New Shanghai Restaurant

Waaaattteeeerrrrr, I need waaaaaaatttteeerrrrrr. So much freaking salt in everything I ordered. BLECCCHHHH.
Prices decent. Portions small. Flavor meh.
What a sad representation of Chinatown in Boston. Should have talked to a local. I guess that yummy smell was from another restaurant.

Tried their Zongzi, was really good, my girlfriend liked it a lot. The manager was really nice, we showed up when they were about to close, he stayed late to make the order for us. Big thumbs up!

Overall: 4
Food: 4
Service: 3
Value: 3
This is a Szechuan restaurant, just so you know. That said, it has some solid dishes. I recommend the Chengdu spicy chicken and the cumin lamb. I get these two every time I come. The Dan Dan noodles are pretty delicious too.
The service is okay. Sometimes I’ve gotten really attentive servers, other times not so much.
Pricing is reasonable.

The environment can be the only acceptable part of this restaurant, which mainly because it’s not crowded like every restaurant else nearby. The food is definitely not sichuan flavor, may be a horrible mix of sichuan and shanghai style.
这是一家不会做川菜的川菜馆，在周围人满为患的同行们衬托下，这家店的冷清可能是它唯一的优点了。

Read your bill and credit card slip carefully!
Food was mediocre. Food was cooked to order but some part of the food was not really hot meaning it was cooked really fast with no care for the food or that it was frozen and simply reheated. Service was okay until the server found out we only wanted to order one entrée since it was already late at night. But still we ordered a 28 dollar entrée. Never been to a restaurant that automatically added a 16% tip when the bill was less than $ 30. I was going to tip over 20% because I have worked as a server before. But I guess they just assumed I wouldn’t be paying a tip so they added the tips on? Very insulting.

Dropped in for luncheon special. Ordered chicken with vegetables. Order comes with soup, hot n sour not bad plus a chicken wing eh. The main dish came with a bland gravy and the chicken was strange looking almost like it was processed. Very unappetizing meal. Won’t return here.

I will definitely give ZERO star if I could. Very American style Chinese food. Ridiculous taste. Poor service.

A bit overpriced since you don’t get much food here. The atmosphere is nicer than some of the other restaurants in Chinatown, but the food was mediocre.

Yeah… It’s so hard to find a GOOD Chinese place in Boston. Why is that? I feel like the search «best Chinese food in Boston» should come up with something legit on Google but it doesn’t. I had the Chicken and Broccoli. It was a tad too salty. There wasn’t enough broccoli in the dish. The vegetable fried rice, was not actually fried. It was tossed with soy sauce and 5 peas and that was that. It was cheap, the service wasn’t good. I had food regret when I left. Should have hit up the food trucks down the street instead. You live and you learn!

Contrary to what the name implies, this place is actually a Szechuan restaurant, so don’t come in looking for 小笼包 or 唐初排骨 because what this place actually has is 回锅肉 or 水煮鱼.
Not that I’m complaining, their 水煮鱼 is very solid, and they give you a lot more fish than many other places, so you’re not frantically digging through a giant bowl of cabbage to find just one more piece of fish. Not as spicy as I’d expect from a Szechuan place, though. On the other hand, I found their 回锅肉 to be a bit too salty, and they also messed up one of our orders (we asked for a tofu dish and they gave us beef instead…).
Service is pretty fast as long as you can get their attention. The food came out within 5 minutes of us ordering… although it probably also took us 5 minutes flag down a waiter as well.
Overall, this is a place I’d revisit when I’m craving Szechuan food and don’t feel like making a trip out on the T, but it’s nothing I’d go out of my way to frequent.

Attention, Americans. I liked that place, it was one of the best choices dining in Chinatown. Until one afternoon, my friend and i went to order lunch special, their manager told us very «kindly», dont order lunch specials, those are just tricks for Americans. We felt like «appreciation «? Actually no, the manager is Chinese, and both of us are original Chinese, but still that word and «tricks» are ridiculous and unacceptable. Sorry, we never came back after that.

Not bad, but I didn’t have dishes reminiscent of the restaurant name. New Shanghai is a slightly more upscale place than many in the surrounding Chinatown vicinity, so I found the décor and ambiance refreshing. I’ll take white linen tablecloths over plastic ones any day, although the prices do reflect on that hierarchy as well.
Service was a little lackadaisical, but decently friendly. Like in many Chinese restaurants, patrons may have to be a little more aggressive in flagging down servers and asking for tea refills.
Twice cooked pork belly:
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This dish had a good smoky wok flavor, but the grasp of cookedness between the leeks and the pork belly was a little off; the meat was a tiny bit overcooked and the leeks slightly undercooked. The pork belly was sliced very well, but the leeks could have been a tad smaller. The heat was definitely there, but the chili flakes somehow didn’t give enough of that «dry spiciness.» Not a bad dish overall, and I enjoyed the flavors with rice.
Spicy boiled fish filets:
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The ubiquitous boiled fish filets in spicy sauce was pretty good here, but not the best I’ve had. The sauce was flavorful but veered towards the sweet side, and I felt that the portion was a tad sparse for the asking price. The filets were cooked perfectly though, and they were full of melty tenderness that paired really well with the sauce.
I’d be interested in coming back to this restaurant for a sit-​down dinner, possibly with an older crowd.

