Review Shanghai Kitchen - Petone

As a Shanghainese myself, I gotta say this restaurant offers the most authentic Shanghai local food in Lower Hutt, if not in Wellington. The fish fillet and the fried rice are amazing. Love them all! Thank you. Cheers~

Best and authentic Southeastern Chinese food! Must try the Shanghai style teamed pork bun!!! We also ordered the pork and bamboo root soup, which was very light and fresh. The Chinese pickles with fish fillet tasted great, not too much decoration but it's savoury when you try the pickled cabbages. Also we had the green soya bean with pickles, which was the best companion for rice. Fried pork ribs were crispy and yummy, worth the price. Last, when we left, we had Shanghai style fried fish cold dish as takeaway. But I could not resist the tempt and tried one piece, which brought me back home. Definitely recommend it!!!

This was our first time eating there and we all enjoyed the good food. The people were helpful and friendly. Definitely going again

Good staff.. Good ambience and clean. We tried chilli crab and pepper beef. It was really tasty

Came here wanting to try something different from Cantonese style Chinese food. Was not disappointed. Liked that the flavours were different and the menu having some old favourites done in the Shanghainese style, and, other dishes more unique to the home of the cuisine.

Fantastic dining experience! Was the Ideal venue for a Xmas event as we did for our small business of 10ppl. The service was fast and the food was superb, delicious and something on the menu for everyone! Decor a bit outdated but that’s a forgiven because you’re not there to eat the furniture right! Enjoy

We shared orange chicken and sweet & pork with rice on the side, very nice food.... Tender and yum Sophie & Katie McKleanin

Having lived in Shanghai for 3 years in the mid-nineties, I love coming to the Shanghai Kitchen for real authentic Shanghai food prepared & cooked by master chef Jimmy and served by his lovely wife Judy and staff. I live in Auckland now but make a point of dining there when i come down to visit family & friends. I started going there when it first opened and Jimmy & Judy have worked extremely hard in building this business into the sucessfull one it is today. I highly recommend it to anyone who would like to try real Shanghai Food.

Good location, nice food with orthentic shanghaines dishes, reasonable prices, and friendly services.

The best sweet and sour pork I’ve ever had. Lovely staff and well worth a trip.

Very good. Very light but rich of flavour. Typical Shanghai style food. The chef used to work in Chinese embassy in NZ. Highly recommend.

Best Chinese food I've ever had! I went three times in a week, need I says more. Stir fried prawns with vegetables salt and pepper chicken, rice cake, I could go on....

With such a tiny street presence it's easily overlooked, but this restaurant is a little gem. The menu is affordable and the food is delicious. We've been eating here for the past 4 years and we're never disappointed in the food or service.

delicious spicy wonton soup and great dumplings. the lemon chicken was lacklustre, needed a much larger lemon/ citrus kick. will definitely go back. can be quite loud if there is large byo groups

I love Wonton soup and I can say without a doubt that the Shanghai Kitchen do make the best I have ever had. This is why I keep going back

This Is a tasty restaurant, but I suggest everybody to check the menu price carefully. The owner overcharged me twice twice due to her bad memory and the first time I had not found that.

Terrible service.  No effort to seat us when we entered the restaurant so chose a table.  Were then told to move and we were not the only ones. The food is just okay and it probably would have been a better experience if there was any customer service at all.  Remember that your patrons keep you in business.  Was made to feel very uncomfortable and will not be back

Friendly service. Wide range of food on the menu. Although was disappointed that they had run out of pan fried dumplings. We ordered pork buns instead but then they ended up bringing us steamed pork dumplings, so there was a bit of confusion. Although they ended up being really yum! Our mains were good too - although the sweet and sour pork was not very crispy. Medium price range - our bill for 2 people for appetisers, mains and Chinese tea was $60. Would return - and hopefully get to try the pan fried dumplings and pork buns!

Came here in a cold weekdays night with friends.  Good to see that they have the heater on and we sat by it.  The waitress was friends and settled us down quickly.  We ordered the Hot and Sour Soup and indicated not too sour.  The soup was great with the right amount of vinegar but a bit too peppery for me, but it was enjoyable.  We have ordered the Shanghai Steam Dumplings given its Shanghai Kitchen.  The Dumplings was OK with good amount of soup within the wrapping.  A Pork Belly with Garlic cold dish also to start which was covered with minced garlic, yum.  Mains were Sweet and Sour Pork, Salt and Pepper Pork and Stir Fried Tofu.  All these 3 dishes were good but not the best that I have tried.  A bit disappointed on the Salt and Pepper Pork as it was served with finely diced capsicum rather than chilies.  Overall it was a good meal.  A place not to be missed for Chinese in Petone.

Very nice and not all your typical Euro-blend choices. Chef was great, presentation and quantities very good. Ambience is sub-par but standard Chinese - come for the food, if you dislike the decor then close your eyes!

Great Shanghai food!!Will definitely go back again! The xiao long bao was delicious! Very authentic. My partner and I really enjoyed our meal.

Not what I was expecting. Not your typical Chinese place. Caters more to natives of the country, not a western-style Chinese fare. Not sure I would return but lunch was cheap & cheerful. The pork belly was disappointing and the pork buns were more like dumplings.

Nice average chinese. Way too many peppercorns in one sauce....inedible fish in a special....but great veggies and the duck entree is only $10 and WONDERFUL. I will go back just for it!

