Review Shanghai Dynasty - Melbourne

Such a beautiful restaurant interior wasted on mediocre food. Not sure how they spent so much on the interior design but serve all you can eat for $30. Staff weren't attentive and service was slow. There was no one at the front as the entrance is very confusing.

The boss runs this business in a typical Chinese way. He thinks good decoration and appearance will bring more customers, but he forgot here is not China. Food is average, service is terrible, you can not find any waiters when you need them. They only appear when food is ready to serve. It is also bit pricy comparing to having same food in other Chinese restaurants. I will not go back again.

New owner and they are sorting themselves out. So Tried the food from the new chef, both of which comes directly from China. Great food, but don't order your normal Chinese take away food.. Must try the spicy beef. Sorry food was taken half way during the meal...

Plenty of choices, good place to have Yum Cha with friends. The price is cheap, but the washroom needs to be fixed. Some damages are there for long time(over 6 months), better replace it.

Fancy place, slightly more pricier however the atmosphere and food is worth it

This place was one of the best places to eat in Chinatown. Its grandeur sophisticated and classy atmosphere is such a waste compared to the food quality and service. We tried to support the place by coming back again and again but I think they've lost us forever. They have lowered their standards to the point where it's no longer acceptable. The worst Chinese restaurant it's become. :-(

This is a really terrible experience at this restaurant. I had a Yum Cha buffet and the food were not fresh. Especially, the prawn were stinky in the dumplings and some prawn are not cooked. The important thing is the attitude, the manager said it is different kind of prawn. He did not apologize to that as well. Also, the waitress were rude and use their home language say something. One of my friend know what were they talking about. So I really do not recommend the Yum Cha buffet.

Food average. Service terrible. We ordered about 10dishes, they serve first dish in 5mins，then wait for another 20mins to serve another few dishes, and finally, they miss out some dishes which we already waited for an hour. And the waitress looks unhappy all the time. We will not try come back any more.

The food is very average but interior design is very nice and luxurious. The price for the all you can eat yum cha is very good and definitely can get your money worth, it also comes with soya milk.

Due to the reviews, I had low expectations when visiting for the lunch buffet. However, I walked away SUPER satisfied :) As soon as we arrived, we were greeted with a warm welcome and tea was offered. The food and service were quick, which highly exceeded my expectations. There were many food options, both vegetarian and non-vegetarian. The interior decor is just amazingly stunning!!! The staff were very polite and provided excellent customer service too! Always refilling our cups with tea :) Just ignore the poor reviews and try it out for yourselves! Highly recommended!

Went with a group of friends for the buffet yum cha. Was fairly good, food was pretty much made to order and some of the items were excessively oily.

Terrible, just terrible!!!! I would have given it zero stars if I could.<br/>The food was terrible and service was awful. Came here for all you can eat yum cha and the trollies almost never came past us!! And when they did all the food was gone, we ended up having to get up and grab the food ourselves because we were sitting there for a good 45mins with only 2 dishes eaten. <br/>The MSG amount was almost intolerable and I had to drink a heap of water afterward so my mouth didn’t shrivel up into itself.<br/>I also saw them marrying the left over soy milk together- EW!!! Even if it was untouched, the milk was still sitting out of the fridge for ages!<br/>We ordered soft drinks, which we were charged extra for. Its stated on the menu that it’s included in the cost pp, but as we never got a menu we didn’t find out until I came on here to write a review.<br/>Another thing was the carpet, it was so stained and covered in crumbs and who knows what else- it was disgusting.<br/>Horrible experience, never going back.

Been here a few times since it’s opening years ago but never had yum cha here. Was contemplating if I should come here for yum Cha after I read the reviews however due to time constraint I decided to give it a try.<br/><br/>The dim sum is definitely not as bad as describe but definitely not the best. Every food was warm / hot except for the tau fu fa (sweet soy beancurd). The service was good (weekdays). I was able to order dim sum from the menu so it’s freshly steamed. I really like the fried noodle. <br/><br/>We requested for high chair but the handle and seat was oily and not sure if the safety belt was functioning properly (looks like some parts was missing) so we decided to not used it. They didn’t turn on the air con or ventilation.. it’s not too warm inside but definitely stuffy. Feel like they have lost the ‘glory’ they had back in the days.

My family and I came here for lunch. We did the buffet option which was good. Food came out quickly and we also had the option to order out the dishes. It was a good dumpling fix!

I quite like the yumcha buffet here. For $30 dollars you can eat from 11am till 3pm. You also get a complimentary 1.25L of coke or a 1L of soy bean milk. The yumcha here is quite fresh and tasty.

Had yum cha & only liked one of the dim sums. <br/><br/>The rest tasted like marketed frozen dim sums made to be sold in bulk by suppliers to restaurants/fast food places. Not the best place for yum cha, although very cheap. Would recommend spending a bit more to go somewhere where they have order per steamer basket for real yum cha experience. <br/><br/>Decor is great at least.

Worst restaurant ever!! <br/>Food was below average !! <br/>Service was horrible and slow !! <br/>Do not come here and waste your money !!<br/>Never review anything before but this was so bad that i had to let everyone know !!

The restaurant itself looks gorgeous and fancy, but the first red flag should've been the fact that it was empty despite it being cheaper than the all you can eat hotpot across from it. After we got seated by a waitress who looks like she was so done with life, this untidy looking man pushing a plastic cart walked by us to ask if we wanted any food on the cart (which is unusual for an all you can eat hotpot, and the food looked like leftovers). Initially, the food came really quickly, but if you order for a second round, it starts slowing down and the untidy looking man (who I assume is the manager/owner) will start watching your table and start telling the waitresses to not put down your order if he sees even just half a plate of completely different food left. The service was terrible, and they were so stingy with the food for an all you can eat hotpot. The dining experience was so uncomfortable and terrible that I didn't even bother taking any photos. 1 star, please don't drink the free soy milk.

For a time I was starting to lose hope of finding another all you can eat yumcha. it was a few years ago and my favourite place had shut down and for a long while I couldn't find another good one; only to stumble across shanghai dynasty. <br/>Now, I come here frequently for all you can eat yumcha, the food is high quality and the service is also very high quality; the decor is very luxurious and really feels nice to experience a meal in. I haven't tried this place for a la carte menu but I am highly satisfied with the yumcha they offer here, everything they offer is always fresh and delicious. Highly recommended over several other all you can eat yumchas I have been to.

Came by for all you can eat yum cha. The service is a little slow moving (food came out quite slow). Better to request for items as they come out nice and fresh. We had a table of 6 but were not allowed to sample more than one tray per item (3 dumplings between 6, really?). Food was seasoned decently overall. Sounds more appealing than it was in terms of the "all you can eat".

Probably the worst yum cha place in Melbourne. Food is bad, service is even worst. I'm surprised this place is still around. No wonder it's always empty.

