Shanghai Tea Garden

Honestly the best Chinese in anchorage. We had a few different dumplings and mapo tofu. It’s a little slow, but it can be excused because it’s on the spot. The food was phenomenal. Straight up. Will absolutely be back. I recommend the xiao long baos and spicy wontons!!!

I had never been to the restaurant before. I was excited for dim sum. I placed an online to-go order. I arrived well after the pick up time to find they had not even started prepping the food. The fact I had to wait 35 minutes honestly isn’t even the issue. The issue is: this place is incredibly dirty. The restaurant itself was completely cluttered with what looked like spoiled food in their fridge. One of the employees had their charging phone resting in the stack of to-go boxes. The same boxes they then grabbed to pack my food. I honestly didn’t even want to eat any of the food once seeing the place and seeing a bacteria covered iPhone resting in to-go boxes. Against my better judgment - I tried some of the dumplings. The sesame balls were saturated in oil. The “pan fried” buns were barely fried - just steamed. The rest of the stuff I sampled was honestly pretty gross- but maybe I was just totally turned off by actually seeing the conditions of the restaurant. I won’t be back.

Walked in to dine in did see sign to seat yourself but seats that had no one were either dirty or said reserved. Waited 10 min for a server or anyone who works here and when I did finally see someone it was a women who looked at me and rolled her eyes. Needless to say will never go back. I get having a rough day but if you give me attitude let me have done something to deserve it.

Went there today with the goal of ordering a cake. Walked in and was met with rolling eyes from the lady behind the counter after asking one question. I noticed a bakery area to the side with a glass display for their desserts but the display had no baked goods but instead a large can of red bean paste with growing mold. I do not recommend this location as it presented itself to lack customer service and the ability to follow food service guidelines. One star because zero is not possible.

Real authentic Chinese food. Very delicious!! Depending on what you order it might take a little while to get your food. But the wait is totally worth it!

Nice place. Great service. Food was very good. Had broccoli beef and cashew chicken. Both were good.

Dessert take out! Very very satisfy! Call ahead to order! We ordered red bean bread, coconut bread, green bean tart, pineapple tart! We love it all!

First time trying and i'm definitely coming back. Great comfort food for me being from SoCal, and this reminded me of food i'd get there. The takoyaki was on point!

Wow! We've been sleeping on Shanghai Tea Garden. Ordered spicy wonton, xiao long bao, sesame chicken, and Mongolian beef. The spicy wonton was crispy garlicky chili goodness, best eaten with a spoon, and keep the sauce to add to rice, other dim sum, anything really. The xiao long bao was a soup dumpling - careful not to burn your mouth and let it cool a few minutes - or use the spoon technique and puncture with your chopsticks. Speaking of, the chopsticks are terrible, aka garbage sticks - bring your own. Sesame chicken was incredible, you could tell hand breaded and juicy perfectly fried goodness and the delicious sauce you know and love. Mongolian beef was good, not too sweet with a mild hint of curry. Thai tea was not good, too much milk and not enough tea. Maybe a fluke. Service was on point, no complaints. Funny there were two huge tables of Southern China Air staff directly imported for dinner! Will be back! So many other things on the menu I want to try.

Food was everything I hoped it would be. Unfortunately I loved it and my husband hated it. If you like traditional Chinese-American food (General Tso) this place is not for you. But if your like me, and you like mom and pop restaurants and are willing to wait for the real thing- you're in for a treat. I ordered several varieties of dimsum all great; a scallion pancake - terrible, don't recommend and an INCREDIBLE spicy Eggplant entree. It was out of this world. I probably would trip an old lady for it, it was that good.

I came here last week intending on having a relaxing dinner and enjoying the evening. However.......I felt very underwhelmed by both the service and the actual taste of the food. When I first discovered this restaurant a year and a half ago, it was quaint and quiet and the food was delicious. I give 3 stars because I could see that the staff was overwhelmed with one large table and some pick up orders. That's fine....I assumed they were playing catch up....the problem I had was the attitude, as if I was bothering them by being there...and the food, Mongolian Chicken, which once it came out 35 mins later, tasted like it was 2 days old, heated up in the microwave. With the amount of money they, and all restaurants, are charging for dinner $25 to $40 with tip....I expect the quality to be the best that it can be. That's not to say that maybe it was a bad night....but now I'm hesitant to go back because I'm disappointed in the quality of food, service and overall experience.

