Shanghai Fresh

fantastic! Everything was phenomenal. Soup dumplings were nice and fat and full. You can tell it was hand made or at least very fresh because the skin had a nice starchy stickiness. Double cook pork was super flavorful and spicy and salty goodness. That’s my favorite as always. Duck was a little dry, but good portion Meat balls were new for me but fun and squishy and tender! But probably not my go to. That fried rice sure is something! The shape alone stands out so much. And the textural balance, they knew what they were doing. good balance of shape design, peas, cube ham piece, onion, great color balance too. And the seaweed crisp and dry pork floss was a great crisp mixture and framed the plate very nicely. Great interior decoration and authentic colors and materials and art. Service was wonderful, the waitress seemed very calm and kind!

For a quick late lunch, I stopped by Shanghai Fresh on a Thursday afternoon. The place was relatively empty so I received seating immediately. I ordered the 雪菜肉丝炒年糕 Stir Fried Rice Cake with Pork & Mustard Greens ($17.95). It wasn't too oily, and had extra strong wok hei / 鍋氣. That puts it above the random neighborhood Chinese restaurant's version. That said, the portion size was probably halved. The interior seemed well put together. The bronzed teapot looked a lot better than the beat up stainless steel sort. The complimentary salt and pepper peanuts cemented the details. Personally, I would like a larger portion size, but I think the price point and offering caters to a more modern sensibility.

Love their handmade noodles! Restaurant is very clean with great vegetarian selections!

Great shanghainese food! Loved the soup dumplings, duck noodles, and pan fried buns. On the weekend you can get youtiao +soy milk, which is so hard to find! A childhood favorite of mine. The noodles were great, freshly made. Authentic place!

Went in to pick up food there was a large table enjoying lunch. There were 2 dogs sitting at the table, it’s so disgusting seeing dogs in a restaurant. After picking up my order, which was delayed by 10-15 minutes, the older woman working had the audacity to put her hands on me. I don’t care who you are you don’t put your hands on anyone else.

I never had lunch here even though it is walking distance to where I work. Nice and clean space. I had ma po bean curd lunch special, which comes with 4 small side dishes -all delicious. The ma po bean curd actually contains a big portion of fish- pleasant surprise. Definitely will come again.

Ordered Takeout, so can't say much about the restaurant or service. It was well packaged and the food was good. The pork bao buns were soft and filled with pork, but without dipping sauce they can be a little bland. Sesame chicken was the best of all! Perfect balance of flavors. Not too sweet and the chicken was crispy! As for the braised beef noodle soup, it lacked the spice. The menu said it was spicy, but it was more in the bland side. Nothing some chilli Sesame oil can't fix though!

Party of 10: oct 2023 It was a nice experience. Food was flavorful although the dumplings are simpler and lacked texture. Rice had to be ordered on the side just in case yall want some. Tofu dish was mushy and spicy and I thought it was okay. Veggies were oily. They have a cute little free book shore of Chinese books for children and adults. If you bring cash its a 10% discount.

Wondered into Shanghai Fresh because Dumpling House was packed on a Friday night. There was no line at Shanghai Fresh and we were seated right away. The crowd was mostly youngsters in their 20s. The restaurant was decorated with food flyers and LED screens to reel their type of clientele in. I will say the dinner prices for most dishes ranged from $15-20 which I thought was a bit steep. But, the overall quality of the food was good! I would give this establishment a 4 for food and 3.5 for ambiance compared to Dumpling House. We ordered: 1.) Scallion Pancakes 2.) Bok choy 3.) Spiced duck 4.) Fried vegetable rice 5.) Pork soup dumplings The pork soup dumplings were ok. I've had better dumplings. They were a small and didn't have a lot of soup in them. The dumpling wrapper was also thicker. The spiced duck was phenomenal and I would come back here to order that dish again! The fried vegetable rice tasted homemade and delicious in its simplicity. I'm not from Shanghai and have never been to China or Taiwan. But, I do love Asian food and left this establishment satisfied. I wish the decor could be classed up a bit here though.

Came on a whim Fri night since so many restaurants nearby were full and had lines. We were able to be seated quite quickly. The food is decent/average. Nothing oustanding. Huge menu, portion sizes could be slightly bigger but they are not bad. There were only two wait staff so service was a tiny bit lacking. Ambience was fine - there were huge Chinese posters as wall paper and each table was topped with a stack of disposable table cloths that the staff could just take off to seat the next guests. I liked that they provided tea and peanuts at the start. Our favorite was definitely #121 I believe (one of the desserts) and the salt pepper fish filets were good too. The taro rolls were a lil disappointing because there were just two little ones.

