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Shining Rainbow Restaurant

3.4 (173 reviews)
Closed 11:00 am - 10:30 pm
Updated over 3 months ago

Shining Rainbow Restaurant Photos

Business Info

SHINING RAINBOW RESTAURANT ATMOSPHERE

What's the vibe?
Casual
Moderate noise
Good for kids
Good for groups

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Recommended Reviews - Shining Rainbow Restaurant

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Frank T.

Great Authentic Chinese. Best in downtown Albany. So many authentic plates to choose from. Seafood is fresh as well as the other proteins. Service is excellent. Inside is very classy and nice. Cool rotating serving platforms on some tables. They now deliver since the pandemic and continue to do so which is a plus. The delivery is very professional and sealed as can be seen in photo so you know there is no tampering of your food from delivery person. My fav chinese!.

Amazing food! Great service. I believe this place is the best Chinese Restaurant in Albany area!!!!
Yuko L.

Very nice atmosphere! They will welcome you with nice hot tea! I love it! Foods are awesome! The service is great too. I believe that this place is the best Chinese restaurant in Albany area!

a person reading a menu
Cristina G.

They serve you tea as you sit down and the service is great. Their menu has a variety of food and their portions are really big. Their food is delicious too. They are usually busy but it's a very pleasant experience. Definitely recommend.

Garlic chicken.
Zombie D.

The neighborhood is not the best in Albany but the ambiance and food are unbelieving here. You got real authentic Chinese dishes that aren't take out crap and the prices (especially for the lunch specials) can't be beat. The waiters are very speedy and I've never had any issues with the service. I'm actually shocked that the average customer rating should be higher and I'd give at least a 4 star. Recently we went with the beef and string beans, garlic with chicken, and pan fried pork dumplings. You won't be disappointed here and have enough food on the plate!

Shrimp rice roll

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4 years ago

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7 years ago

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11 years ago

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4 years ago

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16 years ago

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2 years ago

we love this place! had the best time possible. daniel is the best. amazing service!!!!

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11 years ago

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8 years ago

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7 years ago

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5 years ago

Sadly, would consider this a greasy spoon kinda place. If they rethought the use of oil, it would be a great place. Sorry folks

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6 years ago

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9 years ago

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9 years ago

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6 years ago

I ordered take out and the food was very good! I love all of the different options they have and variety on the menu.

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7 years ago

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10 years ago

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17 years ago

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4 years ago

I didn't realize that rice was not included in the already more expensive price. So, not ordering from here again

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12 years ago

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Hu's House

Hu's House

4.1
(229 reviews)
5.1 mi
$$

Really good! A business opened by the former chef from the much-loved ALA Sh-nghai in the area. It…read moreseems to be family-run by a Shanghainese family (ALA is Cantonese-owned). Although slightly pricier than comparable restaurants (very few serving similar items lol) in the area, the freshness & quality of the dishes make sense. Have had: Pork & Crab Soup Dumplings ("Sha lang bao") & Spicy Wontons are great. Honey Walnut Shrimp, Chicken Chestnut in a Pot (staff encouraged this items around the holidays instead of Chicken & Cashews - really good!), Beef with String Beans, Rice Cake with Pork & Capsella (tasty! Think chewy gnocchi tossed with a chopped leafy green. Slightly cilantro-like?), Shanghai curried vermicelli rice noodles, Lo Mein... Everything is great! Sleeper Hit is the appetizer Beef Shank in Soy Sauce ($11) - think finely shaved fall-apart roast beef with soy dipping sauce (a bit of grisle but collagen is healthy!) & House Aster Veggie Salad (not sure what this veg/herb is but it's light & fresh with bits of firm tofu). Not a huge fan of the Pan Fried Pork Bun or House Rice Shao Mai (sticky rice in a dumpling) - more carbs and little else. Dong Po Pork is a good traditional appetizer dish, but not a huge fan of eating around the pork belly fat. Note: the dumplings & wontons are best for dine-in & eaten right away. Don't let the wrappers get cold & tear! Decor is simple, clean and the restaurant staff is quick & family friendly.

