Hua Yang Shanghai Restaurant

I am of Shanghainese origin and have been to Shanghai on occasion so I can tell you that the food here is quite good and authentic. The service is friendly and the food comes out super quick! Furthermore, pricing is very reasonable with many dishes priced under $ 10. The restaurant itself is located in a fairly new strip mall (about 2 years old) and the interior is very clean albeit rather spartan.
Shanghainese cuisine has several signature dishes, perhaps foremost of which is xiao long bao (small bite-​sized dumplings steamed with a pork filling and always with soupy broth cooked inside the wrapper). So for my review I made sure that this was one of the dishes I ordered (Oh the things I do for Unilocal!). For those who are unfamiliar with xiao long bao one of the crucial requirements in cooking them is to make sure the dumpling wrapper does not break and spill the soup inside. Hua Yang’s xiao long bao was nearly perfect in this regard since not only did most of the dumplings survive the cooking intact but they also did not stick to the steamer (if they stick then the dumpling will break open when you try to pick it up!) Taste-​wise I thought the pork and the broth could have had a bit more flavor, but I would rate their rendition of this dish a 4.5.
We also ordered eggplant with garlic sauce — this is one of my favorite dishes and Hua Yang did not disappoint here either. The dish was just right, a 5.0.
We also thought we had ordered the stir fried kidney but somehow it came out as liver. We were in a rush and ate it anyway, but it wasn’t what we wanted and we really didn’t care for it so I would rate the dish and experience a 3.0.
I would definitely recommend Hua Yang and will be back to try some other Shanghainese dishes.

3.5 stars
I decided to try this place out since I was in the Marina Square and it was already 9pm so the Marina was closed. I didn’t expect too much when I first came in.
I ordered the beef noodle soup, which ended up being my favorite order of the night. The size of the bowl was LARGE and the broth was quite good. One thing to make it better would be to add some vegetables. When I reached the bottom of the bowl, I was surprised to find ginger. I’ve had lots of things in my broth, but never ginger.
I ordered xiao long bao, but sadly the bottom had already ripped so the soup had leaked out.
I also ordered the sticky rice, which was steamed and tasted okay.
The service was okay. They forgot our ice water until we reminded them at the very end of the meal, otherwise everything else was fine.

I came here with a group of friends after the Super Bowl because it was one of the only restaurants open late on a Sunday evening. Since we munched on snacks during the game, none of us were particularly hungry so we ordered less than a typical dinner: Water Cooked Fish, Beef Noodle Soup, Xiao Long Bao, and Sticky Rice Siu Mai. I’m not a fan of spicy so I stayed away from the Water Cooked Fish. The Beef Noodle Soup was better than I was expecting. The broth and beef were pretty good, and the noodles were average. The Xiao Long Bao were good, but I’ve had better. The skin was too thin, so it broke every time I picked it up out of the plate and most of the soup fell out. :(The Sticky Rice Siu Mai tasted like the ones I can buy frozen from Ranch 99 and heat up myself. But I saw the server making them in the back while we were eating, so they definitely weren’t. Even though the quality of all the food wasn’t especially great, we only paid $ 8 a person to fill us all up!

I’m giving this a 5-​star because it was really good homestyle cooking! I’m Cantonese, so all the unique dishes were surprisingly tasty despite it’s simplicity! The aromatic soup with all of that fragrant vegetable, the fried rice, the fried fish /​shrimp, the spicy fried with spiciness heh, and the rice-​wine dessert soup were all good!

Went back again! Had more to try… Definitely get the chicken with chili oil & Chinese red pepper/​fish maw soup/​shanghai noodles.
Got to try the boneless chicken drumstick. Interesting– served in cold slices and had some gelatin surrounding the meat.
I love this place!
ORIGINAL REVIEW on 11÷28÷12:
I have been here twice already in the past 2 months and will keep coming back. The food I have ordered was always delicious, fiery, and came out timely. Not to mention, the ladies who work here are super nice and attentive. All the tables are filled with happy Chinese families, so that has to count for something, right?
I’ve had & would recommend:
Minced pork & tofu w. chopped string beans/​Chong Qing chicken/​Cripsy fried duck/​Lamb w. cumin on hot plate/​XLB (whoever’s review said it was torn probably had a bad batch because mine were perfect and one of the best XLBs I’ve ever had)/ Yangchou fried rice/​Salted fish fried rice/​Garlic sauteed «Chinese» vegetable (I think it was A Choy?) (
…)
Had & wouldn’t order again:
Fish fillet in orange sauce
I’m hungry now.