Nice place. Great service. Food was very good. Had broccoli beef and cashew chicken. Both were good.

We really enjoyed our meal! Everything we ordered had great flavor and presentation and was so reasonably priced. We're going to be back!

Hidden gem! Came right after work with hubs. Great and delicious authentic Chinese food! The dim sum was perfect! Reasonable prices for the quality of the dishes. Service was prompt and friendly. We sat ourselves in one of the booths and were greeted with waters and menus quickly. My only criticism was the wait for the food however.. took perhaps 40+ minutes for the main entrees to come out-- but hey! It was worth it. So I recommend ordering appetizers/dim sum as they come out quicker. The menu is big and I wish I had a larger appetite today to try out more. Everything we ordered was fragrant (chinese 5 spices notable in the dragon meets phoenix) and flavorful! Equal amount of chicken to shrimp and veggies in a savory sauce. Hubs ordered the braised duck. The Dim Sum was inhaled-- i suggest ordering the xiao long bao with piping hot soup inside! Oh! And the ladies room? Clean and-- hello smart bidet! What a plus. Coming back with more of the family for sure and ordering a cake too!

I was really looking forward to trying this place, ordered a variety of things to go. Order took nearly an hour and it was underwhelming. None of the dishes tasted like they were seasoned, even the dipping sauce for the egg rolls had no flavor lol

We used to go to this place when it was also a pizza place. I wouldn't say it was the best Chinese I've ever had, but it was pretty good. Well they have a different name now, and it's also a Bakery, and they have Dim Sum!! I can't believe i did not try Xiao Long Bao, which I've always wanted to try - well, i say I've always wanted to try them, i tried them one time at "another place" and they were definitely NOT a soup dumpling. Well these are looking much more promising and i know i will get them at some point. I've taken off a star for the time we had to wait. We did an online order, which said it would be ready at 6.14. We were there at 6.15, and it wasn't ready till 6.40, by which time, my stomach is touching my spine with hunger. I order scallion pancakes from the Dim Sum menu, husband ordered 8 piece Gyoza. He also got a bowl of Egg Drop Soup, and i got Beef Fried Rice. We ate in-vehicle, as we have done for most of the pandemic, and we were given utensils, and napkins. I am getting to the stage where i fear I'm not going to get them, because so many times, we have not. Fortunately, i always carry a handy set of metal cutlery in a case (from Amazon, cheap and very useful) so, depending which vehicle we're in, we may not have plastic forks in the glove box. But I'm always armed with my handy box of metal cutlery regardless. Anyway, that wasn't an issue last night. So, let's start with the scallion pancakes, because I've made these before, and mine were delicious. These were not horrible, but they were a bit stodgy, despite being thin. They tasted floury. Not horrible, but i thought my own tasted better. But the Beef Fried Rice is delicious, and there is a huge amount. I couldn't even eat half of it. And only ate one pancake as well. So i have leftovers. Husband ate all his gyoza, i had one, so i can report that they were delicious and juicy, freshly made gyoza. I had gotten in the habit of going to the grocery store and ordering a dish, with maybe sesame chicken, fried rice, and a couple of gyoza. I got used to that standard, so actual freshly made gyoza, and fried rice really opened up my taste buds again. He said his soup was good, but i don't really rate egg drop soup. To me it's just a thing you usually get a cup of, when you get a combo meal - part of the whole, not a standalone dish. But he orders a bowl often. Again, a huge amount. On the whole, 4 stars, and i will go back, because i absolutely have to try Xiao Long Bao. Sorry no pictures, but it was very dark, and i was too hangry by then to fumble around looking for my phone, faff around with the settings, and take some pics.

Just excellent food! Arrived later 8pm and was served quickly and efficiently. Food - curries - were excellent, service good and ambience simple yet tasteful. Will go again.