The food was fresh and great quantity. It's a spacious restaurant and can sit big parties of 10 as well. The owner is a sweet lady who helps understand the menu and gives great suggestions.

I LOVE Shanghai-style pan-fried pork buns. Sadly, the buns here let me down. We ordered the pan-fried pork buns ($9.95), clay pot rice with sauteed pork and veggies ($12.95 M/$16.95 L), and beef in spicy broth ($18.95). The pan-fried pork buns came with 4 disappointingly small buns. The dough was thick and sweeter than I usually prefer. Inside each bun the portion of pork was TINY and not soupy at all! The clay pot rice was my favorite of the 3 dishes I tried. It had a nice balance of veggies and meat, and the rice kernels were chewy and fragrant. The dish could be taken to the next level if the clay pot was hot enough to crisp up the rice at the bottom. The beef in spicy broth was okay. It had a nice mala flavor to it but was absolutely drenched in oil. I felt that the same level of flavor and numbing spice could be achieved with less oil. The meat was very tender (almost toooooo tender). I've had much better clay pot rice on the west coast. I'd come back for the clay pot rice if I was desperate. However, I will stay away from the pan-fried buns.

I've been back to Shanghai Fresh a few times since my last review, and I think that it does deserve a slightly better review than my previous one; I did say that the quality of the food does indeed depend on which dishes you order, and I may have just been a bit unluckier last time. Some highlights since then have been the scallion sauce noodles, the braised pork belly with tofu knots (delicious sauce, juicy/tender meat, and extremely tasty tofu), and the various mapo tofu dishes - wonderfully spicy, and as an aside, I like getting the one with fish for some variety. The stir-fried beef cubes were also quite yummy (albeit a bit unevenly/overly salted), although definitely a bit too expensive for the portion size. On that note, the price point is definitely on the high end, even considering the neighbourhood as well as the general effects of inflation, which is really the main reason I don't come by as often :)

Came by for dinner late at night and had a great meal! Super friendly and attentive service and the food was delicious. My favorites were the beef noodle soup, mapo tofu, and the eggplants. All super flavorful and everything was affordable / reasonably priced. Will definitely come back when in Cambridge.

Came here on an early Friday evening and we were the only ones seated in the restaurant for a while. I brought my Shanghainese parents as they were in the mood for Chinese food and ultimately we weren't disappointed! The staff was kind and chatty knowing that people on our party could speak Mandarin. They gave various recommendations when the dishes we wanted weren't available and we were quite happy with the selections. My parents did mention that some of the dishes weren't authentically Shanghainese ( example being the sweet and sour ribs as they usually don't have fat on them when served Shanghai style ), but the flavor didn't disappoint in anything so it wasn't a huge deal to me or them. Our favorite dish was the crispy duck due to its portion size and flavor. Vegetable wise, the bokchoy was delicious and cooked really well. I honestly would order everything again if I could and the bubble tea was surprisingly decent given this isn't a tea shop that specializes in it. Our only issue was the fact that the staff was very difficult to flag down and the food took quite a long time to come out. Granted, as the night went on, more and more people were seated around us without much of an increase in staff. Nonetheless, we were left sitting for over an half hour at one point without any new dishes. Overall, we enjoyed our experience and wouldn't hesitate to come back if craving Chinese food. Definitely would recommend!

Granted I came on a semi-rainy day, but this restaurant felt really stuffy and hot with no circulation. The wait was 20 min long in a cramped area, and the waiters were all kind of unfriendly. Service was super slow. The food's flavors were all pretty good, though I think kind of marked up in price and portions were pretty small. The beef pancake was on the dryer side so personally wouldn't recommend. The salty egg yolk shrimp was pretty special in flavor but honestly a little pricy for maybe 8 shrimps. They charge $5 for 2 bowls of rice, have a minimum 18% tip on their device, and have overall high menu prices, so I felt like I was being charged for everything despite portions being ok and service being poor. Would recommend Mulan in Cambridge where it was cheaper and much better service

Decent but nothing to really write home about! I ordered a bento box as well as a entree portion of twice cooked pork via Uber eats. Food was definitely made to order as both items were piping hot when I received my order. Both items were on the greasy and salty side so definitely make some extra white rice or steamed veggies to go alongside your food.