Other than the decor... This place could have been so much better. Some food items were cold when they arrived. The quality of food was not as I would have expected and not worth the 'cheap' price they advertise. Service was fine. No food item that stood out... The desert spread was pretty small and bland, the tarts were good, but noting special. Much prefer to spend the money downstairs at Tim Ho Wan.

The decor is amaze-balls! 😂 😂 now, I don't understand why this place got so many extremely bad reviews. Yeah, it's not a Michelin star restaurant, but I have definitely been to much worse places than Shanghai Dynasty and somehow those places score higher ratings than SD. Give this place a go peeps! <br/>Minor suggestion for SD: you may want to put some food coloring in the shiraz bottles at the front. Shiraz bottles filled with water look fake.

We made a booking for 4 and it took us 20 minutes to get a table. It took a long time for the food to come to us and it was cold by that time. If you get the $29.80 all you can eat, they give you a complimentary bottle of soy milk. But the bottles of soy milk aren't new as I've seen the manager pour all the left over soy milk from the tables into one bottle and serve it again which I would imagine would be an OHS issue so DON'T DRINK THE SOY MILK!

If I could give this restaurant a negative rating, I would give it a -10. I'm surprised it has a rating of 3.4...Never ever have I encountered food that was this bad. I was here for the All you can eat Yumcha but instead was given plates of the most grotesque looking dishes - oily, slimy, raw and tasted like it was either expired or left overs from last month. Believe the reviews. This place is disgusting and should be closed down.

its the worst restaurant I have ever been to， we ordered yum cha there. The director there didnt allow the waiters provide what we order for us since he thought its going to the closed time… but actually there still have 30 minutes… what a pity<br/>Besides， the director of the dynasty gave us soybean milk，we drunk a lot， but accidently we found this drink past the due… <br/>I dont know the reason this restaurant can exist so long……… I will never go there anymore！<br/>

Dear Mr and Mrs Shanghai Dynasty,<br/><br/>You should change your name to Shanghai Dine-Nasty<br/><br/>I came here for the buffet with an empty stomach and a heart full of hope. I left feeling full...full of regret. <br/><br/>The dumplings came out at a rate of 1 per 5 minutes but I didn't even look forward the next dish coming out because they tasted like frozen dumplings bought from Coles, food I wouldn't even feed to my dog. Speaking of dogs, I feel so dogged right now because I thought this was supposed to be 'all you can eat' but it ends up being 'all you can tolerate before you write a bad review on Zomato' <br/><br/>When I got here I was all like 'send noods'... but when the noodles came out they were clumped and oily and it killed my food boner. <br/><br/>Shanghai..more like Shang-bye I am not coming here again.<br/>Sadboys.

This is another favourite Chinese restaurant of mine I go to for big family events it's a great place with a wide range of dishes, I have not yet been able to fault any dish, i often order the lobster and noodles or crab and steam fish with a lot of other sides as well I highly recommend it another great thing about this place is the private dining rooms they have being able to have your own room away from the rest of the people really does allow you to have the full dining experience away from noise

If it's possible to give negative stars capped at -99, I'd give it -99.<br/><br/>Put simply, don't come here. <br/><br/>Service is terrible,<br/>Food is, actually they don't serve you food after you've been there for an hour. On top, the first hour they serve you the same things.<br/>Has a menu of 80 plus, I don't think I saw 8, and you can't order.<br/><br/>It's no wonder all other yum cha restaurants have people and this doesn't.

Having yum cha with friends here. I think they don't have much choices of food like others. Only three trolleys pass by us in one hour. And so disappointed with food and service.

We had the all AYCE hotpot. It was great when we were the only table, but as soon as it got busy, the food stopped coming. We ordered a lot of dishes and they never came. We kept asking the waiters for the dessert we ordered, and it took almost 40 minutes to arrive.

poor service and poor quality of food. very disappointed with their chilli oil dumplings, thick skin and too oily. Would not go back or recommend it.

We came here for Chinese New Year and actually wanted their special banquet but unfortunately they said it wasn't available as they were doing the Chinese New Year banquets only and don't have the dishes available. Now this is strange as most of the dishes on the banquet menu was available on the Chinese New Year banquet menu. They advised us that we can order each dish as a la carte if we really wanted the banquet. Anyway I was not impressed. <br/><br/>To be fair here's the run down :<br/>1. Don't expect great service, it's not there. It's slightly better if you are Asian as they are slightly more attentive maybe due to language barrier with some of the staff. <br/>2. The fitout looks amazing and photo worthy but that's where most of the positive went<br/>3. Food is more costly than your average Chinese Asian restaurant even for Chinatown and cbd location. The positive however is that the quality and taste is good and presentation great. <br/>4. Prepare to wait. Steam rice took them 20 mins to bring us another bowl for a second serving. They must've run out of rice and had to recook but I've never heard of anyone running out of rice at 6.30pm when it's quite early in the night<br/><br/>Overall the rating given mostly due to great atmosphere and fitout plus food taste. Let down was the service, value for money and time.

The decoration in this place is so over the top. Highly recommend it for eat all you can yum cha. It's a good value for money. Quality is above average and you can order duck as part of the all you can eat yum cha. I would suggest to order it quick cause god they take a while to bring it out. Yet to try hot pot with them.

The Dear Luncher visited Shanghai Dynasty for the first time recently. Upon entry, his eyes were treated to rather opulent surrounds walking through to the main dining area. For such a remarkably ornate and vast venue these guys sure know how to disappoint. The sticky-beak Your Dear Luncher had of some Zomato reviews prior to arrival seemed hard to believe. Surely not, surely we're just dealing with some picky eaters. Not the case, unfortunately. <br/><br/>For the next 45 minutes or so, The Dear Luncher was treated to lukewarm (barely) and sometimes cold yum cha dishes. The Dear Luncher can honestly say that there was barely a single dish that was enjoyable. The ones that tasted nice were cold. The ones that tasted like arse, were hot. In the end The Dear Luncher was just eating to get a sense of value for money. <br/><br/>The service was confused and wayward, often unsure of what they were serving up.<br/><br/>A grotesque experience.

As a group we've been here before with success but this time has gone too far. The quality of everything has dropped significantly in the last year, this includes the gentlemen with the baggy Europeon oversized white shirt, glasses and rude attitude. <br/><br/>He first brings out a soy Milk to which when evaluated closely has crust around the rim of the bottle neck, obviously opened prior and refilled with other containers is just a disgusting sight. the food doesn't come out on carts anymore it has to be ordered. Once ordered between a sesh of 3 boys 6/12 dishes come, the waiter duely notes that unfortunately they don't have some of the items anymore for the day although we had arrived early in the morning. <br/><br/>Gentlemen's doings:<br/>1. berates the waitresses 2. Doesn't give the option of allowing for a glass of wine rather he pushes the customer to buy the entire bottle3. Rude 4. Stares at you whilst you wait for food that will never come5. Physically abuses the waitresses<br/><br/> This place is not worth coming too unless you want to admire the nice statues they have posted in the hallway. Is it me or does the Shrimp Dumplings / Har gao's look like the ones sold in chinese grocery stores in 15 packs.

