It's as authentic as you can get as far as Chinese restaurants go. The place was exceptionally clean for a Chinese restaurant. The service was pretty average. We split a herbal soup which was pretty good. There were bits of tofu and other vegetables that are probably really good for you. Then came the pork dumplings that were some of the best I ever had. The sauce that came with it was great. At first I thought it was just soy sauce but it had a nice tangy flavor to it. Finally there was the duck. It was extremely authentic meaning you have to spit out the bones and your hands were getting dirty. It was a really well made duck. The food overall was very authentic but it's just pricier than other authentic places. It was bizarre to see how clean everything was. If you go for Chinese authentic Chinese food there's an expectation of a little grungy. If you feel like a fancier authentic Chinese food experience then I would recommend it. read more

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On a weekend trip to Boston, my wife and i walked past this place one night and decided to come back. It was packed and there was a line out the door, which is always a good sign. We went on Saturday night at 8:00 and again the place was packed and there was a line but it moves quick. We stood for maybe 10 minutes. DEFINITELY worth the wait. First, a teapot of hot tea is brought out to each table which is a really nice touch. Then we ordered the Scallion Pancakes which are freakin' amazing. I ordered the Eight Treasure Rice Cakes and my wife got the Sesame Chicken. The food came out incredibly fast. We were only half way through our appetizer when the main dishes arrived. The rice cakes were cooked perfectly and the portion was a good size. Not too small, but not so big that i wouldn't be able to finish it on my long weekend. The sesame chicken was also good, and a good size, but i thought the rice cakes were better. We had 4-5 people come to our table throughout the night. One waitress sat us, one took our order, one brought our food, etc. The service was incredible. This is place is a must if you like asian food. It is definitely authentic (we were the only non-Asians there), the food was amazing, the service is second to none, and it's a really cool venue right in the heart of town. read more

Shanghai Fresh - Eight Treasure Rice Cakes and Shanghai Pancakes - Shanghainese Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

Authentic, flavorful, fun environment! We came on a Sunday afternoon around 2PM and though the place was packed there was no wait. At other times, prepare for a bit of a line. The weekend brunch has great classic options like the scallion pancake and pork mustard green noodle soup! The normal menu also has a great range of authentic Chinese options like the mapo tofu and roasted eggplant and more Americanized options like kungpao chicken. Overall, this place has nice, clean Chinese food with flavorful but not heavy, oily or MSG sauces. Highly enjoyed each dish and our favorite was a surprise recommended by the waitress as an authentic Shanghai dish - wild veggie bean curd! It's a dense plate of deliciousness and in our case in the shape of a heart. So cute. Definitely recommend this place for a great legit, yummy chinese meal. read more

Shanghai Fresh - Mapo tofu, watercress, eggplant - Shanghainese Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

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First time - impressed - pork heavy: The fried rice is phenomenal (if you don't mind pork lard). Pork hock is a must. Rice cake (with pork) Shanghai wonton soup. Kinda mild. Chinese squash - yum. ... and they have bottled beer. read more

Authentic Shanghainese Food (one of our favorite go-to Chinese restaurants in the area). Highlights include their scallion pancakes, wintermelon/bamboo shoots/pork soup, eggplant with pork and claypot rice. read more

Very disappointing dining experience.... first of all the male staff was extremely impolite as they "welcomed" me and my guests to the table - they offered us the worst table while there are plenty of good ones out there. the boss (looks like the owner) then even badmouthed me after I complained about the tabling. second, dishes were awful.... not even close to being authentic. For example, their smoky fish tasted like smoky fish bones literally... very little fish meat there as opposite to thick sliced fish in authentic Chinese food. read more

Shanghai Fresh - Shanghainese Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

Pretty mediocre Shanghainese food. The soup dumplings were expensive ($6.25 for 6) and contained no soup whatsoever. We also ordered the shredded pork with pancakes ($13.25) and pea sprouts ($13.25), which were both standard. Nice interiors and nice staff for a Chinese restaurant though. Will probably not be back again even though I live a block away. read more

