingly just below the average price of a single entrée on the menu). As you make your way up to the front counter you are greeted by the legend herself: The Shanghai Lady; the proprietor whose service and food are unsurpassed in this college town.
As you sit down to consume your orange chicken and fried rice, your inevitable choices in your big box, you feel an almost animal craving take over as you come close and closer to having your delicious fill of this heaven sent food. Finally you chow down, savoring every bite; the hot, filling, and slightly greasy food is just the craving your stomach had. As you leave, you thank whatever deity it was that brought you here to your salvation tonight and you feel satisfied, not just in body but in spirit as well.
Shanghai is an institution of downtown College Park. Here’s to many more years of delicious food at truly reasonable prices!

I wouldn’t recommend take out here. I ordered buffalo wings and fried rice from here. The fried rice was bland with no flavor. The sauce on the wings weren’t buffalo. And the blue cheese they gave me was actually some type of Italian salad dressing. I rarely get take out in CP. But, I think this is it for me and CP take-​out food.

Visited this place twice on a recent trip to College Park and am now a fan. The shop looks unassuming, but packs some of the best-​crafted Chinese takeout I’ve ever had. The pork rib noodle soup tastes nearly homemade, with large, generous chunks of mushroom and cuts of fresh ginger. The soup was light and fragrant, and even tasted good cold the next day — a sign that the ingredients used were top quality and that there were no «fillers» in the broth. The second day we tried the Moo Shu pork, which was well seasoned and satisfying — not too salty or oily. On both nights, the pork tasted great and didn’t have any of the «gamey”-ness that you sometimes get with sub-​par cuts of meat. The steamed dumplings were clunky and unimpressive, but overall this modest little shop served delicious, well-​crafted food that I would gladly have again!

delivery was as promised. food was good. ordered garlic sauce vegetables with white rice. sauce different than other Chinese fast food not bad

We gave their delivery a try. Some dishes were great, others just so-​so. We really enjoyed the dumplings, the hot/​sour potatoes, the chicken with broccoli, the egg-​drop soup, the moo-​shu pork, and the mixed vegetables. The sesame beef was way too bready. The Mongolian beef was tasty, but it had too many veggies and they were not cooked enough. My Chinese friend likes that they have a special China menu.
We’ll give Shang Hai Café a try again and order some different dishes.

Well, they don’t deliver the 2.2 miles to us again, even though every other (terrible) restaurant in College Park does. We have ordered from this place about a half-​dozen times and that kind of disrespect to your customers is completely unwarranted. Employee was also incredibly rude on the phone with us. Even if they do offer delivery to our neighborhood again, I would be hard-​pressed to order from this place again.

What a crap load of sushi, ambiance, and service. This is shit. I’m too exhausted to think of what else to say… oh yeah, all the chairs were already up an over before they actually close. I do hope those fish in the fish tank don’t suffer too much. It looks really murky. Gross.

After the worst experience at kabob place cross the street We came here and got the best food. Thanks keep it up.

I placed an order for the combination fried rice. I presumed it’d be prepped with white rice. But to my surprise it was yellow rice. I requested it be spicy, with bean sprouts and cilantro added to the dish. I got one out of three of those things — the fried rice had crushed red pepper flakes but no bean sprouts or cilantro. My order asked for a Diet Dr. Pepper, and when my delivery arrived I found a Coke. Overall, the food tasted average. Just remember to be specific, if you have a preference for rice types. I wanted to order something sweet but the only option I saw was Chinese Donuts.

Perfect if you want cheap Chinese food. Their combo delux lets you get 2 entrees, rice or lo mien and an egg roll for about $ 10 which I felt was a really good deal. It is definitely cheap though and made my stomach hurt a little.

The quality is not very good, but when you order the student special for 6 bucks what do you expect. The student special for 6 bucks is one of the best deals in town for late night deliver dinner. Delivery times are hit or miss, I’ve had it come in 10 minutes and I have had to wait an hour and a half, depends on the time I guess. I’ll continue to order the student special, but probably wouldn’t get anything other than that.

I’m really impressed by the waitress there. They are so nice and the food there is always very rich. I would highly recommend fried rice and noodles. I love it!!!

I’d actually give 4.5 stars if I could. We’ve ordered delivery from here about five times. Some of the dishes have really stood out — the crispy beef, the lemon chicken, the egg rolls (but NOT the spring rolls), and the shrimp in lobster sauce (consistency more like soup) were very tasty. The shrimp, however, were not all appropriately cleaned. We didn’t like the shrimp fried rice or the sesame chicken — they tasted bland and greasy. The spring rolls were really bad. Delivery was a little slow, but the crispy beef is amazing!