This restaurant has the most pathetic and rudest service i have ever received, in particular the asian male with glasses and the fake Louis Vuitton belt. He walks off in the midst of ordering, 4/10 dishes we order, he says they dont have despite it being advertised on the menu at the entry door. He also tells his staff off infront of customers, which is unprofessional and creates an unpleasant dining experience. We will not be back again.

This is the worst restaurant i have ever been to in my life!!! Service is slow!!!! I had all you can eat hot pot, although the price is only $29.80 i wasnt expecting the best quality of food or service. However, i expected the food to at least come to me. Ive waited for a whole hour just to bring the food, but they ignored us. After an hour some customers arrived next to us, theyre hot pot soup hasnt even come but they brought the meat already!!! Finally by putting some attitude in my tone they suddenly brought out all the food. <br/>If it wasnt that you need to rank to post this review, i wouldve ranked this place negative 5000000<br/><br/>Never coming back!!!!

We had hot pot buffet tonight. Actually not that good. The food you can choose is limited and the waitresses' attitude is not good. They deliver food so so so late! They soya milk is very sweet. The dessert is also not that good.<br/>In conclusion, this is a restaurant not suitable for hot pot!

Actually the Yamaha here is not that bad. There a various choices, high portions and beautiful environment. But if you go there at buy time, the speed and service maybe not that good as too many people to serve and the dishes on the small trolley is not enough. I'd like to went there early. Th flavour is good enough to have but still under the level in China.

Yum cha is a cantonese cusine, guess we shouldnt have tried it when it was done by chefs from different province. The only good thing was they take last minute bookings while others don't. <br/><br/>As for food, the majority of the dim sims we had were just luke warm, the taste is nowhere near the orginal yum cha place, you can also taste some ingredients quality is not good, esp meat and the ox tribes were mot treated properly thus it was stinky. I could hardly pick out one good dish. Even tea was not good, very stingy for tea leaves in such a big pot of water. <br/><br/>In terms of service, only may be one or two staff knows what to do, all the others just a bit oblivious in even the most basic service. <br/><br/>They may be okay at dinner service (which i have not tried) but please stay away for yum cha if u are after a good food experience.

Absolutely atrocious service - went there today for a late lunch with my girlfriend, where upon arrival I had to find my own seating as the staff were most unattentive. When I finally managed to get service, half the menu items were not available, and those that were came out cold and bland.<br/><br/>Dismayed, we decided that we would leave and find a better place, and upon paying the bill we were rudely accosted by one of the service staff who felt we were being rude by leaving so soon after arriving, saying that we had wasted their time. Honestly, I can put up with lousy service in a Chinatown restaurant, but outright rudeness is on a totally different level.<br/><br/>Avoid this restaurant like the plague.

I lunched today at the Shanghai Dynasty (which seats around 300, this restaurant is huge) and I was blown away by the absolutely ornate traditional décor in all it's magnificent splendour. I don't normally embellish my reviews with so many photos, but to do the restaurant justice I felt it necessary. I ordered their Sweet & Sour Chicken (without batter) at $26.80 (a tad expensive but being fair one is paying for a 5 star eatery), the meal was great and served steaming hot and within 15 minutes of ordering. Wait staff were good but not great, lacked a friendly approach in my opinion. I did however find it rather amusing that there weren't any serviettes on their tables and that a box of tissues is supplied instead, but upon asking I was quickly given a silk textured red serviette without further a do. <br/><br/>The Juror's Verdict: Food 4/5, Service Provision 2.5/5, Will I return: Yes, I'll return in due course for a different menu selection.<br/><br/>Phill Jury (food critic & writer)

The food wasnt good at all, really nice Restuarant but food isnt good would not come again. Had hot pot and you get a bottle of soy milk the cutlery wasnt clean and customer service wasnt the best

Rubbish service rubbish food - 12.12.30 yum cha on a Sunday. Went here hoping for some semi decent yum cha. What I got was packed dim sim from the freezer isle. Surrounded by people which everyone had to stand and chase Tolley pushers down. The waitress told us to walk to the kitchen so that we can get an refill for our tea. I might as well just work for them

Totally awesome, real food spot on.<br/>Many choices, lovely atmosphere.<br/>Great service. <br/>And it can be all you can eat if you choose.<br/>A real great special treat for your taste buds.

I thought the AYCE yum cha is not bad at all. Service so quick and friendly. For $29.80, it's a total bargain. I have to say the steamed dim sims were mostly fresh and tasty. Unfortunately their steamed glutinous rice dumplings (the one wrapped in bamboo leaves) are not fresh and probably re-steamed many times. I will definitely go back again. My group did arrived early at 11.30am Saturday so it was not busy yet and food was abundant.

Yumcha here is actually NOT that bad, as the other reviews suggest. <br/><br/>It's about $30 per head, and you can pretty much feast as much as you want. Service is pretty good and quick. Guess I had a different experience from the other reviewers, but I quite rather enjoyed myself. <br/><br/>Also came here for a birthday dinner celebration once, where the bill ended up coming to about $1600. We had one of the private rooms, and had lobster and one of the more expensive banquet menus. It was tasty with good presentation and great service. <br/><br/>I might return for the yumcha (it's honestly not that bad - especially if you're a big eater), but probably not for the dinner (I found it quite expensive for what it was).

I visited this place last weekend with a group of friends for the $30 all you can eat Yum Cha lunch special. Although this place looks grand and fancy it is far from it... How can I explain it... basically the place looks expensive but really it's cheap. We came in a group of 10 and in order to feed everyone we requested for 2 of each item on the yum Cha trolleys when they passed. <br/><br/>I've noticed that once a trolley passes it won't come back so I encouraged my friends to grab whatever they wanted to eat when they had the chance. It was very hard to get the waitresses attention and when they do take our order they don't actually come back so we had to ask several times. <br/><br/>My friend had ordered the Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce which hadn't come so when the trolley finally came around with them we asked for 3 plates from the waitress but then the male manager/owner came around and joked with us implying that we were ordering too much (mind you we were not being wasteful and ate everything, none of us were even full yet and one of my friend couldn't even eat anything else on the menu except for the Chinese broccoli). He ended up only giving us two plates... (Prior to this I noticed him hovering around our table eyeing the amount of dishes we had on our table (which wasn't even much for 10 people).<br/><br/>To top it off they give you a 2L bottle of soya milk to fill you up so you wouldn't eat as much and it wasn't even a fresh bottle of soy milk either- the caps were unsealed and looked crusty from dried soy milk spills as they mostly likely refill soy milk into these containers from other customers unfinished milk? (I'm sure you get my point by now).<br/><br/>The food overall were edible, except for the chicken dumplings- they were dry and had really hard and thick skin. <br/><br/>I wouldn't recommend anyone to come here, it's a pity because the place looks so grand and nice, wish the food and service was better!

