The restaurant was beyond filthy dirty. The service was so poor that I had to ask twice just to receive the food I had ordered. Three of us ordered the hot and sour soup. It was completely lacking in flavor, and had an odd consistency. We could not eat it. I ordered the dumpling soup. It contained three pitiful and tasteless dumplings that were no better than those one would get in a frozen package from Trader Joe's – in fact they were not even as good as the frozen dumplings. The three dumplings swam in a tasteless, oily broth that reminded me of dirty dishwater – ugh!!! My son ordered beef with noodles. A dish arrived with thin slices of "mystery beef" sitting on top of a few lifeless overcoked cellophane noodles. The texture of the beef was disgusting, and the dish was nearly inedible even for a college sudent who enjos hamburger helper!! My daughter ordered the dumplings, and they were edible, but tasteless.

We appeared to be the only diners not speaking Chinese, and we felt that we were discriminated against because of our English speaking. The waiter was rude, the service was terrible, the restaurant was filthy, and the food was barely recognizable and tasteless.

I will never again watch Check Please Bay Area because there is no way I will be able to trust any type of review from this program. I believe you are doing a diservice to the comunity when you so blatently mis-characterize a restaurant. Diners speaking Chinese received their food well before out table, even though they arrived later than us – this restaurant is a disgrace to all Asians!

We ordered an onion pancake. It came at the end of the meal and was the best thing we had — average for a South Bay Chinese supermarket. The Peking style dumplings were just about inedible (I think they're what kept us burping through the concert afterward). Crab and pork dumplings were very tired — not as old or tired as I felt at the end of the meal, but not fresh and not up to steam table dim sum quality. The won ton soup — I know, this is a Shanghai restaurant, but a woman at the next table had some and recommended it — was also about the worst ever: thick, undercooked dumpling dough, evil smelling broth. Horrible all around but moderately priced (under $30 for two to eat very poorly).

The owners seemed nice enough, but they tried hard to seat us across from the bathroom door, which, BTW, doesn't close completely. I'll resist further comment at this point other than to note that, in an area full of excellent ethnic food, this is the worst I've ever had. Of course, we'll never go back, and we no longer trust the hype on CPBA. We wonder what the positive reviewers were smoking and where we can get some.

What really killed this place for me was when I started looking looking at the pictures on the wall and they were disgustingly dirty, with caked-on "stuff." One of our soup bowls and spoon was dirty too. Some other patrons were sat a a dirty table and asked the waitress to re-clean it. These type of seemingly minor issues always makes me question the cleanliness of the kitchen.

The service was indifferent and extremely slow; we had to chase down a waitress to obtain our check.

We do not live in San Francisco but but travel there periodically and pass Shanghai Dumpling King We'll just continue to pass it next time. It was gross.

I am surprised at your attitudes and that you attacked my opinion!!!! And my writing skills!!! Grow Up!!! You all reacted as though I was reviewing your taste buds and criticizing you for liking Shanghai Dumpling King. This is the USA and as of now "Freedom of Speech" still applies!!!!!!! (Too many exlamation points for you Londo??)

If the restaurant was not interested in being reviewed, then they would not have allowed themself to be featured on Check Please Bay Area. Everyone, look at the photographs of the dishes served at SDK. I ate at that restaurant, and what I wrote was MY experience. And what I was served DID NOT in the least bit resemble the photographs!!!! And YES the steamers were old and filthy!! There were two very re-used and wilted pieces of some sort of lettuce on the bottom. I was not reviewing the ambiance or the service, I was reviewing the qualilty and the taste of the FOOD! I have travelled ALOT. I have lived in Guam where the predominant cuisines are from various Asian cultures. I have eated dim sum, dumplings from chinese restauranteurs in Paris, I have been to North Africa and eaten camel. Have any of you??? So my point being is that I am no stranger to the "Hole-In-The-Wall" restaurant. I was not expecting a "Fouquet's on the Champs-Elysee in Paris ambiance, where I have also been!! I was highly disappointed with my experience based on the fact that the guest reviewers on that particular episode so highly touted Shanghai Dumpling King. To me they are not the King of dumplings. But that is no refection up you and the fact that you like the dishes at that restaurant. I am happy for all of you if you did have a wonderful dining experience at Shanghai Dumpling King.

Brin Londo: Maybe you should try dining outside of the Bay Area more often to expand your palette!!!!!!!! And I think you are the teenager since you seemed to understand my OMG!!! It was MY review and I can punctuate anyway that I choose to. And yes, maybe if they did not drink so much wine they would have been more objective. So I think I just got the last LOL!!

T. LaVerne: I know what an authentic chinese restaurant is. Do you? Have you ever dined in China????

D. Lang: Are you a linguist??? There are many languages in which one is unable to detect where the puntuations are in a sentence. Let alone know where a sentence begins or ends. Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese and its many dialects, Russian, Japanese…. and your comment was an EDUCATED comment??? I think not!! You are an expert in what??? Sarcasm??? You have not even dined at Shanghai Dumpling King, so you are NOT QUALIFIED to critique my opinion and experience. Plus you obviously know nothing about bacteriology!!!! Just because there is steam, it does not mean that the bacteria have been exterminated!!! And I was attempting to tread lightly with my review. I made no mention as to what occured to me when my husband and I arrived home. You are not fool???? I beg to differ!!!!! So much for your "MADE-UP" bacteria theory you pseudo-scientist!

So in closing, even after your attacks on my review, I still stand my ground!!! And the next time you respond to another's review that is contrary to your own opinion, do so with respectfully, logicaly intelligently and maturely. Do not take it so personally and react so emotionally. I do not think any of you are the proprietors of the Shanghai Dupling King Restaurant.

Et Bon Appetit a tous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I haven't been to this place yet, being from the south bay, but now that this "reviewer" of sort brought it up, I can't wait to try it out, if only to give myself a test just how quickly the remaining bacteria that may manage to survive the steaming process in the *steamer baskets* (as carefuly noted in a previous sentence) will upset my system after having consumed whatever delicious content from the container. I am no fool, however, and have full confidence, really, seeing how this "food critic" *safely survived* her "apparent gastronomic ordeal" from this joint, getting home in one piece and having plenty of sweet time to crank out a post that's more than generously exclamated on this blog.