Great Food and Great Service! Came with my family and friends, a party 10. It is recommended by my daughter, who lived around the neighborhood. This restaurant serves mainly Shanghainese cuisine, and we ordered some main dishes as Jumbo Shrimp In Egg Yolk Sauce, Rice Cake W Green Mustard, Shredded Pork W Hot Chili Pepper, Stir-Fried Eggplants In Yu-Xiang with Garlic Sauce, String Beans Braised In Brown Sauce, Rice with Sauteed Pork & Vegetable Hot Pot. Chef Specialty Seafood Soup and Oxtail Casserole are so delicious and must recommend. The dessert Fried Taro Egg Roll is first time to seen and tasty is pretty good. This restaurant is located in Cambridge, nearby Central Square Station and M.I.T. We will come back again soon.

Shanghainese friend recommended the place right before COVID hit so I've been itching to try it out. Finally got to check it out today, but was pretty underwhelmed. Got the xiao long bao (shanghai soup dumplings) and fried rice cakes with pork and preserved mustard. Firstly, I called to order and I think there was a miscommunication of some sort because I specified that I did not want the preserved mustard but was given it (and it's $1 extra for it too..). There's a $1.50 convenience fee if you order through their website though so I'd recommend trying to call and order (even though we were picking up!) and I think communication should be okay if you can speak Mandarin (which I can't hence the issue ordering). Anyways, onto the food.. The xiao long bao had good flavor and an okay amount of soup. I personally prefer my dumplings to be a little more soupy. The skin itself wasn't as thick as some places, but also wasn't particularly thin. I could see why this is ok for takeout as it ensures that the skin doesn't really rip when you have it in a plastic container, but ideally you'd want your XLB skin to be a bit thinner. The rice cake was chewy and had a good texture, but the dish itself was very oily and flavorless. The only flavor was in the pork and the rest of the dish just tasted lightly salted and oily. This was pretty surprising to me as there was an abundance of preserved mustard, so I would have at least thought that flavor would be stronger. Perhaps I just ordered the wrong dishes, but I don't think I'll be coming back anytime soon..

If you want to try authentic Shanghai food, then you can come to Shanghai fresh, especially recommend duck blood soup. I would recommend soy milk( only Saturday and Sunday) also the deep-fried dough sticks. Oxtail Casserole are so delicious and must recommend

I've lived in Cambridge for a while but I've never tried this place so a few friends and I decided to check it out one night. we walked in and the vibe was nice - they automatically gave you tea and water and the menu and ordering process is super quick. Service was efficient - not super over the top but it gets the job done. We got the chicken fried rice, bok choy and bean paste; and dumplings. All three were fine but lacked in flavor or depth - I would come here for some cheaper food options or late night emergency delivery, but not for a hearty and satisfying dinner. Overall a fine meal!

The exterior and interior are a little run down, but that's how you know it's going to be good. We came in after our original planned dinner place had too long of a wait time, but we were not disappointed. The sautéed green beans ($14 pretax tip) were savory and delicious, borderline too oily but that familiar restaurant style flavor. The home style tofu ($14, asked for less spicy) was a little sweet and spicy but mostly just comforting and warming and super saucy. Great balance of veggies and tofu, and the sauce just soaking everything. Rice is not included with dinner entrees and is $2 extra per bowl, which is a little annoying but standard at this point. We had enough leftovers to take home one meal's worth of veggies. All in all I would definitely recommend for a quick casual but yummy dinner.

It's easy to miss this place, as it has a small storefront in the middle of a busy part of central square and is only one of many Chinese restaurants in the area. However, it is an absolute treat to come here and enjoy some good southern Chinese food. The food is absolutely amazing, and fills a different niche than most of the other Chinese restaurants in the area. While other places compete on the classic dishes familiar to Americans (dumplings, beef and broccoli, kung pao chicken, etc), Shanghai Fresh has amazing noodle dishes from southern China. The ambiance is nice but a bit basic. The wait staff mostly just leaves you alone. It's on the pricier end, but it is worth it to enjoy some authentic and regionally specific delicacies.

This place is a gem in Central square! It's nested super close to life alive which I went to super often so I almost didn't come here before I graduated from MIT but made it out before graduation! Food: Everything is pretty good for a quick Chinese restaurant! I especially liked the cooked rice cakes and the pork belly and the red bean rice dessert. The food was light and easy on the stomach! Service: Food comes out fairly quickly! Ambiance: Super casual, the place is rather packed in terms of tables. Overall, a super solid Chinese place to go!