Oh my, I've never thought I would need to pay to eat such xxxx food. This place used to be quite upmarket and had good quality food which was worth the price. Today's yum cha buffet was worse than takeaway dim sim, actually no; it's worse than frozen dim sim. Prawns were frozen ones with no taste. The skin of the steam dumplings were very thick. I don't even want to go into detail of the quality of the food. I've not had such bad food for a while. Not one dish was acceptable, oily, artificial...<br/>You also get a 2lt bottle of soy milk included in the buffet, probably to fill you up so you don't eat too much of their food. I guess it's better to fill yourself up with the soy milk instead of eating such disgusting food.<br/>If you have too much money to spare, yep give it a go!

Booked for 9 people Saturday morning, was surprised to be able to book for the same day as previously the restaurant was very busy and well established.<br/><br/>We were very clear at the end of the meal why this was the case.<br/><br/>First, we entered the lobby.  Was greeted by nobody for 20 minutes.  Had a cake to drop off for a party/function and literally nobody greeted us at the reception for over 20 minutes.  Walked into the dining area unobstructed to ask for assistance, was greeted reluctantly by wait staff and told to sit down at the nearest table.<br/><br/>Had to ask them specifically (after waiting of 10 minutes on the table) to put the cake in the fridge for later.<br/><br/>Ordered banquet meal, hoping it would be quicker/more efficient as there was 9 of us total.  The cold appetisers came out quickly but more than 45 minutes passed between servings of main courses.  The rice (which is a staple in chinese cuisine) came last, not first or second.<br/><br/>Towards the end, wait staff were sympathetic to our cause and even joked with us about having to wait so long for meals but during the first few courses nobody so much as looked our way.<br/><br/>As a final slap in the face, sweets (part of the banquet meal) were served to the wrong table and our party - which had already waited over 2 hours at this point - was too keen to grab the bill and leave the establishment, never to return.<br/><br/>If you are there to impress the pants off some young lass who doesn't know good service from her left kneecap, this is your joint.<br/><br/>If you are there for literally any other reason including good food/service, don't waste your time.  Pick any other restaurant in china town and you will be better serviced and better fed.<br/><br/>Would have given 1 star if waitress didn't make a joke about how long we had to wait for our meal.

Use to come here on a regular basis. Today decided to try the buffet for the first time. Everything went downhill. The food was not the same, we could tell because we do dine there quite often and today the food was just weird tasting, some items were sour tasting and some very oily. Some items were "not available" when the items on the list. This never happened before ,only today when we decided to go for the buffet.<br/>They said they have to charge our one year old half price. But our son will not and wont even eat the food. It should be clearer on the poster for the buffet promotion.i understand that you are trying to promote because of tim ho wans grand opening and you are probably losing a handful of customers.. but missing information, changing policy on the spot on prices wont get you anywhere.<br/>We have been to this restaurant many many many times for a few years and took our relatives and friends and took photos of the food and posting it for people to see.<br/>We promised ourselves that we will not come back.

All you can eat yum cha for 30 pp is cheap considering yum cha for 2 is usually about 70 dollars for us in different restaurants. Well today, they tried to charge us half price for an almost 2 year old kid. Not happy and said we are not paying lol and the staff was black face but accepted our request. For a restaurant looks so gold and fancy , you probably expect service to match. Service is shocking and rude. Well i guess that comes from the top by management. The guy who i think is the owner have a strange way of providing service. Dress so casually as well. The staff could do a 5 or 10 minute training on how to serve customers. Some just stand there and have no clue as to what to do. The toilet is so dirty that public toilets feel cleaner lol. Food is alright though but yeah dont think i will come back again if they charge my kid

The yum cha dishes offered here are mostly your standard har gaos and what not. Classic but delicious if done right, which unfortunately I can't say was true here. Maybe because we came in such a big group, but all the food tasted like it had been prepared ages before hand and left sitting there. Not fresh at all. Shame, because taste wise it was fine, and probably would have been miles better if it was served fresh. I might return in a smaller group.

Just not happy from the first minute that we sit down! Such a big restaurant and they comes to us that they are not have enough tea pot to serve us..... Such a joke!

Shanghai Dynasty is in the city, in the same building where the old Village cinemas was. But its expensive. As students however we did not go for the expensive option. We went for the $29.80 all you can eat which has 80 varieties of dim sum and noodles. We couldn't have the fried or sweet things because of Febfast. We are taking part in this years Febfast, which is giving up sugar and fried food for a month. With fried food I feel really lethargic sometimes because of the oiliness.

The decor might be full of grandeur but service and food are just not that great. We had the all-you-can-eat yum cha at $29.80 per person including Chinese tea (or $39.80 with a selection of alcoholic drinks) and everything was overly oily, salty and full of MSG. I know it's a tactic most AYCE places use to make the customers get full quicker but it made me feel very uncomfortable later on. Service was extremely slow and our table kept getting ignored by the staff who were pushing around the yum cha carts to each table. Good thing was that towards the end (2:30pm is their last order) they will ask if you wanted anything else and you can then choose to your heart's content whatever else you wanted from the yum cha menu. Just bear in mind you will only have around 20 minutes to finish everything though (by then most people are quite full anyway, unless you only go in at 2pm). I guess it was an extremely busy day for them today as it was the first day of Chinese New Year and there were heaps of people, therefore service was a bit disorganized. Don't know what their a la carte food is like but apparently quite expensive. Not sure if I will return... Would rather eat elsewhere to prevent my body from oil & MSG overload by having yum cha here.

Very grand dining experience, the decor really takes you away to another place. Came here in a group of 12 and had the all you can eat yum cha, we may have come on a bad day as it was not overly busy but the service was quite poor. Took a very long time to get tea served and when it came they brought 1 pot for 12 people. The food trolley didn't seem to come around much and we ended up ordering most dishes. What we had was decent but service let it down, would come back and give it another shot.

Luxurious and opulent interior but without the 5 star service to match that this restaurant desperately needs.<br/><br/>Our waitress was not rude per say, but very clearly did not like her job or want to be there. Surly is how I'd describe her attitude. She dumped 2 menus in the middle of our table for 3 of us dining, and we asked twice before receiving tepid glasses of tap water.<br/><br/>Food came out slowly with 10 mins between each dish, and was a 6-7 out of 10 but overpriced for the quality.<br/><br/>Dirty cutlery had to be sent back to the kitchen and the toilets were filthy.<br/><br/>Disappointing experience overall.

I went to Shanghai Dynasty for the Yum Cha and all I can say is that it was HORRIBLE! The restaurant is very scenic but the food and service is a let down. Most of the staff do not speak English so it was extremely hard to communicate. Not only this, they did not even try to meet my simple requests! Instead, choosing to wonder off. The waiters were absolutely clueless and not helpful. Majority of the dumplings I wanted were sold out and I arrived at Yum Cha a hour before closing time! <br/><br/>If you want to go to Yum Cha, I would suggest Dragonboat over this restaurant. Maybe their Dinner is better?