My friends and I tried this place for the first time tonight. Although the seating configuration is a little bit awkward because the place is fairly small, we were very happy with our dishes and the service quality. The ma-​po tofu and chow mein dishes were delicious! The waitress was extremely friendly and definitely on top of things. Will be bringing my folks here very soon; that will be the true test!
FYI they have pictures and english on their menus which was a relief to me as I can hardly read mandarin.

Ate here twice and can say that I am surprised about the quality and taste of the dishes, it is pretty delicious! The lady that works here is also pretty friendly. The steamed dumplings are excellent.
Great little place and nice and clean inside also.

Came here for lunch yesterday for the first time. I’m always on the lookout for good Shanghainese food but this is definitely not the place to go. Service is ridiculously slow and horrible!
Got there around 11:30am and was contemplating about going inside. You can’t really see inside because there are menus covering the windows. When I peaked inside, there was only one table occupied but we decided to go in anyways. Maybe we were just early and that’s why it was still empty, right? Uh… yeah… sure?
We ordered the Xiao Long Bao (because this would determine how legit the food was), Shanghai noodles, pan fried pork buns, and a sticky red bean dessert.
The Xiao Long Bao were okay. Some were ripped already which caused some of the soup to leak out. The flavor was not bad but I’ve had better. The noodles were decent and the red ben dessert was a bit oily. The worst dish of all were the pan fried pork buns. Not only did it take the longest to come out, it was also not fully cooked inside. Totally disappointing!
While the restaurant was never full or busy during the lunch hour, each dish came out extremely slowly. Don’t bother coming here. There are better places to try. We ended up canceling the pan fried pork buns, paid the bill, and left hungry still.

Since I had to pick up a few things at the Marina Market, we decided to grab a quick lunch at one of the restaurants in the plaza. We were picking between Fusion House and Shanghai Restaurant, and the latter won (since I’ve never tried it before).
The restaurant is very clean and organized, but seeing how the plaza itself is semi-​new, I expect all the restaurants to still be «new”-ish and clean. They had a bunch of pictures of the menu items outside so you could take a look before going in. With so many pictures and menu, you would think that they would post a «Cash Only» sign outside too, but nope! We didn’t even see the sign at the counter until we sat down, and they already served us soup. (Unluckily for us, we didn’t have enough cash on hand, so my boyfriend had to go to Marina real quick to get cash back.)
They do take credit card, but you’re bill has to be over $ 20. For a 2 person lunch, that wasn’t going to happen. Why? Cause they have a lunch special — each lunch special is about $ 6! (And their lunch special ends at 3pm, score!) My boyfriend ordered the Mongolian Beef lunch special, and I ordered the San Jian Bao. The Mongolian Beef was pretty flavorful, and quite spicy, but the meat was more chewy than tender. My boyfriend said it’s probably cause the meat quality isn’t that great. There was six San Jian Baos per order, and they’re bigger than dumpling size, so get it to share! It was pretty delicious, but I wish there was more meat in each one.
Their service was very lackluster. especially since we were the only ones in the restaurant. I understand it’s past the busy lunch hour, but all the workers were just sitting by the counter and chatting. And while they were chatting, they kept looking towards us. It was kind of creepy. What’s worse, service-​wise? They only refill your water if you flag them down! For ten minutes, one of the servers walked around the restaurant a few times and didn’t even notice we needed a water refill.
I haven’t tried a lot of their dishes, so I couldn’t say if their food is one of the «best Chinese restaurants» in the area. but from what I have tried, the food is just aite. Their service is not up to par either. Therefore, this isn’t some restaurant I would be excited to dine at.

This place is surprisingly good and cheap for a place that is often empty. I came here with a friend on a Thursday around noon, and found it completely empty.
I ordered a preserved vegetable and pork noodle soup, while my friend ordered the Shanghai fried noodles. We were very satisfied with both. Portions were large as well, which makes it definitely worth the $ 6 or $ 7 you end up spending on lunch. (No reason whatsoever for being in the $$ category on Unilocal,not sure why it’s there…)
Pretty average restaurant for Fremont, but I think its worth rounding up for good food at cheap prices without having to wait very long at all.

