Joe's Shanghai

My family randomly chose Joe's Shanghai when we were shopping at 5 Ave. Actually we all come from China so it should be fair to give a comment to a Chinese restaurant. We ordered an eggplant, a fish and a Hunan beef. The food is surprisingly unappetizing and the service is poor. Eggplant was not fresh and tasted hard. The chicken in the eggplant dish was smelly. The fish had a very strong smell that we doubted if it was fresh. The beef was hard to chew. Because the food was so unappetizing, we didn't even finish one dish. The waiter treated us poorly and spoke scornfully and very impatient when we ordered dishes. Another waiter kept annoying us by changing plates. In fact he didn't need to do that at all when we were eating. We all felt we were forced to give the tip when the waiter even told us how much tip we should pay. It was such a disappointing experience but we still tip him. I will never go to that restaurant again.

Poor service, overpriced, but good food. I saw that Joe's was rated by Zagat, so I thought it was a safe bet. It turned out to be one of the least dining pleasant experiences I have had in my entire life. And I've eated at a lot of places, from coast to coast. The host was immediately irritable with me and my family. He didn't speak very good English and was frustrated by my attempt to communicate and be friendly. He didn't understand one part of the order, so he just gave up and brought us what he thought we wanted, which turned out to be something we didn't want. The service was generally neglectful and hostile. They treat their customers as a liability. The prices are on the high side as well. And to make things worse, they charge you for rice. Isn't that supposed to come with an entree which is already overpriced? I will not be returning and I'd urge you to avoid this place as well.

Joe's midtown is hands down my favorite chinese restaurant in NYC. I have been loyal to them for years- and crave their soup dumplings weekly. (sometimes daily) The staff there is also great, always welcoming with a smile. The shanghai noodles are delicious- I recommend with beef. If you are looking for somewhere to go for a great meal that you can't get anywhere else- JOES.

Relative to the one in Chinatown, this midtown version is overpriced. The famous dumplings just doesn’t taste as good. The fried rice was ok. Had vegatables with mushrooms which were hard (cheap mushrooms). Will never go back.

I don't know if their food is good, cause we even did't have a chance to try it. Service was so poor and realy rude that we left before we order any food ...the drinks that we ordered were good, but not enough good to deal with such a rudeness of the people who were serving them to us!

We had dinner for 3 upstairs.We ordered the dumplings & main course.They gave us the poorest table. Brought the main course at the same time we were eating the dumplings.The waiter cleared the plates with the dumplings & threw it on the main course to make room on the table.While we were still eating,brought the bill & kept opening the book to see if we had paid.There was no one upstairs for the most part.,so there were 4 or 5 waiters & managers just staring at us all the time. This place needs to have some manners.

Just try them. You won't regret it. The place may not have a trendy atmosphere or be the newest hot spot to be seen in town, but if you want great Chinese - go here! And just try the soup buns. AMAZING!