Opulent, and audacious, Shanghai Dynasty is certainly a memorable venue. If you enjoy the lustre of gold, and worship the sparkle of shiny objects, then you will really like the décor. In fact, if you’re anything like me, you will want to take home bits of their furniture, and offer to buy the ornaments.

Went there for a friend's celebration party. The server was hilarious!! We ordered the king crab, after showing the live crab, he gave us ample time to take pics and was even trying to find the best angle for a good shot for us. Thank you sir! You sure know how Asians are like with their food and cameras! The food was pretty standard for places in its category. Ambience was nice. Heard once that the service was bad but I dont think so, I guess it depends on the customers as well. Will go back on a pay day if you know what I mean😁😁

Came here for yum cha to celebrate Father's day. We were seated in a 'dead spot'. One out of five trolleys would pass us and even when they did, we were at the very end of the run, so most of the fresh food had already gone. A request to one of the wait staff to see if she could ask some of the trolleys to come our way first was met with a blank stare.<br/><br/>Food was uninspiring to say the least. It seemed there was an over-supply of flat rice noodles. At one point, it seemed to be the only thing circulating around the dining room...on multiple carts. <br/><br/>The 'it's so bad, it's funny' moment came half-way through service when the fire alarm sounded. Some dinners ignored the alarm, while others got up. Thinking this was a false alarm, I stayed put, knowing that the evacuation alarm would come on, if it was a serious threat. Sure enough, it did. As I got up to evacuate, I couldn't help notice the lack of urgency by the wait staff. If anything, they just kept serving, as if nothing had happened. There appeared to be no co-ordination to move customers out, nor any communication to customers about what was going on. Surely, someone should know how to implement fire safety procedures, when required??<br/><br/>As some people started to evacuate, I saw wait staff chase after them, for their bills!!!<br/><br/>Overall, the bad service, bland food and lack of concern for customers means that I cannot recommend this place.

I think this is one of the worst restaurants I have attended in my whole life, and I am no spring chicken .There was 6 of us ,the offered us one menu to look at ,we had to ask for hand towels and when we asked for them the waitress looked like we had asked her to cut her hand off friend asked for steamed dim sims didn't have any .The fillet steak only had limited options re sauces and was full of veins .We had to ask for a desert menu after waiting for 30 minutes + whilst the waitresses and owner /manager talked at the reception less than two metres away .Once again one menu offered for review ,deserts delivered on the most rattly trolley I have ever heard in my life .I ordered deep fried Ice cream with mixed berries .The deep fried ice cream tasted terrible Like it had been fried with with and chips .the sauce was minimal ,my wife asked for ice cream it came with only one option of sauce strawberry .Then to top the night off as soon as the desert was served they waitress asked for us to pay the bill so the cashier could go home .This place is amateur hour it is one star at best some of the meals were ok but I think the have all been precooked ,but the most expensive the eye fillet had veins running through the meat .Then at 10 o'clock the owner/manager turned the lights off .I had had enough I was out of their never to return .

ABSOLUTELY HORRENDOUS . The staff were incredibly rude and we waited a very long time for every course. We spent $400+ on a banquet that was shocking and some of it was cold. The last corse was lobster and this was the biggest disappointment. They were hard, dry, disgusting, inedible balls. We could not believe they could treat such a gem of the ocean the way they did. We were then charged $18 for tea leaves floating in water. We will never return and we definitely would not recomend anyone to try Shanghai Dinasty.<br/>

Amazing atmosphere and decor, but not tasty food. The egg tarts pastry was burnt and the dim sum variety is only so-so. Wouldn't go there again.

Better second time around. Avoid seating along the long hall at all costs, by the time food gets to you its all cold. Main room is where it's at.

Rudest waitress we have ever encountered. I've been here at least 4 times and their golden sand bun is amazing not to mention their beef tendon and egg tart. Service is usually generally ok but today's service was just unacceptable. Not only were we treated so rudely once but twice in an hour, to start <br/>and end our meal.<br/><br/>Firstly, when we entered the restaurant the lady asked us "how many people" when we said 5 she just discourteously pointed to a table and walked away. This sort of treatment is something I've grown accustomed to since only a handful of waiter/resses have been polite in showing us where we will be seated. So, moving on to the second point.<br/><br/>Secondly, we had just finished eating our meal when the same lady handed us our bill. We felt like we were being shoo-ed out so one of us said 'but we didn't ask for the bill' she explained that because it's almost 3 they're closing, not in a very nice way either. Sounds reasonable. <br/>Then she cleared some of our plates and while walking to her trolley to put the dirty plates away she mumbled in Mandarin, which in English loosely translates as 'what a joke'. Of course she thought we didn't understand or else why would anybody say something like that and risk getting called out for it. Only naturally this pissed us off, so one of us replied 'you really should be more polite, you're working in the customer service industry'. We had it up to our necks with this lady so I got up and asked one of the gentlemen there whether he was the manager and he was, so I explained what had just happened and he apologised to us for it. When we were walking away we could hear her arguing with her manager in Mandarin, sounded like she had a million excuses for this absurdity. <br/>UNBELIEVABLE. just unbelievable. <br/><br/>I really wouldn't recommend coming here if you're really not in the mood to tolerate some bad service(if you get this lady) or have your mood turned upside down. Food wise, I'd recommend it to my friends.

This place used to be our favourite for Yum Cha.... Not any more!. My partner and I have come to this restaurant, off and on, for a few years.<br/><br/>Last Sunday, 8th March 2015, we went there once more, in anticipation of another feast of wonderful Chinese Yum Cha food and great service.<br/><br/>No.... And no.<br/><br/>I was pissed off within two minutes. I have never met such a rude host who, when asked for a table for two, just pointed at a table behind us. I just stared at her. She stared back. She couldn't have cared less.<br/><br/>At this time, I should make the assumption that those who we assume were previous owners, and who were such wonderful hosts, were nowhere to be seen. Must have sold out. <br/><br/>Eventually, I helped myself to serviettes and bowls. I just found some and grabbed them, as the staff appeared to have no intention of doing the same for us.<br/><br/>Food finished up being ok, when it used to be very enjoyable. The wine was nice, but then again, that was in a sealed bottle and it was hard for them to stuff it up!<br/><br/>I jumped into the "pay here" queue, and there she was again...l Good old misery guts who pointed to our table upon arrival. This time, she pointed at my food list that you're given at a Yum Cha. <br/><br/>"Stuff you", I thought. She could ask for it. I didn't care what language she asked in... I didn't care if she couldn't speak English. She could speak English by the way.<br/><br/>While she "totted" up my bill, my eyes were drawn to the various types of glassware hanging upside down in one of those racks at the top of a bar. They were all covered in dust. So, I dutifully ran my finger down one of the glasses to make a non verbal point to her. I think that she got the point, but couldn't give a stuff anyway.<br/><br/>Don't go there people..... Just don't go there.... Ever!!