During the first Covid lockdown in 2021, we isolated in our Catskills home. The infection counts…read morewere low in Greene county New York and nobody knew what would happen next. TV news broadcast dire predictions during every 24 hour news cycle. So of course, cooking and acquiring food while binging movies and TV shows on cable became the obvious means by which to deflect attention from the rising COVID body counts world-wide and dire predictions. High anxiety was the order of the day, and tippling, cooking, take outs and eating became a reliable means to blunt it. Between TV binging we continued our years long, fanatical search for Xiao Long Bao -- or anything Asian to cook of takeaway and eat TV-side. HU's is a small Chinese joint in Albany, near where we received our Covid vaccines, and a good 90 minute drive from our home. There was nothing that vaguely resembled a good Shanghainese take out joint any closer - so when we didn't care to cook Asian, we made the trip to Albany for takeaway. As it turns out, HU's makes some authentic and delicious soup dumplings, and other dim sum like shrimp har gow, perfectly seasoned sweet/sour soup and some very tasty Scallion pancakes and Peking style duck. It was well worth the 3 hour round trip to take away -- or even eat in. The restaurant enforced social distancing making the eat in experience feel safe and authentic. I dunno. It's been a while since our HU's excursions in 2021, but I think in hindsight the food is truly a solid 4 stars good. I can't get to 5 stars because I could not rate the service due to pandemic restrictions in restaurants. Service was diminished due to social distancing during Covid times - but the restaurant was sparkly clean everywhere we looked. I imagine the same is still true today. So if you find yourself craving Shanghainese when in Albany, NY - HU's is a solid choice. The fact that their food selection and quality was high during the worst pandemic in the last 100 years speaks volumes about HU's food cred. Top tip: Even though the dumpling skins are bit on the thick side, stick with XLB and dim sum. They are NY Chinatown worthy. The usual Cantonese dishes like egg foo young, chow fun and ribs are serviceable too.

Photos
Decor
Decor
$25 Chicken Chestnut in Pot 栗子鸡煲 - Really good! Mushroomy sauce. Alternative to Chicken & Cashew
$25 Chicken Chestnut in Pot 栗子鸡煲 - Really good! Mushroomy sauce. Alternative to Chicken & Cashew
Salt & pepper squid (foreground) and salt & pepper shrimp (background) - 1/2 orders

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Salt & pepper squid (foreground) and salt & pepper shrimp (background) - 1/2 orders
Tanpopo Ramen and Sake Cafe

Tanpopo Ramen and Sake Cafe

4.1
(483 reviews)
1.3 mi
$$

The ramen here is very good, flavorful & spicy levels were good for me. The pork buns are…read moredelicious, especially liked the spicy pork buns. Drinks are good, lots of sake choices - but they are sweeter than I prefer so I opted for beer & cider. It was good to have the choices. Was in a party of 9 on a Thursday night, bust but they accommodated us & the waitress was attentive & fast. Everyone was very satisfied!

Decided to come back after not visiting in probably the last 8-10 years as I was really craving a…read morebig bowl of ramen. Service was very blah. Upon entering, the girl behind the counter just stared at us. No greeting. No direction on where to sit. No smile. We assumed it was self seating so we found a booth. She came over, poured our waters, still said nothing. We had about 45 mins until the restaurant closed so I'm unsure of what the cold attitude was for, as there were still 4-5 other patrons there eating as well. My friend is a vegetarian and ordered the veggie dumplings, and I had the same but with meat. Once the plates arrived, the one set in front of me was green, and his not. I figured I would double check to make sure we had the correct ones - I didn't want him to end up eating the meat ones if it could be avoided. Sure enough, the plates were mixed up. Honestly seemed to be done purposefully because it's very clear they are 2 different orders. The texture was chewy/foamy and they also tasted like old grease. Disappointing but we still had soups to look forward to. Our ramen finally arrived and I was hoping it would be the redemption moment of the evening but it wasn't. It really lacked any depth of flavor. Again the meat was chewy instead of tender. More distracting was how we awkwardly felt rushed as the server was shutting off lights and music...again...with at least 15 mins until the kitchen closing time. She seemed annoyed we asked for to go containers. At no point did she check in with us, refill waters, or even crack any resemblance of a smile. I used to love this little spot when I was in college. It was cozy, delicious, inviting. Couldn't have had more of the opposite experience this time around! And for this reason I would not return. I will travel to Colonie for Kuma Ani for better food and MUCH better service. TLDR; this place is extremely overrated