We came on a Friday night at around 6:15. There were five of us. Seat yourself, with only a three booths and 4 tables. There was only 1 server and not sure how many people in the kitchen maybe two. We ordered a couple entrees and three apps. They come out as sharing plates so you could just order one entree for two people really. The chicken was pounded and breaded on some kind of tempura flake. More of a Japanese style of cooking it but it kinda makes the chicken tough and hard to eat especially with the pieces being so big. Not a lot of sauce for the sweet and sour. We waited an hour for all of our food to come. The apps did come out a few minutes before all the entrees. Every table except one of the big ones had people and we did order a lot of food. Also in the restaurant they had a case that they serve baked goods but they didn't have any then. They also sell a few knick knack Japanese type items like chopsticks, candy, other random things. Food was decent I wouldn't get the chicken again but maybe try the chow mein if we were to come back.

I don't know what to say. They were doing really well for a while, food was great but we were so badly let down for our last take out meal. Ordered the Mongolian Beef. In the container were 3-4 small slices of beef, the rest was onions. Onions everywhere. The container was stuffed with onions smothered in hoisin sauce. It was not pleasant. One of our other go-to dishes, the Sesame chicken, was insanely sweet. Also, pretty sure the chicken are frozen nuggets from the store. Pretty disappointed with the meal. I will say this, they were very busy and seemed overwhelmed. Not an excuse for poor food, however it should be noted that this won't be our last time ordering from them. We'll give it some time, order it again, and see what happens.

The food is excellent. but the waitress who served me is not friendly. There are only 2 waitresses who work there. The staff who does bakery is very kind and friendly, but unfortunately I rarely had her to serve me. The other waitress who served me most of the time seems to carry a preconceived attitude whenever she's around me. She acts as if I'm a stalker ready to harass her. What a shame! Maybe she had bad experiences of creepy customers who had harassed her before but it is still not fair to assume that on anyone! I'm a dignifed man! I'm a decent man. I hate anybody assuming anything about me. She overcharged me on something I did not order. This woman has ruined my mood for more than 2 days after the experience. Here is my advice to that waitress. Watch the video below and learn from it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKhOsVofagM

We ordered from there tonight. The portions are huge and the food takes time because it is made to order. We had the kung pao combo meal and the sesame chicken combo. You get a huge portion of fried rice, egg flower soup, six gyoza, sauce and entree for 17.95! That is an amazing value. I don't normally write reviews but the food was that good. That is the best Chinese food I have ever had in Anchorage.

I came down here a few days ago to order some takeout after a long work day. Shanghai Tea Garden, formerly known as Jewel Lake Pizza and Tea Garden, is located off of Jewel Lake Rd. and Dimond Blvd. next to Northrim Bank and across from Carrs. They are currently doing take out and delivery only even though restaurants are now allowed to have limited dine-in for customers. They have made paying more convenient by offering online ordering through their website or paying over the phone and picking up your order at a table propped up behind the front door. I decided to order the Basil Chicken off their selection of Chef's Specials (chicken sauteed with onions, fresh basil, garlic, bean sprouts, and carrots). Pickup estimate was about 30 minutes during the dinner rush which wasn't that long and very convenient since I still had to get some groceries across the street at Carrs to pass the time. Once I arrived, I got my order at the front door and settled in the car to eat. The Basil Chicken was fantastic with plenty of sliced chicken breast along with a generous amount of sauteed onions and fresh garlic that made this one of the best Chinese dishes I've had recently. The bean sprouts was an excellent substitute for noodles making this a healthy, low carb option without the rice. There are other interesting menu options to try, some that raised my eyebrows which includes the Shanghai Tomato Scrambled Eggs (tomatoes, eggs, and green onions), the Shrimp Mona Mona (bamboo shoots, pineapple chunks, green peppers, and water chestnuts), Daifuku (an Oreo sandwich topped with fruit and tiramisu flavoring and fresh cream with mascarpone cheese on the inside), and the Mongolian Chicken Pizza.....yes...you read that right. It is their Mongolian Chicken with onions, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, mushrooms, and green onions cooked with hoisin sauce on top of a pizza! I don't think I have been to any place here or in the Lower 48 that makes this kind of dish.

I came in with a group of 5 and everyone enjoyed their food. I had the Mongolian Beef combo and I plan on going back for more. As other reviews have said, food may come out in stages; our orders took about 45 minutes to arrive. The cooking demonstration on the screen had a few of us entranced at times. I'm so glad I was introduced to this place!