Speaking as a native Chinese, many of their dishes are the best I've ever had outside China. This is one of the very few, if not the only Chinese restaurants here that offers a taste of Shanghai regional home-style cooking. <br/><br/>This definitely isn't the place for someone who is expecting Chinese-takeaways. <br/><br/>Many of their dishes demand freshest ingredients and a highly skilled cook. Many of my European friends have never heard of these dishes, which are vastly different from the ubiquitous Cantonese food. Although I could be referring to the wrong thing, as real Cantonese food are also hard to come by. <br/><br/>I've been to this little place many times. The ambience has room to improve but it's very tidy and you can't have everything and still expect it to be so affordable! They offer a few Cantonese dishes to cater for probably some locals customers, but I'll stick to their Shanghainese cooking which is obviously the chef/owner's forte!

We ate there last night. Our experience was ok. Everything was under average. Service was not too bad. But food was tasteless. We will not go back.

LOVE it, food is great, never had bad service, sweet and sour pork is the best ever, not jelly type sticky red stuff, dark purple lovely very tasty, love their lunch boxes, you get tea, main, rice, brocilli and peanuts all or a great price. <br/>I think there prices are fantastic compared to 'kiwi' chinese kitchen.<br/>Have had many dishes all fab, if there for lunch try the Beef &amp; Onion noodle soup... Hubby's favorite.<br/> <br/>Often take different people there never had a bad experience.

My wife and I along with friends and family have dined at the Shanghai Kitchen many, many times. Excellent Shanghai food and service at a reasonable price. It is really great ,so nice we don't take some of our friends there. The food is delicious and different. The staff are friendly and obliging . I'm amazed at the negative reviews as we have never been disappointed with the food or service . Perhaps the negativity reflects the critics own dyspeptic personality's. It certainly doesn't reflect the Shanghai food or the friendly hosts.

Where to begin. The service at Shanghai Kitchen was totally superlative to any other restaurant we have been to on Petone's prestigious Jackson St. Our waitress, Daisy, positively sparkled in all aspects of service, attending to our every need with gusto, good humour and witty banter, and making thoughtful and well-considered recommendations as to what we should order. The pork we ordered utterly glistened with radiant deliciousness, umami delicately balanced with sweet and sour flavours. I would not hesitate in commending this fine establishment to anyone who desires an immersive Oriental gastronomic experience, with exceptional service as a bonus. Will definitely go again.

We are regular eaters at this place, love the food there, service has always been prompt and have never had to wait for service...need to book a table though especially on a Friday night, can boy wine too...Jennie t

I must admit I am shocked at the negative reviews. I have eaten at Shanghai Kitchen lots of times. I do like the spicy pork which comes in a box with peanuts etc and have only tried a few other things. It is what it is, a basic restaurant and priced accordingly. It is probably suited better for lunch thank dinner. I just love Asian food and think it is great!!

Shanghai Kitchen is one of my favourite restaurants to go to in petone. It’s authentic Shanghainese food, not the usual lemon chicken sweet and sour stuff you get at most Chinese restaurants. The steamed buns are my favourite to start with, and there is also a sweet alcohol rice dessert which I haven’t seen anywhere else. The mains are good but none have really stood out to me so far.

Victoria is quite right in her review. This is not Cantonese food and tastes different to what a lot of NZ ers would be used to.I found them friendly and helpful.

We tried Shanghai Kitchen tonight after hearing great things about this restaurant for years. Our experience was ok; neither good nor bad, just very average. Upon arrival, we were pointed towards an empty table about halfway up the restaurant. About five minutes later, menus arrived and our orders were taken after another ten minutes. There was another long wait before our first course arrived and no further interaction other than to place our meals on the table. We ordered sliced pork as an appetizer. The thin slices were quite fatty and swimming in garlic sauce, giving a very strong flavour. The orange flavoured chicken was more subtle with no particular standout taste. The stir fried sliced beef in oyster sauce was heavily capsicum-laden but otherwise lacking in flavour. We wouldn't rush back.

We ate at this restaurant last night. The food took ages to arrive at the table. We ordered shredded pork with bamboo sheets and pickled cabbage and another dish of fried rice with seafood. Both dishes were disgusting. I refused to eat any of it. My partner could only eat a few spoonfuls. I complained and witness said she would knock 20% of the price. I said I wanted 50% off or I would refuse to pay her anything. She agreed to 50% discount. This place should be closed down.

This place deserves negative stars and should be shut down! The food is generally terrible and one would definitely be able to cook better at home even if you are not familiar with cooking Asian cuisine. <br/>The food lacked flavour and had not been reheated long enough in the microwave. The food took sooo long to arrive you would think the food came direct from overseas and the restaurant was not busy at the time.<br/>The staff are totally unprofessional and incredibly rude. <br/>Due to the bad quality we didn’t eat most of the dishes, though they still required us to pay for this crap. <br/>The only positive from this experience is that we did not get food poisoning from eating here.

great food and service. and what "Jane" said was not true. their restaurant is called Shanghai Kitchen. they have shanghainess food rather than catonese.Alot of food there are very different to what other chinese restaurant have.

A certain food critic at the Dominion Post made a mention of Shanghai Kitchen's skate wing. I made my first visit on the strength of that. Pains me to say it but he was right! Worth the visit just for that one dish. Lovely food.

Last Friday was our first visit to Shanghai Kitchen Petone. What a treat. We were greeted and shown to our table (reserved) and received attentive and timely service throughout our meal. The staff were helpful with recommendations and the food certainly didn't disappoint. The Shanghai Duck starter was superb as was the Shanghai Sweet and Sour Pork, one of our main dishes. Having lived in Asia for the past 8 years I would say that all our dishes were among the best Chinese food I have experienced outside of that part of the world. The prices are very reasonable, the decor plain-ish and fairly typical of this type of establishment. For a Friday-night, cheap-and-cheerful it would be hard to go past this place. I will go back again and again.