This was honestly super flavorful and really good for its price point. My friend and I got 4 dishes, and it only came to about $15 each before tip. We even had leftovers. That's super good, allowing you to really get a variety of items without breaking the bank. My friend and I got the following dishes: 1) Shanghai soup dumplings: The skin here was just thick enough that it's not too heavy, but still super easy to pick up without breaking the skin and losing that soup. The soup was kinda fatty, but that's expected with this haha. 2) The scallion pancakes: These weren't too salty or oily, which is so often the case at other restaurants! There's still scallion flavor, though. The relative lack of salt and oil made me feel like I was eating healthier than I actually was haha. 3) The Shanghai pan fried noodles with chicken: This was great! It was really flavorful and there were veggies in it too. 4) The mapo tofu: This was only mildly spicy, and goes really well with rice. There are mushrooms in it too, and what I think is celery, so there's a variety of things in the sauce. I really enjoyed what I had, and my friends and I were super full after our meal. I'll be back!

Glad they have a nice outdoor seating area! Unfortunately, the dishes we had were just not very good. Fish Head and Tofu Casserole (23.95$) was creamy and enjoyable, but had WAY too much pepper. Also, a lot more radish than I expected, though that wasn't necessarily a negative, but it did feel a little like bulking it out with cheaper ingredients. Pan Fried Buns (9.95$) was only four very tiny buns, with not much flavor and very dry. Yu-Xiang Eggplants (13.95$) were lovely and purple, but the insides of the eggplants were flavorless, and the sauce wasn't very tasty. Sauteed String Bean (12.95$) had great flavor, though on the salty side, but the bits of seasoning that look like might be pork bits are just pieces of salt! A trap. White rice is 2.50$ for a very small bowl. I am really disappointed, as pre-pandemic this was my go-to restaurant in the area. I'll probably give them another try or two, out of residual hope.

送娃上学 每次必吃 餐馆换了个名字 差点认不出来了 烤麸有点干 葱油拌面里没有开洋 ... 反正每个菜都能 挑出毛病 但我仍然很喜欢 我记忆中的 家常味儿 最温暖的亲情 就是无论你是什么样子 做什么工作 我都辣么爱你 辣么舍不得你 因为 你是我的孩子 长岛彭于晏吟诗一首： 年年迎送何时休 车船接力似水流世上若无路南北 亲人不必各东西 人生路漫漫 我想和你 一起 慢慢走

Just keeping it short and sweet. They used to have the best home style Shanghainese food and now everything is oily saucy and salty. Yes, everything dish taste the same. Given food tasted/looked completely different now This restaurant is probably under new management (the lady on the phone denied). I was so exited to order from them again after a long 6 month, but as soon as I opened the take out boxes, I knew it's not the same anymore. Not to mention they packed one of the dish wrong. Major disappointment.

Hands down, one of my absolute worst dining experiences in a very, very long time. It's not even close. It seems either the kitchen staff or management/owner completely changed because nothing about it is remotely even close to what it was before. The food is uncultured and unauthentic, catered toward a certain crowd that's not looking for real & delicious Chinese food. The food is borderline inedible. The soup dumplings are the frozen prepackaged ones that you'd get at the supermarket (google Prime Foods Soup Dumpling). No exaggeration here and Don't get me wrong, they're tasty when you have nothing left to make at home, but it's an insult to have to pay $10 for 6 measly frozen soup dumplings. It's further salt on the wound because soup dumplings are heavily associated with Shanghai, so it's the last place one would expect to have frozen dumplings! It would be equivalent to walking into an Italian restaurant and being served a DiGiorno's pizza. The next dish Braised Beef Noodles....holy mother of pearl, I wouldn't serve this dish to my worst enemy. They poured some boiled water, pickled veggies, random noodles (not the typical egg noodle), random bok choy, and separately cooked braised beef poured on top. There was no hearty broth, again it was just like boiled water with some additives. Yuxiang Pork with steamed buns. Over sauced, very little pork meat and a ton of filler wood ear mushrooms and bamboo. Yuck. Beef cubes with asparagus and mushroom. Asparagus is old, the texture is chewy and rough. They used a shit ton of corn starch to tenderize the beef, so much so that the beef lost its texture. We only finished about 30% of the food due to hunger, but had to stop because it was just inedible. The owner/manager stopped by to check on things and I had indicated to her that the food was not good, she quickly apologized and left, almost like she was aware that the food sucked and got called out on it. You'd think that the owner/manager would want to hear feedback on what exactly went wrong, but her quick escape was an obvious sign of avoidance. Even she was ashamed of the food. What a travesty, do yourself a favor and avoid this joint. It is not Shanghainese and no way in hell is it Fresh.