Went in on a Saturday. There were only two other tables with people. Took forever to get any service. Any water. Then took forever to get our food. Food came out at different times so one person was pretty much done with her meal by the time anyone else got their entrees. To top it off, everyone we went out to eat dinner with ended up with some form of food poisoning, including our toddler who was throwing up a few hours later. The only same thing that we all had was the egg drop soup. Not sure if it was that but we are paying for it. Hoping they will give us our money back.

We ordered after looking at the menu listed on here. We live close by so instead of using the delivery service, we drove by and picked it up in the time they provided. The wait was minimal. Maybe 1-3 minutes after I arrived and paid. The inside is really clean. My kind of spot! It smelled amazing in there. We hurried home anxiously and excitedly smelling the food the whole way. We ordered the Mongolian beef pizza and the combination special. We also ordered the crab wonton. The crab wonton I assumed was like a crab Rangoon with just cream cheese and not one bit of crab. Instead it was an actual crab wonton. Very tasty. Imitation crab, but hey it works. The Mongolian beef pizza although tasty, was very messy. It is definitely strange, but it tastes amazing. It's incredibly messy. I thought they would use the sauce in place of pizza sauce and top it with cheese the beef and veggies. No. It's more like a baked pizza crust(ours was severely burnt on the bottom). Then cheese and fresh Mongolian beef. Sauce veggies and all. Very strange, but again very good. The combination special Pizza was also very good. We had to pick almost all the sausage off because it was raw in the middle, but otherwise very good. Both of the pizzas had toppings including cheese and sauce just falling off and dripping. They were both extremely messy, but the flavor was so good I'm willing to use a fork and knife. I'll definitely be back for Chinese food next time!!

Delicious food! Reasonably priced. Our go to for Chinese food in Anchorage. Nothing fancy in the service and ambiance areas, but clean space and friendly service.

This sweet space is really coming into it's own. There is a distinct peaceful atmosphere established upon entering. Humble dining area. Gentle music or calming videos are played for entertainment. The menu has developed into an array of distinctively delicious dishes created out of what can only be described as Love. I am thankful this place exists, and my husband and I will happily revisit (hopefully) for years to come.

Ordering for delivery! They don't deliver! Ordered a number four dinner, no longer available. Vegetable chow mien, no crunchy noodles on the side. Just ordering was disappointing. can only hope the food will be worthwhile. Miss the old owners. Alwa spot on. New owners don't seem to have a grip of what they're doing! I'm

Takoyaki was hard, tasted old perhaps, need to soften more before cooking. Sesame balls was too greasy but good. A little pricey than other Chinese restaurants. Sadly, only open for a short time, just for supper/dinner. And closed on Sundays. Hopefully, they'll bring back our Favorite, 'Breaded Almond Chicken', used to be the Best one in Town. They sell different flavored buns, just gotta try it. Dessert are not always available, usually out most of the time. We love the Date Tea, but not enough serving, anyways.

Waitstaff was friendly had excellent memories. Service in general is slow and food comes out in stages with long waits between next plate. Spicy wontons we're wayyyyyy tooo spicy but tasty!! I would definitely return for more dim sum!! They were out of buns so would like to try those. All dipping sauces were amazing!! Had the for mentioned spicy wontons, fried dumplings, soup dumplings, egg rolls and some egg drop soup. Not a huge fan of the egg rolls but everything else was really good.

Bad customer service, arrived and sat down for a about 20mins without getting service. Didn't even get a water the server was too busy doing something else. There's not even a lot of customer. Food was exceptionally good but customer service needs some work. Just being honest about our experience.

The food is so authentic. I wish I would have found this restaurant before. The movie playing on the large screen is so soothing and entertaining. It's a series showing Chinese cooking and other Chinese arts and crafts. But off course we go for the food. It is the best Chinese food I've had in Alaska.

Best hot & sour soup in town! My go-to is their Mongolian Beef (spicy) and the hot/sour soup. I've taken plenty of people here for the Chinese and no one has ever been disappointed. My parents used to come here for date night and said the pizza was some of the best in town back in their day. Haven't tried any of the pizza offerings so I can't weigh in, and frankly with as good as the soup is, I don't see me changing my mind anytime soon. JLP&TG hot & sour soup has gotten me through sick days, lazy days, and study days. I've had it delivery, take-out, and in restaurant, and never been disappointed. Hooray for good hot & sour in Anchorage!

