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Where do you find enough ginger in a dish? Joe's Shanghai. It's fresh and pungent and cut thin as angel hair. Tripe lover? Have the sliced pork tripe with garlic sauce: tender and plentiful with perfectly sauteed cloud's ears, onions, celery, green and red pepper in a rich, velvety, zesty sauce that really brings out the garlic flavor.

Ambiance and friendly service are non-existent at this Chinatown restaurant, as noted by (many) others. (The Flushing outpost is a bit better on both fronts.) But never mind. Just order the soup dumplings (crab and pork) and a scallion pancake These are their two amazing dishes -- the dumplings they're famous for and the pancake here is the only one I've found in NYC that tastes really homemade and delicious. Other dishes here can be hit or miss. We tried sauteed water spinach, which is normally a tasty green but in this case was served sitting in about a cup of oil. The new year's cake (subgum style) can be good too, though they sometimes lay on the soy sauce a bit heavy. S Stick with the pancake and dumplings!

Finally tried Joe's. I agree that the soup dumplings are excellent and the scallion pancake delicious. The rest of the food I saw or tasted was mediocre. The service is just abusive and rude. Too bad. I will never plan to go back to Joe's, but if I pass by and there is room, I would go in for some dumplings.

I've never been here before so I had no expectations. It was typically crowded and noisy, but then the first taste of those scallion pancakes hooked me. Then came the soup dumplings and then the orange beef. Everything I had was tried for the first time here and have no complaints.

I've been coming here over the years and their soup dumplings are the best in Manhattan in that they're very juicy compared to those found anywhere else on the island. Their Vegetarian Duck, Shredded Eels with Yellow Chives and Stewed Tofu/Bean Curd with Crab Meat are also a couple of my old standbys which, as of two days ago, are still good.

order the crab meat and pork dumplings and you're done. I've never had anything else on the menu and nor do I need to. The dumplings are worth the trek to Chinatown

I ate here last week and I'm going back tonight. Had the crab and pork dumplings, a whole yellow fish and pan fried noodles with seafood (I had never had noodles prepared this way and they were wonderful) and it was all excellent. The place is really busy and there's lots of hustle and bustle on the weekends but the food is great. I walked out with that glum feeling of satisfaction after a particularly tasty meal. Definitely as good as the hype. I would try to go with a large group so that you can sample more dishes.