Fancy Chinese restaurant a half block from the Reading rail station, Shanpan is on the first ("second" in American) floor of a three story building, with a Thai restaurant above.
We were greeted at the door and shown to a table, where the hostess really wanted to take our drink order immediately. I hate that. It's not like the place was super busy and they needed to get us moving along. We both had Chinese beers, me a Tiger and my friend a Tsingtao.
When she brought the drinks, we were still talking and catching up, so she came back a few minutes later. Appetizers and mains were ordered. Hooray, please let us talk, mkay?
Chicken Satay to start was good, but the Spring Rolls were insanely hot. Like "let them sit for 5 minutes to cool off" hot. They were okay.
When it arrived, my chicken and cashews was good. The cashews were nice and crunchy, the chicken pieces were tender and cooked well. I think it was a little on the bland side and perhaps a small dab of soy sauce would have kicked it up but there was none to be seen and the staff seemed to choose this moment to be invisible.
When we had nearly wrapped up the meal, the manager came by to check on us, but we gave him the 'all good' response.
The food was okay, the service was a little much. There are other Chinese restaurants in town. read more