I'm from the US and used to live in Shanghai, so of course I was so excited to see a Shanghai restaurant open near my house. Shanghai food has more sweet and delicate flavors than other Chinese cuisines, so come here if you are looking to try something different than the typical Chinese food you find in the US. I am a huge soup dumpling fan ("Shanghai steamed pork buns" on the menu), and have tried at least 5 different Boston restaurants with soup dumplings, Shanghai Fresh is in my top 2! Unique dishes to try: Yuxiang Shredded Pork with steamed buns Peking Shredded Scallion Pork served with Chinese pancakes Any whole fish dish read more

Shanghai Fresh - Soup Dumplings - Shanghainese Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

Shanghai Fresh was an off shoot of Shanghai Gate in Allston. The chef moved to Shanghai Fresh and the food was excellent as it was when he was in Shanghai Gate. After Covid, however, there must be a change in the kitchen because the quality of the fare have been going downhill steadily. When we went recently, there was one server for the whole restaurant. Given the labor shortage at this time, it is somewhat excusable and she was very efficient but still, the service was slow. The food, unfortunately, was not up to standard. We waited about 20 min for our food. This is a good sign usually but when it arrived it was lukewarm, and there are pieces of freezing cold meat inside (we ordered the beef pie). So the wait is for the food to defrost? I don't mind pre-prepared food - many fine dinning restaurants do it - but if it is something that should be served hot, it should be hot, and not lukewarm. The beef noodle soup we ordered has very good beef tendons in it but it was also lukewarm, syrupy thick and too salty. The good news is that the soup dumpling is still good as before and piping hot. In conclusion, Shanghai Fresh is not what it used to be. read more

Very tasty food! The "thumbs up" and "red pepper" symbols on the menu guided our decision making as we figured out what to order for a late night dinner. We got here around 8:30pm on a Thursday night and the line was still out to the door. Fortunately it was moving pretty quick as people finished up their meals for the night. We saw an awkward situation when the hostess seated two separate parties at the same table, despite the fact that there were other tables opening up soon and not much of a line left. It's a small restaurant so I wouldn't be surprised if that's common practice during the busy hours. After about 20 minutes, we were seated and the waitress quickly brought out some hot tea. The menu was easy to navigate and, like I said before, the symbols made it easy to decide what to order. The Shanghai Shrimp w/Chef's Special Sauce was a burst of flavor to my taste buds! The Yu Xiang Shredded Pork was pretty good too, though it had a bit of a kick and the bamboo masked the taste of the pork. The portion size was a little disappointing; it would be nice to have more food considering we ordered four plates for three people and we managed to wipe clean each dish! Yummy food and good service- I will be back! read more

My co-worker and I decided to come here after we walked all the way to the Coast Cafe and found that it was closed for the week. It was a great alternative! We ordered two dishes - a white fish with woodear and bamboo shoots and sizzling beef. Both dishes were delicious. The fish was really soft and I loved the woodear and bamboo shoots. I actually liked the fish better than the beef which is surprising for this meat-lover. The beef wasn't as soft as I thought it would be and I wasn't a big fan of the gravy sauce over it. Overall, it seems like a pretty authentic restaurant that serves traditional dishes. It's also decorated nicely and clean (unlike some of the Chinatown restaurants). I would definitely come back to try something else. read more

Shanghai Fresh - White fish filet with bamboo shoots and wood ear (~$13) - Shanghainese Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

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No reservations after 5:30PM means be prepared to wait for a long time. Knocking down one star because the whole waiting process was extremely disorganized and not really sure if there was any type of system. Food was A+, but I really hope they figure out a better way to seat people. read more

