Grand Shanghai - Review

Intro
Grand Shanghai - Highly Recommended
700 US Highway 1, Edison, NJ 8817
Phone: 732-819-8830

My mom took me and the fiancee out for dinner, so I wasn't expecting much - some random Shanghai place in the middle of no where NJ. I was a little worried especially when I saw this Chinese place served sushi, an immediate red flag in my book. No need to worry, this place was out of control good...like maybe one of the best Chinese places in NJ or NYC. Wasn't prepared for this place, so unfortunately no camera - I provided a map of where Shanghai is instead. Overall, I give the restaurant an 87/100.

My Menu
1) Crab and Pork Soup Dumplings - Highly Recommended (must have)
2) Vegetable Dumplings - Highly Recommended (must have)
3) Egg and beef pancake - Recommended
4) Shanghainese fried rice cake– Highly Recommended (must have)
5) Snow Pea Tips - Highly Recommended
6) Fish Head Soup - Recommended
7) Special Shanghai Fried Rice - Average

Dish Comments
1) Perfect soup dumplings (xiao long bao). Skin was insanely tender, but still firm enough to not break. Flavor was amazingly porky and filled with crab with the right amount of soup inside - great with the vinegar, soy, and ginger dip. Might be the best soup dumpling I've had in the US...Din Tai Fong in Taipei is still #1 in my opinion.
2) Perfect vegetable dumpling. Pan fried so slightly crispy on the outside, but skin was still tender. The filling had an amazing flavor filled with mushrooms, cabbage and other stuff.
3) Basically, a bread that was thin like a pancake, stuffed with scrambled eggs, beef, scallions and a sweet hoison sauce. Very tasty.
4) Ok, so this thing is basically a gelatinous rice concoction (nian gao) that's stir fried with a chicken broth sauce and pork. This was off the chain good. Pleasantly chewy with such a great flavor from the sauce, pork, and the soft cabbage.
5) Snow pea tips perfectly cooked (like everything else). Tender with a good crunch. Again, probably the same chicken broth based sauce...so good.
6) Soup made from a fish head. Very sweet broth, filled with rice noodles and bamboo shoots. Not much fish meat besides the meat from the fish head.
7) The only average dish on the menu. Basically, yeung chow fried rice. Nothing wrong with it, but after so many home runs this was ok and slightly bland.

Overall Restaurant Experience (87/100)

• Food 8.8/10 – Great Chinese food with nothing bad and many things great.
• Service 7.5/10 – Waitress was super nice, but it did take a while to take our order - it seemed like there were 2 waitresses for the whole place. Once the order was in, it took a while but the food came out all at once.
• Atmosphere 7.5/10 – There was definitely some segregation going on - Chinese on one section, non-Chinese on the other section. This also maybe due to the fact that there was a Chinese American and sushi menu too, so I can't say for sure. I guess some segregation happens no matter where you go for authentic cuisine - in Rome I saw the same thing (tourists one side, Romans the other). Place was packed with lots of families and a few couples. Got there at 7pm on Friday night and had reservations - if we didn't, there would be a wait. Funny, seeing a bunch of tv's with sports on, but didn't mind so much. White table cloths, but not necessarily a fancy place. Very clean though and nicer than the majority of places in Chinatown.
  
• Price 8.5/10 – My mom paid for the meal, but it looked like it wouldn't be too expensive...maybe $25 a head for that meal. Well worth it.

Closing Comments
Like I've said before, NYC really doesn't have too many great Chinese restaurants. You really need to venture out to NW Jers and Flushing for the good stuff and this place is tops in my book.