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Get Carried Away
Get Carried Away
Takoyaki
Takoyaki
Make That 2: (Hot Sake)

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Make That 2: (Hot Sake)
New Number One Chinese Restaurant

New Number One Chinese Restaurant

2.7
(20 reviews)
1.8 mi
$$

My refrigerator was empty. I was hungry. They were super fast!…read more That about sums it up. I've never ordered from this place before but my husband has. It's not fancy, but there's a notice in the window indicating it's up to code. The people are super nice. I went online to order lunch specials. Curry chicken. Beef with vegetables. Together, they cost just over $16 including your choice of soda or soup. I have to admit, I thought the food would be Cantonese style, but was soon as I walked in the staff was speaking Mandarin with me. So then I immediately realized the curry chicken wasn't going to have any yummy potatoes, which is classic Cantonese. Too bad. Still, it was well cooked and presented. The beef dish featured a bunch of different types of cool mushrooms. Since I don't usually eat fried rice and that's the only type of rice they offer, I found the meals a bit heavy. I was better off eating less rather than more. They made lunch possible and I'm glad for that.

- really fast delivery - they take card orders over the…read morephone - u can add your tip to the receipt upon arrival - plentiful portions - I may have gotten diarrhea - I did not like adding brown sauce to steamed vegetables - rib tips were good - shrimps were large - food has zero reheat value - did not like sesame chicken - ribs were alright - they give a buttload of rice

Photos
This is the most fat and bone that ever had to pick through in my entire life from an order of boneless, spare ribs! I almost choked
This is the most fat and bone that ever had to pick through in my entire life from an order of boneless, spare ribs! I almost choked
Order in blue ink
Order in blue ink
Sliced chicken with Garlic sauce (Szechuan style)

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Sliced chicken with Garlic sauce (Szechuan style)
Northeast Chinese Restaurant II

Northeast Chinese Restaurant II

3.9
(146 reviews)
1.6 mi
$$

Northeast Chinese Restaurant II is one of my favorite local Chinese restaurants. All of my favs are…read morenorthern Chinese. That means they can serve up some deliciously spicy dishes. But if you're looking for something milder, they're great at that, too. I think the large menu has been updated since my last visit. The first few pages include dishes that I would describe as "soul food." There's frog, beef tripe and pork intestine-- you get the picture. I never really got into that. On this visit, my friend and I picked Stir Fried Spicy Squid, Crispy Chicken with Crunchy Red Pepper and Bok Choy with Garlic. We were hungry. The veggies came out of the kitchen almost immediately. Crazy fast. We were grateful. The other two dishes took a bit more time. When you see all of the ingredients in those dishes and how finely sliced they are, it's no wonder. I loved the chicken dish. The chicken was a little crunchy but the red peppers were super crunchy. It was a bit spicy but deliciously so. I liked the peanuts and what looked like slivers of jalapeño peppers, too. The squid was also great. Here, I think they used more jalapeño peppers and spices. There was more heat to this dish but it was deceptive. The more I ate, the more I could gradually feel the burn. By the time we were full, I could feel my face starting to sweat a little. That was fun. The restaurant is clean and attractive with a remarkable amount of seating. The back portion is reserved for hot pots which I have yet to try there. The staff is friendly, helpful and bilingual. They will make suggestions if you'd like. This restaurant generally gets a bit noisy because it's where large Chinese families gather when they want to go on the town. That's a good thing. There's also a large screen tv that plays cooking shows. With so much going on, the customers seemed pretty happy.

Been here a bunch of times now and they never disappoint…read more The review is really that simple. It's going to be really good every time. Order something spicy and get excited. Also get the ribs!!!

Photos
Seating. Chinese styled furniture.
Seating. Chinese styled furniture.
2022.10.17. Northeast Chinese restaurant
2022.10.17. Northeast Chinese restaurant
Fried rice, frog legs, egg with Chives

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Fried rice, frog legs, egg with Chives

Shining Rainbow Restaurant - dimsum - Updated June 2026

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