If you don’t have good XLBs, I don’t come back. Everything here is juicy — the ShenJianBao (just on the doughy side) XLB — good flavor, thin wrapper, juicy swimming inside — WINNER!
Reluctant to try to this @ first, from the mixed Unilocal reviews about the non-​juicy vs juicy Xiao Long Bao & the mean owner, flies. But there aren’t any good XLB place anyways in the SouthBay — so might as well. (Shanghai Delights in Milpitas tastes like it was from frozen distributor& they are mean)
One star: impressively clean for Chinese place. The soysauce/​vingaer bottle are free of grease & nasty build ups. So are the plates & table top.
2 star: good food. Really really authentic Shanghainese food. Way beyond your typical «lion head». They have this amazing Fried Seaweed powder fish filet! YUM! If it wasn’t for my parents reading Chinese — I would have never ordered it. Comes out piping hot. Mult-​layer flaky&crispy onion cake.
3 star: large portions for the price. $ 7 – 9. lots of pork in the 5 spice shredded pork.
4 star: fast service. The place is small, so the waiters will see you right away if you need something. The teenage bus-​girls are nice here. The owner is busy dealing w/​$$ — so she might seem unfriendly. But the older ppl likes her cause she’ll chat w/​them in Chinese.
Don’t really have any complains about this place: maybe just that one of the waiters were staring at our bill while we paid: that kind of made my bf uncomfortable. Besides that it’s all good. Will return for down-​right authentic Shanghainese food to bring back memories for my family.

loved the food. didn’t have any problems with flies like other people mentioned. didn’t care for the stir fry noodles but the veggies and xlb/​pork buns were great.
food was a little too oily and covered in MSG for my liking but still delicious.
Service wasn’t as as poor as other reviewers commented. Perhaps it’s because I can speak chinese and so it was easier for me to communicate with them. Overall, I’ll definitely be back!

The food here is better than most Chinese restaurants around the Warm Springs area, but the service itself is horrible.
The lady that runs this place just doesn’t have the grasp on customer service. She is extremely rude & rarely goes out of her way to cater to even the most simple requests!
These are some of the things you will hear/​experience when you choose to dine here:
«I ordered no garlic on this dish, why wasn’t it removed?» — «you didn’t make yourself clear, order again»
«Can you make this dish a little spicier?» — «no, either spicy, or no spicy, that’s it»
«Can I have some more water please?» — «YOU WAIT!, I am very busy!!»
Oh, by the way, ignore the «we take Visa/​Mastercard» sign because they in fact DON’T accept any type of cards & will scold you for not having cash with you.

Things I like about this place:
–There are cats everywhere
–There are Hello Kitty charms on the menu
–The servers don’t hate on me for being an ABC
–I like their Shanghai steamed dumplings, and their shanghai fried buns
–They are open until 9 or 9:30, so I can eat a late dinner here with my boyfriend.
Things I don’t like:
–Sodas are in cans.
–Cash only under $ 20.00
–I did not like their fried noodles
–You have to ask for soy sauce, it’s not on the tables
–I feel like I’m constantly being watched. Because I AM.

Rating: 3.5 stars
So I can’t quite give this place 4 stars as I haven’t tried the XLB’s here which is crucial when evaluating any shanghainese restaurant. Came here for dinner and just weren’t in the mood for them. However, we did try the shanghai noodles, the salt & pepper pork and the eggplant. All three dishes were not only tasty but decently sized. We asked for no MSG and the food came out flavorful without being to saucy or salty. Like the other reviews say, this place is pretty cheap.
I would definitely come back if I was craving shanghainese food. I’m a little saddened by the reviews of the dumplings though. Maybe I’ll only dine here for the entrees.

I think Hua Yang has some foods that are medicore and some that are freaking amazing.
The ma po tofu is not bad, and the xiao long bao are just okay (comes with 9 dumplings per order), but the fried pork buns were OUTSTANDING. Fried and crispy on the outside, with tons of juicey soup on the inside.
Prices are pretty cheap. Cash only joint unless you spend $ 20+ (typical…)
Service sucks of course. They bring you tea, foods, and then for anything else like refills or the bill, you gotta flag em down (what do you expect? Typical Chinese service.)
I think I’ll be a regular here since Fremont doesn’t have too many good authentic Chinese spots!