So, I found out Unilocal somehow hided my previous review & updates for this restaurant even though it was helpful to many people since it had been published. Let me try to share again for this ever lowest rated place:
1. Dishes are small, the size for larger dishes usually like normal size dishes in other restaurants, but larger dishes cost about $ 20 per dish here.
2. Most dishes are oily and spicy, perhaps that has something to do with Sichuan.
3. They selectively charge customer 18% gratuity without informing/​highlighting and still list the column for gratuity for people to fill out and pretend the pre-​charge thing never ever happened. They do it not all the time, just sometimes. You’d like to review the bill carefully that column is in the middle and very easy to be ignored.
4. They put $ 1 more than what was printed on the menu for each dish you ordered and again, without informing you before you order or letting you know when they pass the bill.
5. Good to know — if you order large lobsters (3 lbs+), you never will know how big it was, what was it look like, not even the $. They just go ahead to round up the total and charge you whatever they want.
It is indeed a very scary place to dine.

not impressed. It is not a Shanghai style restaurant and the Sichuan style dishes are not authentic. everything else seems to be ok.
For Sichuan style, i would recommend the Old Sichuan Restaurant at Brookline.

Never really tried Sichuan food but damn it was spicy! They use a lot of spicy oil which made our tongues feel weird afterwards. One of us loves spice, but even the dishes were not the best because they were so oily.

I find, like the name of this joint, misleading like many of the reviews.
This place has been around forever and waxes and wanes depending on the kitchen staff. If the chefs are from Hunan, you gotta order Hunan. If they are Cantonese, that’s your go to. The current crew is Sichuan strong.
Go to order for 2 – 3 people or 1 – 2 weightlifters:
Apps:
Dan Dan– Chili Garden in Medford edges them out. Pork with Napa Cabbage, incidentally, is the Best in Boston from Chili Garden
Sliced Pork Belly (Sliced Pork with Chili & Galric on the NS menu) — strong
Shredded Chicken with Spicy Sauce– inconsistent during lunch rush but really strong
Mains:
Cheng Du Chicken– very good but don’t get it for take out since it steams to the point of soggy in the container/​travel.
Cumin Lamb– the star of the menu. A must.
Chicken in Spicy Capsicum– again, like the Cheng Du, better at the restaurant.
Beef Tendon– very good
Ma Po Tofu– take the Pepsi test with it versus Chili Garden or the other places in Concord/​Acton or Billerica– you know those joints if you’ve followed me this far.
Prawns in Sichuan sauce– a concession to my friends but very solid.
Whole Fish– do it, you won’t regret it but not for the unadventurous.
Pro Tip: if the server English is poor or you don’t speak the lingo, get one who does to place the order.

Ordered cabbage but served broccoli. Asked waiter but been told that it is CABBAGE!!! Lmao r u kidding me??? So I posted the «Cabbage» let u guys judge…

I like them bc the owner is from Tianjin, where i’m from. (Not shanghai ha)
Alot of the foods here remind me of home… esp my fav LIANG FEN… a thick bean thread app that’s just soooo delish and I can eat it every single day. Drooling just thinking about it… Not many Chinese restaurants have it here. Them and Sechuan Garden do.
Need to go back, yum.

This is probably the best restaurant in Boston for szechuan food (Chinese food from Szechuan province that is spicy and numbing). I have come here twice, both with groups of 5+. The food here is pretty standard, and would recommend the mapo tofu, fish, and veggies.
Be prepared for the numbing spice (prickly ash) that will feel like pin needles on your tongue over the flavorful spice that most associate with ‘spicy’. This numbing spice is very strong here but that’s authentic and true to szechuan food. I wouldn’t take friends here if they can’t handle the spice :)

Sichuan Style Spice in Boston’s Chinatown
So, you end up in Boston’s Chinatown, and you are looking for a Chinese restaurant that serves some spicy food. Where should you go? This place may be a pretty good choice, especially for food from the Sichuan province of China.
If you are looking for Shanghainese food, this place may not provide the Shanghainese dishes you are looking for, despite the English name of this place. The Mandarin Chinese name of this place, Jing Chuan Jiu Jia does not actually translate to the English name of this place and indicates that they serve Beijing and Sichuan Chinese food.
If you are looking for possibly the spiciest Beef Noodle Soup in Boston’s Chinatown, this place may be a good choice. I ordered Chuan Wei Niu Rou Mian, which roughly translates to Sichuan Taste Beef Noodle Soup in Mandarin Chinese. I actually asked for it to be a little spicy. After a few bites, I started to feel the heat, and my tongue felt some numbness from the spice. Meat portions are moderate, and the noodle portions are good. This dish is a pretty good choice when the temperature outside is less than 18 degrees Celsius.
I came here recently for a Zhong Qiu Jie (Mid-​Autumn Festival) dinner. I was able to eat some Ma Po Tofu, and it had a powerful effect on my tongue and mouth. I felt the oily spice, and I felt some numbness as sweat began to slowly flow from my forehead. Mixing a generous portion of rice with the Ma Po Tofu’s sauce makes the dish a little bearable and tastier to eat. This place probably has the spiciest Ma Po Tofu in Boston’s Chinatown, and some Ma Po Tofu and a good amount of rice is a pretty good choice when the temperature outside is less than 18 degrees Celsius.
The Dan Dan Noodles were not bad, one bowl should be enough for a light dinner and it also had a pretty good spiced kick. The noodles were fairly thick. The Sichuan Hui Guo Rou, also known as the Szechuan Twice Cooked Pork Belly was pretty good. The pork strips were thin and a little tender. The flavor of the meat and the vegetables had a nice spice. A couple pieces of the pork with some rice also made it a tasty dinner.
Interior is not bad, the wooden tables and chairs are really shiny and smooth.
Overall, if you are looking for a spiced Sichuan Chinese alternative to Cantonese Chinese food in Boston’s Chinatown, this is actually a good choice. This place may not have the best spicy Chinese food, but if it is less than 18 degrees Celsius in the somewhat decent city of Boston, and if you want something spicy, then this is a pretty good choice.