Very hit or miss, depending on what you order. What keeps bringing me back is their weekend brunch offering of fresh hot soy milk and Youtiao (Chinese fried dough). It's certainly a great place to grab these traditional Chinese breakfast items. The best non-breakfast dish I've had is definitely the stir-fried rice cake. The winter melon soup was also well done. Other dishes have been generally disappointing, with bland flavors, tough meat, and some food tasting outright stale. In particular, the potstickers tasted suspiciously like reheated frozen dumplings from HMart next door. Overall, I'll probably be back for the soy milk and rice cakes, but not much else.

Just an ok place, do not think I will come back again in the future. Parking: it is hard to find a parking lot in front of the restaurant, but behind the building, there are a lot of available street parking spots. Decoration: I think it is very nice Serve: servers are very nice and friendly, but the tea does not taste very good. They finished our order very fast so we do not need to wait for a long time (might be because we were the only table at that point) Food: so this place said it is a Shanghai cuisine restaurant, and shanghai cuisine is my bf's favorite food. However, they are definitely overpriced for their ok taste. Beef cubes with mushroom蜜椒牛子粒: I have to say this is the most delicious dish for what we ordered, but it is way too little for $18.95！The beef was juicy, and the mushroom also tasted amazing with the sauce. Soup dumplings小笼包: one of the most famous Shanghai dishes, and it only charged me $8.95. The skin of the dumpling is not thick, and the meat inside tasted very nice. The only problem is it does not have enough soup inside. But i think this is the only food that I may reorder in this store. Lion heads狮子头, rice cakes with pork荠菜肉丝炒年糕, sweet rice dumpling糯米烧麦 were ok, not amazing but not bad. With the food above, we spent around $60 for this lunch. An expensive lunch for ok food.

I regret not looking more into the recent reviews of this sorry excuse for a restaurant (and probably should've seen it as a red flag when a previous customer was arguing with the waitress and left their food untouched), but I was tired and hungry and anything would've sufficed at that point. Anyone who has had only Panda Express as a point of reference would know that this ain't Shanghai and this ain't fresh. Low quality food, fine, what can you do. But the series of events that followed the oversalted pea sprouts and tasteless fried rice was just absurd and hard to describe as anything other than blatant robbery. 1. Order of wonton noodle soup was incorrect, the bowl arrived with wonton and no noodles. I asked the short haired waitress and she pretended to go back into the kitchen to check on something then proceeded to ignore me. Called the long haired waitress over and she was pleasant and patient, graciously offering to correct the order. 2. Wonton noodle soup arrived and at this point we're already more than halfway done with all the other dishes. Split open a wonton and saw what I was dreading and half expecting based on the food quality: RAW MEAT. Please just cancel my order and get me off this wild ride. Long haired waitress again graciously complied and apologized. 3. Short haired waitress, clearly seeing us as a nuisance trying to get a free meal (sorry I can't eat your raw food???), shoves the check in our face without us even asking for it. 4. Check was incorrect, charging us $19.45 for the pea sprouts that were $12.95 in the menu and an additional dollar added to the xiao long bao out of pure spite I guess. Thinking it would be quite simple to correct this (maybe not so honest) mistake, I tried speaking with the long haired waitress. Short haired waitress swooped in, loudly said that they changed prices in September, then showed me a DIFFERENT menu with the price BLACKED OUT. What is that supposed to prove? Do they just have this fake menu readily available to scam customers who notice discrepancies in the check? I ended up just paying and leaving, upset with my appetite lost. Short haired waitress, please find a job not in the service industry. Long haired waitress, I'm sorry you have to work with her and thank you for being the only positive thing from this absolutely ruined dinner.

Came here for Friday lunch during work. I had a Chinese friend, so it was nice she could choose Shanghai's special dishes. We had wild veggie, bone removed duck filled with eggs, Shanghai soup dumplings, gluten, Shanghai cabbages, crispy fried fish, and rice. Everything was tasty!!! Quick service. We arrived at 11:45 which was perfect because we could beat the crowd.