Damn… I knew I should have gone to Shanghai Delights!
Came here for dinner with the Fiancé.
Service: Just O.K. What do you expect, its an Asian restaurant.
What we ordered:
Cubed Chicken with red chili peppers: You get a lot for what you order! It is not spicy at all even though it looks really spicy because the dish was covered in red chilies. This dish was weird for my taste buds. Not only was it not spicy, but it left a funny numbing sensation in my mouth. Not only that, drinking water made it feel like I have a sour taste in my mouth. Needless to say, we barely touched that dish. Quoting the fiancé «That is just disgusting» lol
Fried Pork buns: This is just ok. It tasted like an oversize steamed dumpling that was slightly fried on the bottom… pass
Garlic Green Beans: This veggie dish was super yum! The green beans had a slightly good crunch to it, it was not soft and soggy at all. Minced garlic on ever green bean! We ate the entire dish!
Steamed Dumplings: They were 8 small dumplings… makes you want more, only if they were good. These dumplings were okay. There was not enough juice in them =0(.
Overall, it is a decent place to eat dinner at. Our bill was only $ 28. Cheap eats. But for damn sure, I will not return. I am sticking to Shanghai Delights in Milpitas!

This place is pretty damn solid. Now I’ve certainly had better dan dan noodles and chive pancakes, but the beef with green onions, sliced pork/​beef in hot oil, pan fried pork dumplings, and the shredded potatoes and green peppers were super tasty. They were out of XLB so I’ll have to return to try those. The main woman who is in charge is super cranky and even ordering in Mandarin via a friend didn’t seem to help our cause. Definitely good grub though and there are tons of dishes to be tried. 4.25 stars.

Pure marketing genius they are.
Almost a year after completion, the poor Fremont Times Square (
) is finally showing signs of life. Although just about 80% of the storefronts is still completely empty, with no sign of any future tenants in sight, the owners of Hua Yang Shanghai have decided to take the initiative in the hopes of luring fellow shopkeepers to follow suit. So what business plan do they expect to carry out, while everyone else has remained hesitant?
Upon sitting down, the first thing you will notice is the menu adorned with… (
) a gazillion Hello Kitty charms! But wait… those aren’t really decorations, are they? The moment the waitresses see anyone showing the slightest inkling of oohing and ahhing, out they come with a whole batch more, with the loud proclamation, «$ 1 apiece!» Such crafty business people these Shanghainese are.
Almost any group who comes in here — from girls and women of all ages, families with small children, and couples on a date — will undoubtedly cave in to the cuteness. For a dollar each, you definitely can’t go wrong, and the management here knows full well that most people are going to cop more than just a couple. Heck, even a bunch of all guys going out to lunch with the homies might be so compelled to grab a few for their daughters or wives/gf’s, just as long as they don’t mind having their man card checked at the table.
Now, I can’t verify the authenticity (they all indeed say «Sanrio» on the back), but even if they are knockoffs, they are pretty darn good quality, with great detailing. I even found one with Hello Kitty wearing a Godzilla outfit climbing the Tokyo Tower to bring back for the favorite Unilocaler.
As for the food, it is pretty much your standard Shanghainese fare — rice cakes, XLB, dumplings, lion head meatballs, various meat and vegetable items, and onion fried pancakes. Nothing really stands out, but it’s certainly not bad, and pretty much the same as any other joint in the area. Based on the food alone, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend Hua Yang over the plethora of similar joints, but one just cannot help but behold the power of the Hello Kitty. That is more than enough to set them apart from the competitors. However, once other places start imitating…

This place is not bad. My mom told us that she saw a grand opening sign in this new plaza where Marina market is. She said it was for a Shanghai restaurant and that she wanted to try it out.
Food: The shanghai chow mein was alright. The noodles were pretty thick. We also ordered this dish that had potatoes with some peppers and that was alright as well. But there were two dishes that were good. They were the shanghai dumplings and the braised pork [its one of the #17s]. I really liked how this place knew how to keep the soup inside the dumplings and that it wasn’t spilling all over the place before it got into my mouth. The braised pork was good as well. It had a great taste and the pork was cooked nicely as well.
Service: The service was alright as well. The lady came to us with menus, gave us time to order, and the food came without that long of a wait.
The décor of this restaurant was alright. It was clean and i can see that they tried to decorate with the window stickers. They also have hello kitty chains attached to the menu which was in a way unique.
One thing that this restaurant should rethink is the plating. The plates were way too big for the tables they have in the restaurant. They took up alot of space. We had to try and finish the plates so that they could take it away and make more room at our table.
Overall, this restaurant is worth a try. It wont hurt haha