Horrible experience at Chinease New Year dinner 2015. We went to this restaurant for Chinese New Year celebration based on previous OK experience, though we already know there is basically no service level provided. This time its bit busy, there is no guest attendance for 5 min, dinning area was random as usual but with really strong unfresh seafood cooking smell.<br/>Our $38 half wine chicken was totally off, we told the waiter and the manager just shew up to took it away after 10min, then the replacement was on table with the manager abruptly mentioning 'Fresh'. Each of us tried one piece it seemed OK, then the 2nd piece under were all the same OFF. We left it aside untouched.<br/>Our 2nd dish of wok tossed fish fillet with Ginger was horrible, at that time we just realized why the bad smell when we entered. The fish fillet was rubberish, and the smell was on par as my home hair coloring, well another $35 wasted.<br/>The pork was acceptable with strong sweet soy source, and the last mushroom with scallop was OK to take, but scallop was rubberish still and the source was way more sugary sweet. I pretty much finished my meal with vegetarian fried rice only.<br/>The staffs were most likely overseas students, had barely proper trainning, even the boss was doing the delivery himself like a random guy in the market, occasionally yelled out for some emergency. But they were totally OK to leave the dinners to DIY all cutlery they like. <br/>It was Chinese New Year, except the wine chicken we just felt pointless to complain for such kinda biz.<br/>BTW, $4.50 tea charge per head was new on the bill.

DO NOT GO HERE, TERRIBLE SERVICE!!!. We had a reservation for 9 people plus a high chair, arrived at our booked time and had to wait 45minutes for a table! The Matire'd seemed to have no idea where he was going to put people, took 5-6 groups of people that arrived AFTER us to tables and then only took us to a table once one of our guests threw up a huge fuss and had to follow the maitre'd as he kept walking away from us when we asked where our table was. When we FINALLY got a table there was no highchair, they provided us one that had no safety strap so was unusable as our 1 year old would have fallen out. We were waiting for the trolleys to come around for Yum Cha (2pm by this stage, booking was at 1pm) and noone came our way. 9 guests who we STARVING, grumpy with the service and not getting anywhere. It took me two attempts to talk to the waiteresses with the trolleys to come our way and for me to get mad and say we have a hungry toddler, then noone still came so I went to the Maitre'd then had another stern word with him to ask if we could please have some food. He eventually sent 2 trolleys to our table. Then half way through the lunch he brought over another trolley and told us to take whatever we wanted FOR FREE and then his waitresses came over and told us off that we were stealing! He didnt tell his waitresses this and just walked off, making us look bad!! They were cursing at us in cantonese (one of the guests speaks and understands cantonese) so we were so horrified they were talking about us right infront of us and saying we were rude! Oh and we didn't get any tea until ages, pretty much one of the guests had to go get it herself from the bar area!! Not to mention one of the waitresses also spilled piping hot juice from one of the yum cha dishes on the guests foot who was wearing jandals and narrowly missed my baby!! She told us to be careful next time (when it was her fault anyway). <br/>Will NEVER GO THERE AGAIN NOR RECOMMEND TO ANYONE ELSE, it was like the place was run on hilarity and no level of hospitality professionalism. As for the food, average. Nothing amazing. We were more interested in the new yum cha place opening up downstairs.

Waited 1 hr.. The service was extremely horrible! My family and I BOOKED a table for 7 at 1pm. Waited and waited for more than 1 hr, the Asian old man kept repeatedly asking me "how many people"?. Eventually, left the place. <br/><br/>Would NOT EVER recommended to go there.

Food was average, service could be better, popular place in city.

This is one of Dad's favourite places to go to when he's in town and I follow along so I can get my fill of snow crab. The snow crab they do here isn't as great as many of the Chinese restaurants in Perth, possibly because they are more familiar with the WA ingredient. However, it and the other seafood they make is still pretty tasty and fresh. Prices are also not as steep as one might expect given the over the top (in a good way), gilded decor. They also do a nice, and not too pricey, yum cha where you generally don't have to book.

All in all, Shanghai Dynasty is simply a well-balanced place. My white friends love it because for once Yum Cha can be clean and elegant.

The much anticipated (by me), Peking Duck was put in front of us next and was soon gobbled down before you could say “is there any more?”. The duck was succulent, moist and full of flavour and the pancake light, wafer thin and perfect. I was in duck heaven when they bought around a second serve to everyone!

I went to Shanghai Dynasty with my family to celebrate my birthday! Rumor has it, the owners spend $3-4mil on the interior decorations and furniture! Being born in Asia, I've been to many restaurants like this before so this was nothing special, but it did look like King Midas came to rampage! This was one of my favourite pieces of furniture in the entrance. There were other things like massive clocks, couches, mirrors what not. But this reminded me of Cinderella's pumpkin carriage so I like it very much! Versace inspired cutlery (I'm no expert in brands so I don't know if it's real or not)    I ordered my favourite drink of all time! Lemon lime and bitters.  Our entree consisted of a vegetarian abalone. I'm guessing this was made out of soy products. The presentation was wonderful but I have to say, I found it hard to enjoy this dish. On the first bite...I don't even

Hard to comprehend you have stepped off bustling Bourke Street into this ornate & grandiose setting. Our yum cha dishes were fine and the service professional. We shall definitely return to experience their à la carte menu.<br/>

“Wow!” was what I thought when I first entered this restaurant. They have covered every centimetre of this place with opulence. There were chandeliers dripping with crystals, objets d’art, gilded ornaments, ornate furniture, wall to wall and floor to ceiling marble, and richly patterned carpets which matched the chairs and the plates. The main colour scheme was a rich gold which was set off by darker timber and navy colours. The style was Chinese infused with European influences. It was hard to believe that we were actually above a shopping arcade in the Melbourne CBD. Raymond the Maitre D’ had previously worked in Shanghai, China.  Polite and friendly, he showed us around the restaurant which was larger than it appeared from the outside. We kept on walking as room after room of beautifully laid out dining areas was revealed, rather like Alice in Wonderland!

Came here on CNY. Terrible.... Came here on CNY. <br/>Terrible food. Food was too pricey for the quality of food. The host also took the wrong order and messed up our meal. <br/>Service subpar. Virtually ignored by service staff the entire time we were there. The table next to us with just 2 people walked out after being seated for 20 mins without a menu or tea. <br/>Even with the elaborate gold adornments around the place, toilets were very dirty. <br/><br/>Normally I don't write reviews for restaurants but this place was horrible and people should be aware of this.

Terrible service from the chinese waiting lady. I must say the service has gone so bad...probably they were just interested in serving the customers from Mainland. We booked the table on DIMMI and online as per the restaurant. We turned up early and the lady who was taking bookings was so rude. She told us she didn't have a table when I have shown her the reservation. Apparently they DON'T check emails or anything online. Then why on earth do they put it online?! Already pissed off, she argued and said we have to eat and get out by 7.30pm...as if we are there to eat for more than 2 over hours!<br/><br/>Ducks were all sold out! Ridiculous! I don't expect such things in a big restaurant to happen. And then the food was quite bland and boring. Expensive as it is and few varieties. It was such a let down as when last time we went to have yum-cha, it was good. I'd NOT recommend anyone to come here for dinner. The other young man who speaks Cantonese was pleasant and apologize on behalf for that rude lady at the front counter. I'd seriously think twice before going back to this place again.

