Joe's Shanghai

Location: 136-21 37th Ave., Flushing, NY
Cuisine: Chinese
Hours: SUN-THU (11am-11pm); FRI-SAT (11am-12am)
Phone: (718) 539-383, (718) 539-4429
Website: www.joeshanghairestaurants.com
Prices: About $7 per person
Credit Cards: Cash only

Food: 8
Service: 8
Value: 8
Environment: 8

Frequency: Frequent

The rest of the crew (Auntie Remy, Auntie Ida, I4 & Edwin) arrived last night. Earlier in the day, my parents took them shopping at Woodbury Commons. I met up with all of them at about 9pm for supper & Joe's Shanghai. We try to take all of our out-of-town visitors here even though it's hard to get in. This restaurant seems to be always crowded, even during the "off-peak" hours. Can you believe that we had to wait in line @ 9pm on a Thursday night!?


Joe's Shanghai is famous for it's Xiao Long Bao or soup dumplings. There are 2 flavors... pork and crab meat. Both have a meatball in the middle and are filled with a tasty broth. They're brought out in a hot a bamboo steamer. The best way to grab one without breaking the skin (and spilling/losing the soup) is to pinch it from the top with chopsticks or tongs. Then you place the dumpling on your soup spoon. The soup on the inside is very hot, so you'll want to bite a small hole and sip slowly. The spoon will catch anything you missed. Once you're done with the soup, make sure the rest of it is cool enough before you take a bite.

Many customers just go here for the Xiao Long Bao. I've seen tables with bamboo steamers at each seat. I always suggest that when I'm there with my family, but I guess they feel weird about going to a Chinese restaurant and ordering only one dish and want to show our guests some variety. The Xiao Long Bao is one of the best foods I've ever had. I rated Joe's Shanghai an 8 because their other foods are just OK... you can do the same or better in many of Flushing's restaurants.

The place itself is very clean and decorated with classical Chinese furniture. There are flat-screen TVs on both sides of the restaurant that are usually tuned into the current game or a Chinese TV series. The only problem with Joe's Shanghai is it's size... especially for the amount of business it rings in. The restaurant is tiny and was never upgraded from its original layout. They could've easily moved into a larger space or renovated the layout so that they could seat more customers. The place would still be full and the lines maybe a bit shorter. Maybe the owner didn't want to take the risk or just couldn't find a low period to shutdown.