The food is great! The BEST egg flower soup I have had up here. All the food was hot and tasted great!! They got a 3 star only because the service wasn't all that great. We had to get up from our table to ask for napkins and a couple of other times for other things. But I will still come back because the food was excellent!

We were running around all day and night and finally said let's get to go. So let's try Chinese again ... we found them and said okay let's try since their ratings were good. We've never found really good Chinese in AK. We're impressed. Hot and Sour soup really nice. Mongolian Beef really good too, needed more spice/heat but the meat:vegetable ratio was excellent. Got their wonton soup ... eh, not impressed. They are actually Chinese from Shanghai- what not Koreans running a Chinese place!? WOW! So will try again. Got to find out what their favorites are here. Worth exploring more dishes.

Really pleasant surprise! Admittedly I was a little skeptical about a place that advertises both pizza and Chinese food, but that seems to be not all that uncommon here in Anchorage. This was close to a friend's place (and she vouched for it) so we decided to pick up some Chinese food to go. We enjoyed an adorable (and delicious) pot of chrysanthemum tea while we waited for our food. My friend and I ordered a couple of their specials to go (Fish flavored eggplant and ants on a tree). Both were listed as traditional Chinese dishes and were very tasty. On a whim, we also picked up a couple macaroons. I typically find macaroons too sweet, but these were really incredible! The raspberry was my personal favorite, but pistachio was excellent too. Would definitely go again.

For some reason they don't like to advertise their hours? Can't find them anywhere, not even on their website. So, FYI THEY ARE OPEN 4pm TO 10pm DAILY. Came here for lunch and saw the hours. Decent food, expensive apatizers but they do give a large amount. Mongolian Beef is a little strange and too peppery. Crab Wontons are pretty bland and filled with imitation crab. Average egg drop soup. The thing I liked the most was the beef fried rice. The restaurant is a bit ratty with weird loose carpets under some tables (or at least the table I sat at). The glass top of the table I sat at also kept moving around. Like I said before, decent but nothing special so far. I'll have to go again and try some more dishes.

The food was okay, portions very small. The little container was 3/4 full and the rice was pretty much brown rice with a little egg in it. Unfortunately I won't be ordering from there again.

Service was a little slow, but WORTH THE WAIT! Go when you have time to sit and enjoy! The fried potstickers were to die for and the curry chicken was very good if you like spice.

Most unique chinese restaurant in alaska. We had our tea served over a candle. All the food looks and tastes freshly made and cooked. Server was genuine and was considerate. We got the Mongolian beef combo wasn't huge amounts but very filling. Wouldn't recommend this place to people who only eat to fill Themselves with an ok taste and huge amounts. But i do recommend it to people who want to enjoy every bite of their food! We also got a side of low mein with beef and I've never had anything like it. Like i said best place in anchorage for chinese!!!

I love the hotpot！It is awesome！They have a good variery of different styles to choose.After the hotpot，a dessert will be perfect！

This is fantastic place!!! We love the owner's dessert. :) We also like the seafood beef chicken combo pizza, that taste really good. My son loves it so much. Recommend this place.

Service was so slow, it was hot and humid in there, and the eggplant was OIL SOUP! we Didn't really like the Mongolian, but the chicken nuggets were good my son liked those.

I have driven past this place a lot, and it just looks questionable. Chinese food and pizza really sounds amazing when it's 2am and you're trying to sober up. But I'm not sure about the combo sans an excessive amount of alcohol or the munchies. But who am I to judge without trying it first. Sadly, this review is not about the food. I haven't been feeling well lately and figured I would order for deliver based on the reviews. I called to order for delivery, they answered the phone promptly and the woman who was talking my order was quick and clear. But then asked for my address (Dowling/Lake Otis) at the end they tell me they don't deliver to my address, it was too far, outside of their delivery area, etc. The woman was very nice and polite about it, apologized and we both hung up. Ok, no problem I ended up deciding to just make dinner instead. Then a little over an hour later my doorbell rings, they're delivering my order that they told me they could not deliver. It was very confusing. I tell the delivery guy they told me they don't deliver to my address, he said they do (obviously he was there ). I would have gladly taken the food, but we were already eating dinner. I was slightly irritated that they didn't at least call to let me know they were going to fulfill my order or maybe they made a mistake... who knows. The delivery guy was really nice about it, he apologize for the confusion and left. Two star review for the overall experience. I will definitely give them another chance so I can at least try the food, but maybe this time I will dine in.