Service was bad. Would not go back,service was terrible,food was ok.Definately would not recommend it.

Dislike. Didn't enjoy my experience here, service was terrible - when you're able to call someone over that is, otherwise service is non-existent.<br/>Food was just okay.<br/>I give them a 3/10 from my personal experience.

Worst experience ever. The reason I went to this restaurant was because my friend was having there wedding celebration there.<br/><br/>First impression walking was this place much be so elegant with all the gold and decor. So I was expecting very top notch service. Unfortunately all that elegance was hiding away such poor poor service. <br/>Firstly when food was getting served it was just ploped in front of us. And that was it. We sat there at the table wondering if the waiter was gonna come back to plate the food as u would expect for a wedding function. But that didnt happen. <br/><br/>We ended up self serving ourselvres. The next dish comes out and it was ploped in front of us again. The old dishes were not taken away. So we waited hoping to get service this time. But nope. But what made it worse was the next table was served as you would expect. There food was plated for them. So while we sait and waited. The owner came to our table and expressed us to eat eat. Grabbed chopsticks and picked up lobster meat and put it on one of the girls dishes saying eat eat nice. Then we all thought he was going to help plate our food. But instead he motioned us to self serve and it wasnt to be plated for us by his waiters. Dissapointed again. We Thought ohwell guess this is gonna be standard now. But wait it gets even worsee. Yep you heard me. How cant it get anyworse u say?<br/>Well In our vegetable dish there was a bright green caterpillar in it for extra protien and flavour. I had to look twice becuase I couldnt believe it. The others thought I was joking. But they checked and was immediately put off eating anymore. Told the waiter we wanted to speak to the manager and showed her the reason. So she rushed off to speak to him. Her never came back to our table. Not even a apology from them. After a while with the dish sitting there one of the other waiters came to confirm and the look on her face was priceless. So she takes the dish away and that was that. More food streams to our table leaving and all the dirty dishes on the table not clearing it away Until we asked them to, they didnt even give us spoons or cutlery to eat. So we ended up getting up and getting it ourselves or asking to get them. The dishes where not cleaned properly either. There is more I can mention but I think u get the idea how bad it was.<br/><br/> Speaking to the other guests on the night they all had similar experience aswell.<br/>I would never recommend this place to anyone ever especially if your planning to celerbate your special day there. I will remember this place for all the wrong reasons.

Stay away. They must have changed hands, service has gone downhill terribly. We went there as a group of 6 last Friday. First, the drinks didn't arrive after 20 minutes, then when we asked about our drinks, it turned out that half of them were not available. Second, we got 2 of the mains before our entree and rice. There was no reception or captain, and the wait staff didn't know what's hospitality. No wonder it's only 10% full on Friday night.<br/><br/>I regret taking my family and making an otherwise lovely evening meal worse by visiting Shanghai Dynasty.

Unhappy experience. If u wanna have yum cha, i strongly recommend u go to Cantonese restaurants like Shark fin house or crystal Jade...Shanghai dynasty one has few choices of food+unprofessional staff attitudes+ they're not a cantonese restaurant that specialized in yum cha!But i still dont know what they are good at

Have read a few negative reviews on this place, but thought we should give it a chance. Upon arrival, my name wasn't on the booking list even though I have made a called earlier in the day to make sure. Luckily the front service staff said she remember taking my call and managed to find us a table for 11 people. After sitting down for 20mins without any service, we had to call out to a staff if we could get some tea. <br/>The seating was from 1-3pm, but there was barely any food till after 2pm and at 3pm we were told some of the dishes we ordered is sold out. <br/>We had to waved for attentions to get the food trolley pushed over to our table. Staff was rushing, one went off pushing to another table before we could even finished asking him what each of the buns were. Last tray of the item we meant to take then got given to the other table. He then turn back to our table and ask what we want. With disappointment we told him what he did. We got the most shocking reaction ever from a restaurant of this kind, in fact, any restaurant! He walked off, turned his head back, making a face, mumbling and flicked his hand and keep walking off. That was extremely rude! Even though I tried to held in my frustration, not to ruin our family lunch, but everyone else on the table could see how rude he was. <br/>What ashamed, great looking place and the owner was so friendly, not only the service was bad, food was average but the extremely rude staff has totally ruined this place for me and my family!

Service was bad food was ok

If you are not Cantonese, don't come here!. The place looks very pretty, but that's where it ends. A group of us went here for a b'day dinner. We arrived at 7pm and didn't get most of our food til 9pm. The service is the worst I've ever experienced. We were constantly ignored. Other tables with Cantonese/Asian groups were served quickly and had left before we had received our food.<br/><br/>Glasses were dirty, all the forks were bent, but we were all given forks and spoons, even though we could use chopsticks. At the end of the night the bar was completely full of dirty glasses (I should have taken a photo). Toilets were disgusting, and not cleaned since 2:30pm.<br/><br/>One positive, the food, when we got it was great, but that was probably because we were starving, and anything would have tasted good at that point.<br/><br/>I could have talked to management about this, but I know they wouldn't have cared, so I didn't bother. Please, do yourself a favour, and go to any of the other fantastic Asian restaurants in the CBD, don't be fooled by the decor in this restaurant.

The restaurant is all looks, no customer service, no quality.. I came here on the weekend for Yum Cha. I did like the look of the restaurant, Versace / Italian inspired furnishing and decor. I thought this restaurant is all about class and 5 star service. I am so disappointed and will not be coming back. It wasn't busy at the time, not even half full. There was staff roaming around, doing things at a very slow pace. Not attentive at all! I have to wait 10 minutes to be seated. Once we sat down, I waited for the yum cha cart to come by, 10 minutes later, nothing... I ask the waitress, to confirm that if a yum cha cart going to come or should we order, she said it will come soon. I waited again another 20 minutes. I am so close to getting out of here, but then I was hoping something will change my perspective of this place. When the cart finally arrive, it has nothing that we wanted. So I made an order, just to make sure I am not waiting any longer, 10 minutes later still nothing, so I ask another waitress, this time it came out. We order 6 different dishes, even though I wanted more, but could not be bothered explaining what i want, as I don't know the name of these dishes. Out of the 6 a la carte, only one was good and fresh. the rest was off and have a bit of a sour or dry taste. Not happy at all and I think they could see it very clearly. The manager doesn't seem to care, beside taking our money. I was hoping that she would just ask, but then since she doesn't care, I think I won't bother.