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I like the decor here, the space is a bit cramped, but everything looks very neat and clean. The food is actually pretty authentic for the most part. We ordered the lion head, clay pot veggie and pork rice, xiao long bao, and wild veggie with bean curd. My fav has to be the lion head, and wild veggie with bean curd. The flavor of the lion head is totally on point and it's so juicy and soft. Another good thing is that you can order however many you'd like. One meatball is about the size of a fist. the wild veggie with bean curd might be sort of weird to people who haven't had it before, but it's so authentic, and brings back memories. The xlb and clay pot rice were both a bit underwhelming, they were still good, but not THAT good. the xlb wasn't really soupy inside, and the clay pot rice didn't have too much flavor. Overall this place is still very good, especially since I haven't found another shanghai place in boston. I'd totally come back again read more

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This is my go-to Chinese food spot in Cambridge and it's also the only place my parents like to eat at in the area when they visit me. Pros: - delicious authentic Shanghai food - tasty, flavorful, fair proportions (but not overwhelmingly large) - fast service after you get seated - you can also get food to-go if you don't want to wait (takes about 20 minutes) Cons: - long wait during dinner rush time (as much as 1 hour) as expected since everyone knows this is spot to be Recommendations: - soups: winter melon, tofu custard - entrees: fish fillet with wood eat mushroom (childhood favorite!), Szechuan fried chicken, eggplant with pork, sizzling peppered beef, pan fried noodles with chicken, rice cakes - desserts: sticky rice with red bean and mixed treasures - must have!! read more

Best Chinese food in America I've had so far. Reasonably priced with a great selection. Easily accessible in a great area. Crowded but turnover is quick and waiting time is short. read more

Shanghai Fresh - Shanghainese Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

Never been to Shanghai, no comments on the authenticity. However, definitely good food and cold beer to go with it. And at least on this very crowded Saturday, service was just fine. You do have to catch their eye, and it helps to be near the kitchen, but we had no problems. Sampled through a variety of things, including cold jellyfish (pretty good -- almost a vegetable texture), pork belly with what I think was bamboo flower, and beef with "Chinese cruller" (a fried batter dumpling). All quite tasty and outside the usual Chinese fare. They did have the weekend brunch/dim sum menu, but we skipped that. Seemed like an adventure in and of itself. Reasons why this is a five star Chinese experience: - they print the interesting specials in English at the front, so if you want to adventure into "salted preserved meat with baby bamboo", you can. (As noted, it was good. ) - servers are pretty good about kids, tried to make sure our little ones were comfortable. - staff has some decent English to help you navigate the menu - for a restaurant that the rest of you say is authentic, really clean. Totally worth another trip. read more

I've been here twice for their brunch and yum! You kind of have to get here at 11:30am to be seated without a wait (they only take reservations for the first seating) This restaurant is still relatively new, and I noticed that they are improving. The first time I was here, I thought the soymilk was too burnt-tasting, but the taste was much better the second time. I still am not sold on the salty soymilk as the vinegar curdles the milk, but my guy is in love with it and orders one just for himself when we come here. The soup dumplings are some of the best you can get in Boston. The skin is a little thick (like every other xlb in Boston) but the flavor is spot on. We got this lettuce wrap with chicken filling, which was very good, but a bit too salty. I mixed with our fried rice, which was actually kind of bland and had too much rice in proportion to everything else. The ingredients tasted fresh and everything seemed to be made to order. I love that I do not have to go into Chinatown or Newton for Taiwanese brunch! The menu isn't as large as the one at Chung Shin Yuan in Newton, but the location cannot be beat if you live in Cambridge like me. read more

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While Dumpling House down the street may be a Taiwanese restaurant, they seem to have mastered the art of the XLB better than Shanghai Fresh. At least according to my companion who found her dumplings to be 100% dumplings and 0% soup. I ordered tofu with mixed vegetables, which will passable, was nothing to write home about. If I do come back for a subsequent visit, I will likely try the Shanghainese scallion soy sauce noodles and report back. read more

Great food! The staff is friendly and the hours are reasonable to allow late night restaurant outings. I would totally come back and recommend to friends! read more