Great lunch specials list for the work week! The combo comes with soup, a small appetizer and an entree. I ordered the egg drop, one chicken wing and chicken/eggplant. It was really good and you get a lot of variety. The eggplant was a good sauce for the white rice that is included. Next time I would get the 2 deep wonton instead of the chicken wing.

This is a quite decent Chinese food restaurant but not a very good Shanghainese food one, even the chef claims to be a chef worked in a famous hotel in Shanghai. We had marinated wheat gluten, wild veggie and tofu salad, braised pork belly with tofu skin knot, fish fillet with wine sauce, and Shanghai traditional pork soup with bamboo shoot. All the dishes we ordered are typical Shanghainese ones and the tastes of the food we had are far from real Shanghainese dishes. Quite disappointed but it is not a bad Chinese restaurant.

The food is so authentic here! My friends were introduced to the restaurant by a colleague from Shanghai. We went with their favorite- the shredded pork with bamboo shoots, in a soft bun. Delicious :D- sweet (from the bun), and savory. For the second main, we got the mapo tofu and fish hot pot. The fish was a welcome addition to the spicy soft tofu, as it had a similar texture, but brought another delicate flavor to the dish. We also got the cold vegetable appetizer, which had clear noodles in it, and came shaped like a pyramid-which was cool. The soup dumpling came out a little later- and must have taken longer to make. They're piping hot- I like to make a hole in the top to let out the steam, and add the sauce and some chili before eating. Quite tasty! Be ready for the spicy peppers, in a meal here- the flavor stays with you, and is unique.

Wild Veggie bean curd is always my favorite dish. They have it here. In addition, Shanghai smoked fish was properly sweet and marinated nicely. The soy sauce did not cover the fresh taste. Duck leg with salt egg yolk inside was very outstanding. The course was creative and the egg yolk provided the salty taste for the duck meat. Delicious! Baos were juicy and tender. Simply love them. As for the service, our server was polite and professional. More importantly she is cute ;)

Has typical but also some interesting Shanghainese dishes. The Shepherd's purse vegetable mixed with dried tofu bits was presented in a heart shaped form. The Shanghainese marinated duck was also authentic. The kao fu sauce was good but the pieces were too large and chewy. The distiller's grains marinated yellow croaker fish was the interesting dish. The meatball was too lean.

I would choose no star if I can. The dish is not authentic, which is fine to me. But the attitude of their service is terrible not to mention the dirty environment. All the plate they use is oily disgusting. I will never come here ever in my life.

The other day I ordered the chive dumpling dish. And when the dumpling was brought out, I instantly recognize they are the same as those frozen dumpling that is sold in any Chinatown supermarket (those $7 for a big bag). Come on, if I want to eat that, I can grab 10 bags from Chinatown, I don't need to come to your restaurant. This is cheating.

Ubereats has much higher ratings for this place, so I ordered based on those ratings. Next time I'll make sure to look at the yelp reviews first! Ordered soup dumplings and the homestyle tofu bento box. Food was -on the cheaper side- which was nice, but I didn't like the food, so it wasn't even worth it. The soup dumplings, while they had good flavor, didn't have any soup. They were juicy (i.e. the filling wasn't dry), but they weren't soupy. They also didn't come with vinegar (which was fine since I have some, but just an fyi). They wrapper was a bit doughy/gummy (though the meat was fully cooked, thankfully). The homestyle tofu bento box... Not good at all. There was no spice, not even a hint, but it was very salty. There was no other flavor, not even soy sauce flavor, all I could taste was salt. I only had a few bites and couldn't finish it. It came with green beans and edamame, half an egg, and white rice. Super bummed.

Shanghainese food in the area is becoming more common, but Shanghai Fresh stands out because of it's level of quality and fresh decor. We came just as it opened for dinner and good thing we did: it got crowded in a flash afterward. The stir-fried rice cake with pork and shepherd's purse was one of the better ones I've had. It wasn't too oily or salty, yet savory and filled with wok flavor. The rice cake had pretty good texture, as it wasn't clumpy or hard, but chewy. The shredded chicken wraps were fresh and flavorful, without being too greasy or salty. The wraps were dainty and delicate, but not sticky. The stir-fried spinach was, again, not greasy nor was it watery. I definitely thought it was a good vegetarian option. The fish filet soup with tofu and pickled napa cabbage was a surprise to me, in that it had the right balance of savory and tangy. I thought I'd be drinking hot vinegar, but it wasn't too sour at all. The chicken with chestnuts eliminated any chance this spot had for a 5-star. It was too salty and lacked any personable flavor. It was almost as if dish was three cups chicken with a few chestnuts. Btw, both aren't worth it at a Taiwanese/Shanghainese restaurant...but that's a different discussion. Another thing that does preclude the restaurant from a perfect score: portions. For the price paid, the portions were a little on the stingy side. Service was generally competent and polite. I don't expect exquisite service at most Chinese restaurants (save for upscale ones). It's a little tight in here, but the higher ceilings kinda help out the claustrophobic department.