I LIKE IT. We came again today with some friends. We have been a few times for yum cha and, once again, had a really nice meal. Very attentive staff, good food, although not a large selection. Tea topped all the time, table cleared immediately a container was empty. I know the a la carte is expensive but the yum cha is much the same as the other places nearby. The ambiance here is over the top and really fun to be in. Not sure why there re so many bad reviews, we are happy here but will stick to yum cha.<br/><br/><br/>-----01 Jul, 2014-----<br/><br/>PLEASANTLY SURPRISED. We went here today for a yum cha. We normally go to Dragon Boat or Westlake but was recommended here by friends for the ambiance which is outstanding and lavish (over the top but this is the Chinese way). I had read some of the reviews on Urbanspoon and was a bit worried. We had a REALLY delicious and fresh yum cha. All the servings were fresh, tasty and came hot. The dumpling casings were soft and thin. The restaurant was nearly full but we still received very attentive and helpful service. Evelyn (my wife) went to look at some of the decorations and was taken (by the boss we presume) on a guided tour of all the "special places". The tea came in a large glass teapot and was refreshed when asked. I thought the sesame balls were a bit oily but tasty. All the other 10 courses we had were very good. (We eat a lot). We had a quick look at the general menu and it is EXPENSIVE. Not sure if we would go there for an a la carte meal but the yum cha in "China Town" is very competitive so the cost here is no more than other places that do NOT have such wonderful surrounds. We will certainly return here as we can get a great yum cha at normal prices in wonderful, exotic and lavish surrounds.<br/>VERY SATISFIED.

Satisfication customer service <br/>I celebrated my husband 's birthday at Shanghai dynasty restaurant tonight. I was very happy with the food . The manager and the service staff help me to have the table decoration done. I read the reviews and I was a little bit worried if the food and the service might be worse. However , all is excellent.<br/>Well done with your improved service . I will recommend your restaurant to my friends.

Agree with some of the bad reviews posted about this restaurant's service and rude to patrons. The environment is impressive. The food is not that fantastic that I would go back despite of the rude services extended from the waitress and managers. I would not recommend this restaurant unless you can put up with the rude serviced from the wait staff.

Awful Awful. Had a small wedding reception in this place about a week ago. The service is so bad, we started with cold entree, followed by soup. The table i was on got served soup, but only half way. The other never got soup. When we informed the waitress, she didnt look happy. The soup was not worth the wait, it was some cornflour gooey soup. And the dishes were too salty, or too bland. The set up of this place is nice but the food & service doesnt match up to it.

Russell N. What a disappointment experience! The food is average, but the staff work in this restaurant know nothing about what they were doing, knows nothing about the wine on the wine list, no service and speak very limit English! No resons for me to coming back to this restaurant!

As much as I'd like to share my good dining experience to fellow viewers, I beleive there is one thing that would stop me doing so.... Bad service. Luxurious fit out, expensive tables and chairs etc. etc. they don't matter if those gentlemen in the black suits know nothing about how to treat their customers. I'm not going to bash because I'm a business man too. Hope the owners notice this and get those guys do the job right. It's such a big shame to spend $$$$ on the business then ruined by staffs.

Amazing value for money. Four of us had yum cha there last Sunday. The choices were varied and delicious. The staff we dealt with were very friendly. We did notice an obnoxious waiter serving other tables and he's perhaps giving the staff a bad face. We ate a lot of food that day and it was $25 per head including a drink each. Will be back.

Amazing Seafood dinner. I'm really surprised by the unanimous reviews of horrid service at Shanghai Dynasty. We had dinner at Shanghai Dynasty on the 14th of March 2014 and the service was immaculate: friendly, professional, attentive and helpful. I'd hate to think it's a matter of race ( we are cantonese and so are the help and owner, we spoke in cantonese) or a difference between daytime (yum cha) and night time staff.<br/>We chose Shanghai Dynasty for it's opulence and seafood menu, it was a special graduation dinner. The food, was AHMAZING. <br/>If you want something different at a good chinese restaurant, this is what we ordered:<br/>We had entrees of cold jellyfish in sesame oil and a plate of the most wonderfully seasoned wood ear fungus served cold.<br/>For the mains, we had one snow crab cooked with foie gras and noodles. STAR OF THE SHOW. This was amazing. I can't recommend this more. It's not ON the menu but its something the chefs can do if you know how to ask for it.<br/>We also had a steamed murray cod that was stellar, the flesh was silky soft and just slid down your throat. Fish are best done steamed at a good Chinese restaurant, this allows for the freshness and sweetness of the fish to make it's statement. The waiter did a very good job of "raising the bone" of the fish that left the entire fish intact.<br/>We also had a plate of stir fry garlic and snow pea shoots. It's so delicious and a different turn on the normal Chinese broccoli.<br/>Lastly, we had a plate of seafood fried rice not on the menu.

Bad Service. Hate it. The staff and the managers in this restaurant were very rude chasing patrons out of the restaurant to set up for the next session. They were not polite to tell their patrons. The quality of the food is going down hill. PLEASE DO NOT IMPRESS BY THEIR INTERIOR OF THE RESTAURANT. This restaurant has gone too commercialised and it is not worth your money to spend and enjoy your meal.

Hate it. Disgusting service, disgusting food. Don't bother, worst dining experience.

Worst service!worst yum cha!wost experience

Had a very nice and enjoyable Yum Cha lunch, the customer service was very good and the food was delicious, will come back again next time!!

MR Matthew. If you're not asian then don't even bother dining at this restaurant.Yes the decor is nice,but you will be treated with contempt and will wait for what anyone would consider extremely long times for your food.Then if a spare table is occupied by asians they will receive their food almost immediately.Absolutely disgusted by the so called service and naturally will never return and would strongly urge and recommend all others to avoid this atrocious 'restaurant ' at all costs.More than enough choice on l.bourke to avoid this abomination.

Great fitout. Food's pretty reasonable. But AWFUL Service! Understaffed. Expect to wait ages to get food.<br/>still... The food makes it worth a try

Good for its namesake, but yum cha is not from Shanghai. Pros: the traditional shanghai food is just that- traditional. It did not cater to my westernized (and "Canton-ized") tastes .. But for what it is, it was authentic. Decor was amazing, marble, gold and stone, flawless. Cons: their attempt to cater for tastes like mine fell short. As foodiephil (a self proclaimed native shanghaian) wrote: yum cha does not originate from shanghai, so like him I cannot understand why people are eating yum cha there.. its like going to a cantonese restaurant and ordering their peking duck.. Or going to KFC and ordering a whopper. Lack of awareness of geographical differences, probably. Wir: I respect the restaurant although I would only return if someone wanted the real old shanghai (shanghai was once a royal city in ancient times) at a steep premium.

Horrible!! So rude, attempted to dine here on two occasions and was turned off from such rudeness and frustration. From what Ive heard Im not missing out on much anyway

Yum yum! Albeit a little pricey but the quality and deliciousness really do stands out from other yumcha places :)

Good one, worth to try.. I like the way the restaurant is set up, service and food is good and the price is very reasonable compare with its interior decor. Definitely worth to try.