The Rundown: I would give Shanghai Fresh 3.5 stars if that was possible. Authentic flavors and style, but misses the mark in terms of actual quality. Context: Came here for dinner. I am Shanghainese and have spent several years living in the city. What I got: Beef and Scallion Rolls (7.5/10) I know this dish as Taiwanese (forgive me if I'm wrong on this), but one of my friends recommended it so we ended up getting it. Surprisingly, this ended up being the best dish I had. The flavors are quite simple - a scallion pancake wrapped around beef with some hoisin sauce for flavor. The highlight is of course the beef - which was cooked and seasoned well. The actual roll itself was a bit too doughy for my taste, but overall I was very satisfied with this dish. Would likely order it again on a repeat visit. Shanghai Soup Dumplings (7/10) These were very nearly the best soup dumplings I've had in Boston - but unfortunately there's a critical flaw. In terms of flavor and texture, they're spot on. The thin skin was steamed well, the filling was the proper amount of savory, and as a whole it was quite satisfying. So what's the issue? The soup. There was nearly no soup in my soup dumplings, which is really a shame because the rest of the dumpling is quite good! This problem is further exacerbated by how many of our XLB were stuck to the bottom of the basket, making it nearly impossible to eat without spilling some of the (already limited) soup. Traditional Style Sweet & Sour Pork (7/10) I didn't expect the pork to be breaded, which was fine I guess. The actual flavor was traditional and certainly reminded me of home - this is what sweet and sour should taste like. However, the stuff this sauce was covering was rather underwhelming - the pork hardly even tasted like meat for some reason and the breading added very little to the dish. Rice Balls Simmered in Sweet Rice Wine (6/10) A traditional Shanghainese dessert - not exactly done to its full potential here. The rice balls were fine - although that's pretty hard to mess up. The issue of course, is with the broth. To put it simply, the "rice wine" part of the soup is vastly overpowered by the "sweet" part. This dish is supposed to properly balance these two aspects and have a much more prominent rice wine flavor. This is almost entirely absent and the end result is mostly just sweet. Fine - but I wouldn't get it again. read more

Ordered takeout that was ready at the estimated time. Compared to similar area restaurants the ingredients were higher quality and the dishes not oily or salty. Everything except one dish was terrific. Lions Head Meatball Pork dumplings Beef cubes w/asparagus & mushrooms Chicken shanghai noodles spicy pork & bamboo shoots with steamed bun Very good: Spicy eggplant with pork (not much pork and too sweet for my taste) Glad we ordered takeout, there wasn't a seat to be had. read more

If you're an American and want good Chinese food, come to Shanghai fresh! I assume if you're Chinese and want good Chinese food, come to Shanghai fresh! This place is typically full with young and old folk, the interior is fun, and the food is diverse and yummy. read more

Shanghai Fresh - Shanghainese Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

I used to like this place so much. It's my first time today to have dinner here since COVID. Everything is changed. Taste is so bad now. Idk if they changed chef or owner. It is not Shanghai fresh anymore. read more

I ordered celery with beef, while the whole dish is full of bean sprout. Don't come here if you want authentic Chinese food. read more

Shanghai Fresh - Shanghainese Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

Went in for the lunch special. Got spicy chicken rice, and app. Waitstaff wandering around like they work 100 hour work weeks - listless expressions on their faces. Bill time. Lunch special$8.95. Place card on table. Staff comes over, "ten dollar minimum". I paid with the card and left. Food was mediocre. read more

Went back after two years and was blown away by the authenticity of the food. Melon soup, tofu knots, vegetables with a freshness not found in typical americanized chinese food. This place deserves a far better rating than what it gets. As I compare this with other Cambridge favorites, I can't help but feel that there is a systematic bias against Chinese food in ratings. read more