I think the kitchen ran out of soy sauce and started using vinegar. I doubt it, because that's insane, but so was the level of vinegar-ness in everything we were served. We got the woodear mushroom salad which was, no joke, mushrooms in vinegar soup. We also got the soup dumplings which were pretty good except they were served with, you guessed it, vinegar. We also got the ma po tofu which was (luckily) not vinegar-y, but instead flavorless. It tasted like they had just poured a pot of water into what otherwise might have been a tasty dish. I don't think you're supposed to eat ma po tofu with a spoon. We didn't, really, because it was bad. It's more like Shanghai not-so-Fresh. I mean, actually, it was probably fresh, it just wasn't good. Shanghai not-so-good.

Stay away!!! Its anything but fresh. I ordered chicken and broccoli and its super oily. Its sad when take-out places do it way better than this place. Also orderd chicken wings and they were cold. Everything came out fast, too fast. Waitresses are rude and not friendly. You can here them talking with the kitchen more than the music and others in the restaurant.

the first time i went there was good. the 2 next times, bad food quality. wont go again

Nice little Shanghai restaurant! Let me preface this review by saying I'm not an expert on Shanghai food. I went with a friend who is more familiar with Shanghai food, and she speaks pretty well of it. Food: I got the weekend brunch specials Chinese fried dough (you tiao) and sweet soy bean milk. Also the wild veggie and bean curd and traditional Shanghai soup (S1). Everything was delicious, and nice to have the fried dough and soy bean milk especially. The wild veggie and bean curd portion was especially smaller than I thought -- it's about the size of the palm of your hand. Definitely a small appetizer shared between 2 people at most. Atmosphere: The space is on the cramped and small side, moderate noise. 20 min wait for 2 people during Saturday lunch. Service: Food arrived in a timely fashion. Polite servers. Nice hot tea. Not much more you can ask for. Would recommend!

So happy Shanghai Fresh is finally back! Our fav Shanghainese restaurant in Boston area! It was always so packed before but it did not stop me from getting into the line. As a Shanghainese, I can always find the very authentic ingredients here and they are all processed very nice. The COVID menu includes most of their signature dishes and they even offer a free boba with a noodle dish. (Their free spicy oil tastes so nice and fresh tho I don't usually eat spicy food) Will definitely come over again soon! PS: They also offer some extra options outside this shortened COVID menu so call them beforehand to check!

Came in with tempered expectations after reading some of these reviews, but we were so pleased by the food! We got the pan fried pork buns, sweet and sour pork, rice cakes with shepherds purse, and braised duck noodles. We were blown away by the braised duck noodles -- cooked to perfection and pull-apart tender duck! Similarly the shepherds purse rice cakes were savory, soft, and delicious. The other ones were good too, but the standout was the duck. Definitely coming back again!

Just ate dinner here with my husband and it was great. There was a line to the door when we got there, but it only took 15 mins to get seated. We had excellent service with 4 different people helping with our table. The food was delicious. I ordered the scallion pancakes and the sesame chicken and I couldn't eat it fast enough. I wasn't sure what to think when I heard pancakes, but they were so tasty. I definitely recommend ordering some of those for an appetizer. It was also nice that you get a pot of tea when you are seated to start. Everyone was also very friendly. I would definitely be back if I lived here.

For a first time visit, I thought this place was solid! As a party of 2, we ordered the house fried rice, double-cooked pork slices with veggie, and siu mai (*note this is not your typical shumai that you get for dim sum but filled only with steamed sweet rice, dried baby shrimp, pork, maybe mushrooms like what you'd get in the traditional lotus leaf*). Food came out pretty quickly, after we were served hot tea. The fried rice comes with dices of chicken breast, ham, shrimp (cleanly deveined!), egg, peas. It's important to me that the fried rice wasn't too oily or drenched in soy sauce-- done right. Double-cooked pork belly thinly sliced is in a black bean sauce with chili- not too spicy. Nice blend of shiitake, green bell pepper, bamboo shoots, and cabbage. Siu mai was the only dish that surprisingly took a while to come out, nearly at the mid-to-end point of our meal... and it wasn't exactly what we were expecting but still tasty nonetheless! The servers were attentive without being too over-the-shoulder and polite.