I called and ordered braised pork belly and beef noodle soup. I spoke Chinese, to try and ensure the real thing. The braised pork belly was overpriced but hit the spot.
The two stars, however, are for the abominable beef noodle soup. No excuses for any sort of «regional» variation-​this was stir fried veggies in salted WATER with chunks of beef taken from the incorrect part of the cow with noodles thrown in. They should’ve been honest that they didn’t have any beef broth for the soup (the broth is THE most important ingredient), instead of trying to pass this abomination off as beef noodle soup. Not even a clueless person who had never had beef noodle soup would have enjoyed it, let alone a seasoned Chinese foodie such as myself.
My husband, the white guy, got the olé General Tso’s chicken. He said even his was mediocre. So, unless you are in the mood for something like pork belly, I would find another place for time honored Chinese favorites.

Never again. I found a long hair in my steamed chicken. Nothing grosses me out more than pulling a piece of hair out of my mouth.
AVOID at all costs.

Please read carefully, to get the good food requires a trick.
They’re not reliably good. If you walk in and tell them that if they can produce better Chinese food than China Café you will switch and become their costumer forever, you will get the greatest dishes of all time. That’s what I did. I walked in, challenged them, and asked them to choose for us a couple dishes from the Chinese-​only menu to make.
What came to our table, to put it plainly, was the most incredible food I’ve ever had. Without question.
I have not been able to replicate this result by ordering over the phone, getting terrible standard Chinese fare, you have to actually go in and challenge them to get the good shit. Look like a food critic or something. I’m not kidding. It works.

My latest order with them was frustrating. They didn’t bring one of the drinks that was clearly stated on my online confirmation. When I called them back about it, they didn’t want to fix their error. They offered a discount on a future order (if there will even be one). Then they tried to dissuade me when I told them I still wanted it by saying it would be a long time before they could deliver it.
That aside, the food was good.
I need them to do better and fix their errors. Or not make them in the first place.

I rarely give 5 stars for any place. So let me provide you with what exactly i’m giving 5 stars on.
1) Price — Amazingly cheap
2) Food — If you are looking for cheap chinese food, take out or eat in, this place has everything you need
3) Delivery — Their delivery is the fastest I’ve ever seen. I’ve had it come literally within
5 – 10 minutes before. How do they do that?
4)Late night — this place is always open. Well atleast till like 3am — you can’t beat the convenience.
This was my favorite take out place in college when I was looking for unhealthy and delicious chinese food. I came back here recently and thought I’d write a review to give them a little appreciation! Get the general tso’s chicken!

My mom and I thought we would give this place a try. There were a good amount of Chinese people dining in and actually eating authentic style dishes that looked good. BAH.
Service: The service was good. The woman behind the counter was attentive and efficient.
Cleanliness: The resturant was clean. It was easy to see the kitchen and that made us a little more comfortable just because we could see everything that was going on. The dining area is modern and well kept. Pretty spacious.
Prices: Some things were decently priced especially based on the portion size. However, their salt and pepper shrimp is definitely overpriced. Here it’s $ 20, it’s usually about $ 10 — $ 13 in your standard Chinese restaurant. Quite the difference.
Food: While they had some authentic home cooking style dishes, they are definitely more Americanized Chinese food. This was disappointing.
We were going to order the salt and pepper jumbo shrimp until we saw how much it was. Definitely not work it being that they are standard size shrimp — not jumbo. We ended up going with shrimp with Chinese vegetable and eggplant and tofu with garlic sauce. We were really disappointed to see that Chinese vegetable meant American broccoli and baby corn. The eggplant with tofu had good ingredients, fresh and tasty but the sauce was not good. It was super sweet. Yuck.
I think their ingredients are fresh and tasty. The shrimp was cleaned well and I liked that. The only downfall was that the sauces were overbearing and definitely catered to Americanized taste buds. If we were to come back, we’d probably have to ask them to alter the sauce or go with a more simple dish. However, I doubt we will be.
I will say that this place is definitely BETTER than Panda Express! If you want Americanized Chinese food — this place is good. Again, fresh ingredients so just like Panda Express’s fresh claim. Also portions here are much better than Panda. So come here — NOT Panda Express! They are essentially the same thing but BETTER!