Boston has a good rep for good food. Shanghai Fresh does not help this reputation. First let's talk about how incredibly small all of their dishes are.... SUCH SMALL PORTIONS. We did lunch here, family-style, and all the dishes were not reflective of what we would define as normal family-style dishes. It may be appropriate since this entire restaurant is so small. We had a party of 6 and instead of seating us at the table for 8, which was more spacious, we were given a small table near the entrance and we kept having to move due to a delivery being made by their vendors. It was completely inconvenient/disrupting of our meal and if it wasn't for my family, I would've gotten up and left. My family is from Shanghai and we speak Shanghai-nese. We were told only the owner was from Shanghai and all others only spoke Mandarin. I suppose some of their dishes were spot on, but many others were just NOT GOOD. I recommend just skipping this place entirely and going to the other many options on Mass Ave. OR just coming here for Xiao Long Bao as a snack. read more

tl;dr: Seem-to-be-healthy Chinese food. Mildly tasty. Huge portion. Closed on Tuesdays! When I first heard about Shanghai Fresh's opening, I got pretty excited to have another option for Chinese food around Central Square/MIT area. Mulan has been closed for too long! My friend and I decided to try it out on one fine Tuesday. We later unexpectedly found out that it was closed... I became wiser and took my other friend there on Thursday as we were craving spicy Chinese dishes. It was quite empty around 5:30pm. The staff greeted us with a smile and guided us to a table next to a wall. This place is decorated nicely and it reminded me of chic restaurants back in Thailand. We ordered Fish fillet with veggies in spicy broth (SF14, $12.95) and Stir-fried baby cabbage, asparagus, and chinese broccoli (V16, $8.95). The food came in pretty quickly. Both dishes were huge given their prices! We actually had to box almost half of each home. Both of us are a big fan of Mulan Fish; we always try "fish in spicy broth" at any new Chinese places we go, hoping to find a solid replacement. Here, it did look quite spicy and we noticed a lot of chili in the broth. Unfortunately, the spiciness didn't come through. It was quite bland. The good things are (i) we felt like drinking some healthy soup and (ii) they gave so much fish! The stir-fried veggies dish was pretty good. It definitely satisfied our goal to eat something healthy. All three kinds of veggies were enjoyably crispy on the outside but chewy inside. Very fresh! This dish, again, didn't seem to be very tasty. At least we were expecting some hint of oyster sauce. While we found the dish to be standard-Chinese oily, the absence of MSG made us feel healthy. It was good enough for us to hopefully come back to try something else next time. But we will probably stick with Dumpling House/Cilantro when life needs some spicy factors. Oh, they don't take Discover, which currently has a 5% cash back at restaurants. Sad. read more

Shanghai Fresh - Fish filet with veggies in spicy broth - Shanghainese Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

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Shanghai fresh is one of my favorite restaurants in Boston! Authentic and tasty Chinese cuisine. It's pretty popular, but the waiting time is not bad so don't let the long line scare you. I also recommend to try out their special menu and you could find some special dishes which can be only found in China. For example I tried this special duck leg with a duck egg in it and it was surprisingly good!! Overall 100% recommend! read more

Shanghai Fresh - Duck leg - Shanghainese Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