Came here on a Saturday morning to catch their Shanghainese breakfast. I ordered two of the core elements to any Shanghainese breakfast - youtiao (fried dough) and soy milk (I got mine sweet). Both were solid but not great. Would have like the youtiao to be crispier and larger in portion size. I ended up having to order two because one simply isn't enough. The disappointment came with the steaming spicy beef coated with rice. After reading the reviews on Yelp I was expecting a truly authentic dish worth the $12.95 it was for the small size. It tasted ok, but definitely not authentic. Was also way to salty for my taste. At the end of the day, the food was decent but not worth coming back with so many other options.

I've been wanting to check out Shanghai Gate since forever, so I popped into Shanghai Fresh in Central Square. Yeah, that made sense... *head shake* The dining space here isn't huge, so I was pleased to see a few additional tables along the hallway beyond the mini room divider. They don't seat incomplete parties here, so it becomes sort of a game of Bingo to see who would walk through the door, and which party would get to be seated next. Most of the diners were Asian that night, which to us boded well. I so wanted to try their Pig's Knuckle and Baby Cabbage Braised in Brown Sauce, but it was $19.95, and looked huge - maybe if 3 shared this and one veggie? But I really wanted to try the rice cake here, so instead the 3 of us ordered: Shanghai Steamed Pork Buns $6.25 (their version of the Xiao Long Bao, served 6 to the order, okay but nothing special) Golden Fried Marinaded Fish Fillet $11.95 (basically fish fingers, but tender and moist) Rice Cake with Pork $9.50 (perhaps my favorite iteration of the chewy cakes, though the portion was a bit lite for the price) Yu Xiang Pork $11.95 (Yu Xiang Shredded Pork, Bamboo Shoots and Wood Ear Mushroom, Served with Steamed Buns) cause we wanted steamed buns. This was tasty, but dancing along the edge of too spicy for this girl. It was a good meal. Generally their dishes are smaller in size than your typical Chinatown establishment, which may explain why they opened up shop out here in Central Square instead.

Love going to Shanghai Fresh for a great lunch deal. I've been several times and have grown to really like their lunch specials which you can order a main dish that comes with rice, a choice of soups between sweet and sour and some egg and corn one as well as a choice of appetizers between a chicken wing or crab ragoons. I always go for the crab Rangoon's and the egg and corn soup which are really tasty. For a main dish I like to choose between the eggplant and chicken in garlic sauce as well as general gaos. I've tried their other chicken options which are great. Other highlights - their meatball, their minced meat and greens cold dish, as well as their mapo dofu. Overall a great place for a quick lunch and could also be a good place for dinner though there is often a line.

I stopped by Shanghai Fresh to place a take-out order. I ordered the sweet and sour pork and I remembered to order a side of white rice since it seems to be a common thing in Cambridge not to include white rice with orders of meat entrees. The order was quickly prepared after placing my order. While the flavor was good I was disappointed on how soggy the pork was. I expected it to be crispy if it was freshly fried so it was hard to tell if it was fresh or just not well prepared. Overall I prefer other take-out places in the area.

If you around town and kind of in the mood for mediocre Shanghainese Chinese food than stop by. I ordered sweet & sour baby ribs, mushroom & gluten hotpot, rice cakes and jelly fish with cucumber. None of the dishs I had that authentic Shanghainese flavor. 1. Sweet & sour baby ribs - Was dry like cardboard and flavor was very bland. 2. Mushroom & gluten hotpot - Overly sweet and should be using dried hydrated shitake mushrooms instead of button mushrooms. 3. Rice cakes - tasted like Kung Po chicken dish at an American Chinese food fast food place. (This is not how Shanghai rice cakes should taste like at all. 4. Jelly fish with cucumber - I took one bite of the cucumber and it taste like premade sweet and sour mix from a supermarket. I didn't even want to try the Jelly fish. I always believe in 2nd chances and I'll go back there again sometime. I'm basing my opinion actually trying these dishes in Shanghai and both my parent are from Shanghai.

Shanghai Fresh is a popular restaurant near Central Square, and offers authentic Shanghainese cuisine. The space inside is small and there is often a waiting line during dinner hours. We had to share a table the couple of times we were here for dinner. But the food was authentic and the price was good.

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!