Gross! Tried this place for the first time as it's close to our house but won't be going back that's for sure. The fried rice was cold and dry and tasted like it was made a week ago. Both entrees were greasy without much flavor, we would have been better off getting Chinese food across the street at Carrs.

We used to love the pizza here. Not any longer. There are new owners and first off they are not very customer oriented. The owner is very dissmissive of her cutomers and very defensive. They have also changed from using fresh ingredients to canned. The mushrooms are now canned and the the "fresh tomatoes" are clearly canned diced tomatoes now. It's a shame as they always had some of the best pizza in town. We will no longer order from here, especially since the owner yells at her customers.

We have been getting Chinese food here for about 13 years now. Our favorite is the tea garden dinner. Lately they seem to have a different cook, the food doesn't seem as good as it used to be. Kind of a hit or miss recently in the passed year, which is unfortunate since we used to say this was the best Chinese in Anchorage.

The food was very good - We placed our order online was given a 30 minute pickup time. We ended up having to wait for a total of an hour for our food to be ready .

Time from ordering to delivery via Grubhub was good. My husband enjoyed his Mongolian Beef but I had ordered Combo Lo Mein and got a combo fried rice instead. Disappointing but I was too hungry to make an issue. I would caution the employees to double or triple-check the orders.

Small portions for the dinner price, served in lunch bowls, not dinners size. It wasn't cooked the way most people would expect. The Kung Pao Chicken was horrible. It didn't look normal color, it was tasteless and wasn't spicy at all. The sesame chicken was made with a strong ginger red sauce and was nasty. When we walked in the restaurant was chaotic with storage items everywhere. Thank goodness we were taking the food to go. This used to be my favorite Chinese restaurant in Anchorage and these were some of my my favorite dishes. So bad, I will never go back. The new owners have ruined it!!!

I moved from East Anchorage to the Sand Lake area recently, and have to admit I was completely reluctant to try this place. Hubby finally convinced me to give it a whirl, and I have to say I'm really glad I did. The place is very clean, though there was an overwhelming fragrance of some kind - to me it smelled like a car freshener. I'm averse to fragrances of any kind, so that was a turn off, but the food was great. I ordered the Shanghai Chicken, hubby ordered the Shrimp Mona Mona. Both dishes were really great. My chicken had lots of fresh veggies, nice chunks of chicken breast (no gross gristly pieces) in a flavorful sauce. I thought the portion size was great - had lots to take home. Same for my hubby. Their egg drop soup was the best I've ever had. I ended up ordering more so I could bring it to work for lunch. Next up, I'm going to try some pizza. Hubby has already tried their Mongolian Beef Pizza and he LOVED it. Don't sell this place short - I think we've found a gem in Jewel Lake!

I am so excited that Jewel Lake Pizza has the new dessert, I got the Tiramisu and Daifuku, it's so yummy and so cute, by the way, their Chinese food also good and tasty! It's my favorite restaurant in the town.

We are tourists but this place was not a tourist trap. Good food at reasonable, by Alaskan standards, prices. Who would have thought of Chinese food and pizza. Perhaps this place opened after marijuana was legalized?? Definitely a menu that will cure a case of the munchies. We are not pot smokers but I would recommend this place to anyone who is! Enjoy!

Vast array of dishes, mostly Chinese, a few other Asian dishes, annnnnd pizza! And desserts! And tea! And sake! Great service too. Hidden gem.

Never thought pizza and Chinese food would be out of one place. The photos and yelp reviews were good. The Chinese food was very good and not oily. A very nice use of ginger. So many pizza orders were ordered and picked up and they smelled great. We will be back and try the pizza too. The service was very nice and attentive.

The food is delish and the service is great. While I waited to pick up my Mongolian Beef Pizza, I had the egg rolls. They came out quickly & tasted wonderful. I highly recommend this place!

I brought 4 of my friends for the hot pot feast . Some of my friends had never experienced hot pot before, they were absolutely blown away. I had never thought that I could have something like this here in Anchorage. Really? They can actually be this authentic as if you're in LA, or NY or even Taiwan or China, for that matter.