The following is a response to Sharon F. This happened on a Sunday evening November 24, 2019. There was a customer who called, saying that she ordered a C3, which is called "spicy chicken." She complained about how the dish was "too salty," and how she couldn't eat it, therefore, she wanted a refund. I, as a manager, then asked if whether she had eaten it. She then replied, stating how "she has not eaten it" and claimed that she had thrown the rest in the trash. I then said how if she thought it was too salty, she should have kept it and bought it to the restaurant, where we can give her the refund. I also told her that, if she had thrown it away, there would be no proof that dish was "too salty." I also said that if every customer called saying that the dish was too salty, then all of them would have thrown them in the trash, and how every restaurant would give a refund to the customer, then the restaurant itself will have to shut down. However, she did disagreed. I then asked the boss, and decided to tell her how we can give her a credit in which next time, when she orders (the same dish), it won't cost anything. She then said how she doesn't want that, and want her money back. She then claimed how she'll return the dish back. I then questioned her how I thought that she told me she threw the dish away; she stayed silent. She then asked if she could still get a refund if she returned the dish and I replied with a yes. When she returned the dish back, we did not check the dish itself in front of her (since it was very busy at the time and we trusted her) and just gave her the money back. She also signed for her refund, $15.25. When I got the order back, I thought that there was something wrong with the order, and so I immediately apologized. I also apologized for having her come all the way. I explained to her why she needed to return the order; it was not because we didn't believe her, it was because we needed to find out what is wrong with the order and improve it. We wanted to figure out the reason why it was returned. If the reason behind it was because of the chef's mistakes that made the customer upset, the chef will receive penalty. That is our restaurant's management system policy. When the customer left (also when the business died down), I bought the returned order to the kitchen, to show the chefs. All the chefs were shocked. There are three reasons: 1.) 2/ 3 of the food has been eaten, only 1/ 3 of it remains (I have pictures as proof). Because so much is eaten, she put the white rice (that she also bought from the restaurant) to substitute in as space for the spicy chicken she has eaten. 2.) Every chef tried the returned dish, found out that there was nothing wrong with the dish. The saltiness and quality was perfect, no where near "too salty." 3.) If the food is too salty, then why is 2/ 3 of the food gone? If, the dish was really too salty, then the customer should have called the restaurant after 1 bite immediately, asking for a refund. I was afraid that she, the villain will bring suit against her victims, so I took pictures in case I will need them later, using them as proof. This mainly happened because I believed in her as a customer, therefore I did not open the returned order in front of her. I hope you all can give a fair judgement on this situation. read more

Shanghai Fresh - Pictures of her returned C3 - Shanghainese Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

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I'm sure this review is peppered with all sorts of biases... the biggest of which is that Boston's Chinese food scene is really lacking. Sure there are places in Chinatown, but a uncomfortably large number do fusion type deals, or a lot of them are Vietnamese instead of being Chinese... and the Chinese places that do actually serve Chinese food, don't do it that well, and have terrible service- bordering on rudeness really. This is not to say that SF has exemplary service, but it's at the level where you'd expect most Americanized restaurants to be. The food however, is excellent, and is the best part of the dining experience, though the restaurant itself is cute, clean and laid out well enough (the bathrooms are decent too). There are a ton of good dishes here. Having been a few times now, I usually get the rice cakes in shanghainese style, or the 獅子頭\giant meatball thing. I've seen some other people ordering various tofu or fish fillets in some sort of broth dishes, which also look excellent, but I have yet to try. Last time I came here, they also had a specials menu, where there were some pretty good choices such as fried ribs, which taste just like how I'm used to having them in great China. As a desert, I think their 八寶飯 is priced well, can be shared, and tastes excellent. The main drawback to this place is that there is always a huge wait. If you're going to come for lunch, come either at the head or the tail ends of lunch period; if coming for dinner, try to come as late as possible, since the line will probably be out the door. read more

Chinese restaurant with a trendy vibe, reminds me of some of the nicer casual dining places out in HK and Singapore, ie. not your typical greasy American-Chinese restaurant. The flavors are authentic, subtle, and the ingredients fresh. We had the stir fried beef & scallion dish which wad of a really high quality, and the sautéed vegetables were very tasty. The crispy chicken wings were a surprising disappointment - they were greasy, deep fried at not a high enough temp. Serving sizes are not terribly big which is fine if you are not looking to bring home leftovers. I would definitely go back. read more

Authentic Shanghainese food, made by a highly skilled Shanghai native chef, and ran by food-centric Chinese owners. Their menu spans everything I'd order in Shanghai, without having to get a visa first. The food transported me back to the bustling soup dumpling restaurants in my hometowns shopping districts, all from the comforts of Cambridge massachusetts. I look forward to coming back when my nian gao and jiu niang cravings hit again! read more

