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Opinions SHANGHAI PINE GARDENS RESTAURANT Newport Beach
Members' reviews on SHANGHAI PINE GARDENS RESTAURANT
4.2/5
26 reviews
Quality/Price ratio
Kitchen quality
Originality
Frame/Ambiance
Service
The ratings and reviews below reflect the subjective opinions of members and not the opinion of The Little Witty.
I highly recommend this place!
The service was excellent as well.
I was pleasantly surprised at just how delicious the food was and the quality of the food. I haven't really found a great Chinese restaurant, but now I have!
It's a bit pricey, but two things...
1.) You get what you pay for.
2.) You're on Balboa Island!
This place has been here since the early 1970s! So they must be doing something right! Right?
If you're in the area and want GREAT Chinese food... don't hesitate to go here!
Then, after you're done eating, you can go for a nice walk up and down the main street here on this quaint little island.
I also recommend going down the street and getting a Dad's ice cream bar! Yum! ????
Enjoy!
3 other tables that were all walk ins without reservations were served their food, paid and LEFT, before we even got 1 main dish. HOW.
The time between the soup and appetizer was another 25 minutes! We also ordered drinks, 4 times but they still did not bring them to the table, until we asked one of the bussing staff members to grab them for us.
It appeared that there was only one woman allowed to be taking orders. She did not know how to prioritize or organize at all. You could tell the kitchen was a mess, even with a limited xmas menu.
She forgot to place our order correctly with the kitchen also and came back to our table to take the order again, which was a very bad sign. They do not have an effecient system at all. If they can not handle their own dine in customers on a busy holiday they should also limit their take out to not overwhelm the kitchen. So many people were just standing around IN the restaurant waiting for their take out for a very long time. They also sat a table of 4 directly in front of a fire exit.
The dining experience was overall very uncomfortable.
The soup came out barely warmed, and the appetizer too. And the food following was mediocre. The Mapo tofu had no flavor (like a light soy sauce at best) not spicy and tasted nothing like what it's supposed to. The schezuan eggplant was also not spicy at all like the traditional dish. This place is more like American style Chinese food in case anyone was wondering what to expect.
On any other day we may have enjoyed this spot. But because of how neglected our table was I don't think we would come back. The woman was not friendly at all, no apology, almost like they didn't even notice we had been there for over an hour twiddling our hungry the thumbs at the table.
Overall, the food was just not anything special vs the price and dining experience.
By the way, they don't have Sriracha, which got me a little disappointed. So next time I'll bring my bucket of Sriracha.
Simple menu with great choices.
We did go two nights in a row.
The first night we had a nice table at the window. And our meal was served very fast. And delicious....
But that evening it seemed that everything to do with take out orders we a big shamble. Lots of unhappy customers and extremely long delays.
The second night we had made a reservation. And again our food was served promptly. And another delight.
Whenever back on Balboa Island we will have another meal (or two) here...