I honestly thought I'd written a review for this place already, and I thought I'd given them a few stars. And then I felt bad about it, because 1) I don't really like writing follow-up reviews, and 2) I'd hate to take all those stars away.
Imagine my surprise when -what luck! - I didn't actually write a review yet, so I can just go with the crap rating that I'd give them today! And believe me, it's a pretty crap rating.
Speaking of, I wouldn't even use this place's bathroom, though I don't think I would have earlier, either. It's never been clean, but neither are a lot of eateries in Shanghai so I haven't really held it against them. Now I'm thinking twice.
A few months ago I would have given this place a decent enough rating. I liked to come here after a long morning case and indulge in terrible fake-chinese takeout. I think my love for fake-chinese is fairly well documented, and this place more or less hit the spot.
So I walk in on Tuesday after a particularly grueling episode up the street and it's almost as cold inside as it is outside. It seems they've turned off the heat to save money. I can see that in the summertime, maybe, I can deal without air conditioning. But when it's 20 degrees out in the middle of January, put on a frickin' heater if you want customers.
Now, on the menu, they have lunch specials which I've long thought are pretty great. You get your entree and fried rice and soup for about five bucks. Now, in the window they are advertising a free drink with "all lunches." Sounds great to me!
Well, either they fired most of the English-speaking staff or the gentleman at the register wasn't aware of his own menu, because I had to stop him at four different steps to tell him what I wanted.
At this point, some kid slips in the door behind me and goes back behind the register, I've seen him there before and is an employee, possibly family. This is important for later.
So I finish with my order and stand around waiting for it to be finished. Meanwhile, the kid says something in Chinese to the guy who took my order, and he starts cooking up something. At one point he wipes his nose with his hands.
Sure enough, the kid is fixing MY food. No gloves, no washing of hands, nothing. And he tells me that you only get the drink if you don't get the soup. I don't know what language they're using, but on my street, "All Lunches" means "every one that we are serving," and not "at our discretion because we also put snot in our food."
You know what else was in my food? Buffalo wing sauce. That's now their idea of "ways to make things spicy."
Long story short? Don't go here. Ever. You'll waste your time and your money, maybe even risk your health. There's no wonton worth a tapeworm, and hell if buffalo wing sauce is ever going on my chinese food again. read more