One dinner: stir fried pork and Shanghai rice cake--tasted good it was too wet, not saucy, just lots of liquid in the serving dish; XLB--tastes good, but black vinegar and very little shredded garlic--please get the red vinegar; pea shoots with garlic--very good!; and smoked fish--literally terrible--small pieces of bony fish cut into steaks with low flavor and not dabbed with extra sauce before serving. Service: meh. Everything came out in random order. Appetizer smoked fish came out last. WTF. Standard service so worried about trying to clear your dishes before you're finished eating. Weird: none of the people who served me spoke Shanghainese. I'm fluent. Maybe this explains the average/sub-par execution of Shanghai specialties. read more

Really not a very big place, and we had to wait for a good 25 minutes to be seated. Furnitures and the restaurant's general atmosphere were modern Chinese and really stood out from the norm. The menu was long, took us a long time to decide what to eat. Ordered: Chef's Marinated Chicken盐摻鸡, Mushroom and Gluten Hot Pot菌菇面筋煲, Shanghai Sticky Rice and Red Bean Paste and Mixed Treasurers八宝饭, Yuxiang Shredded Pork and Steam Buns鱼香肉丝夹饼, Steam Pepper Whole Fish剁椒鱼. ** Overall experience: Excellent Food Quality: Excellent Authenticity (Shanghai): Medium Service: Good read more

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The food here tasted pretty good but the portion sizes were small. Usually when we go to Chinese restaurants we have a decent amount of leftovers but we ate all our food here. We ordered the shredded pork and rice cakes and fish fillet in chili sauce as our main meals. Both of these entrees tasted good but again, I wish there was more. There was not much fish, the bowl was small, and there wasn't much pork in the rice cake dish. The most disappointing was the XLB (soup dumplings). They were also very small and the taste was mediocre. Overall, not sure I'd come back as we live near another Chinese restaurant nearby that we prefer to go to. read more

Nice place and nice food. Not expensive. I ordered sweet and sour baby ribs, steamed pork buns and sticky rice. The sweet and sour baby ribs have more sweet taste, compared to sour taste. Steamed pork buns are actually better than I expected. It has thinners skin than I thought, which is relatively hard to find here in US. The sticky rice is sweet but not too sweet. The best part is that the sticky rice has light taste of dry jujube, which makes it more tasty. Though I only have been in US for three years, I would say this is the best shanghai food I've ever tried in United States so far. I think it's worth to try it at least once. read more

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I give 2 stars only for the cleanness and the environment. This is a small but somewhat cozy Chinese restaurant in Cambridge. The two waitresses served us are friendly but not very familiar with the dishes on the menu. Now, lets talk about the food! It's funny that the restaurant is called Shanghai Fresh but the dishes are not authentic shanghai food. The menu is a mixture of shanghai, northeastern, Sichuan and Americanized Chinese cuisines. They don't even have 生煎 (pan fried pork bun). The "eighteen treasure" we ordered had good presentation, but not well seasoned. The bean sprouts were not fully cooked. The " traditional shanghai soup" looked amazing too, but tasteless. The bamboo shoots in the soup were preserved bamboo shoots, not " fresh" at all. The MOST disappointed dish I ordered was the XiaoLongBao(steamed pork bun). many people say they are great, they are truly good! HOWEVER, I can assure you the buns are bought frozen from grocery store! I have bought tons of the same buns over years from Super88 (1 pack ~ $4/5). Sigh.....if you really love the same kind of buns, just go to super 88 or go to Changsho (Mass Ave) brunch buffet..... If you are wondering if Shanghai Fresh or Shanghai Gate (Harvard Ave, Allston) is better, I would say they are about the same. But I still prefer Shanghai Gate because of the bigger dish portion... and it's closer to me :p read more

The worst food ever. The food was way too salty and the staff was not friendly at all. We left 15% tips for 2 people but they came after us asking for even more. They said the tips were required by their manager. read more

I'm surprised the reviews are so mixed! I thought i was a really awesome experience in every way. The waitress was incredible nice, ambiance was legit, and food was delicious. Left after paying 15$ and stuffing my face with lots of excellent dishes. Will definitely return often for more! read more