shanghai shanghai in Carlisle

Avoid Avoid Avoid - charged me £38 for myself and two under 10's - £3.00 for a can of Pepsi. No food, No basics, What was left had clearly sat a while and was cold. Asked to speak to manager and waited 10 mins to do so. Eventually after asking for the 3rd time to speak with a manager was directed over to the bar. I explained the reason for my complaint and showed her that indeed there was no fresh food and that other people were also starting to complain. - I requested a refund. She responded by telling me that if was unhappy I should have complained earlier. I quickly pointed out that I had sought a manager around 15 mins prior to our conversation. - She then told me that she would not be issuing a refund as we had all "eaten a full meal"!! I pointed out my empty plate and the fact that my daughter had only eaten 2 slices of cucumber as the noodles he wanted were not there to take! My son had managed two chicken wings and a shriveled up chip. Eventually after much persistence she reluctantly agreed to refund the children's meals. She refused to credit me with the cost of my meal (the meal I hadn't had). I then requested to speak to her manager or superior. She informed me that a complaint would only be accepted in writing. I asked who I would need to write to and she informed me that I would need to address my complaint to......wait for it...."The Manager" who happened to be her. Pointing out to her the absolute quackery and nonsense of her attitude we left feeling angry, upset and hungry. AVOID AVOID AVOID

Best food with low price and great service.

Very poor seafood and beef selection. Used to be much better in the past....

If you have allergies DO NOT eat here. I had to run to boots to get an EpiPen due to crab meat being in the salad. There was no sign to say that the salad contains shellfish. The staff were not bothered that I was suffering from an allergic reaction and made no attempt to help or even speak to me. Will never go there again.

Buffet is fine. As i am from india i prefer less sauce in food. And also bit spicy. Otherwise its a good option pnce in a while. Enough space and clean and neat area. Good staff's, friendly behavior

Good food great choice and definitely value for money,looking forward to going again.

Very busy with the people here. Fantastic quantity and price, and good treatment.

Poor quality, not authentic, poorly seasoned and not tasty. The Cola was the best. Bad quality, not authentic, bad spiced and not tasty. The soft drink was the best of the dinner.

my parents work here. I don't wanna come here everyday after school cuz they're working here. I look rly lonely and depressed.

Very poor buffet, all the chicken was tough and dry! Very salty food! Poor selection of Chinese dishes. Will never go back and would not recommend! They make you pay before you eat, I can see why!

As always, the food here is excellent.

Came here one night for something to eat. Not much left when we arrived, some containers only had scraps in. Some were refilled but they just tipped the new food over the scraps and mixed it in! No puddings left other than ice cream. Not great.

Lack of choice. Was very disappointed especially by the choice of desserts. The food that was there did taste nice but just lacked choice.

Food is nt bad. But the staff behaviour is too bad

Food was lukewarm and some of the sauces a little gloopy. Although I can't 100% pin it down to the food, I did have an upset stomach (that's the polite term) the next day.

Disgusting food was cold all dishes where empty not keeping on top of the food will definitely not be back 🤢🤮

It's the best place ever. Suitable for family

Great Chinese all you can eat buffet. Will definitely return. Only fault I found was the ice cream wasn't very nice which was a shame after eating a lovely meal before hand.

One of the colleagues picked noodles from the floor and put them back into where they were being served absolutely appalling

Decent, friendly cute Asian staff and some English

Hellish. Food rarely replenished in buffet. Teenage staff haven’t a clue what they’re doing- had to ask for drinks three times- and the tables are cafeteria standard. Noisy, chaotic, poor service, cold stodgy food and lots of empty trays. Avoid.

Went here tonight and everything was so tasteless! Nothing spicy or tasty. Definitely gone downhill since last time we were there. Cutting costs no doubt, won't be going back

Very rude managers attitude Food quality lower than average. We have been here before was nothing wow but something fast when you pass by and because of seating area. But this time was the worst attitude of the manager on the counter.

Food was disgusting the staff where dirty and unkempt and the male manager behind the till was very abusive and unpleasant We have eaten from here as a family for atleast 1 year but we will never be back

First time we've visited Carlisle and stayed at a hotel literally next door to this restaurant. We arrived at our hotel just before 7pm, dumped our luggage and went for a walk to see where and what we could eat as both my husband and I were starving. As we passed we looked in the window and it seemed busy enough and the prices in the window for a Friday night was £15.99 per person. It was 8pm we went in, they quickly served us, explaining we have to order our drinks at the bar before being shown to our seat, at the bar they charged us for our meals and drinks, before we sat down. A few minutes later a server comes to our table with our drinks, a cutlery set of a fork, knife and pudding spoon, (no soup spoon, but maybe they had spoons beside the soup), we certainly never saw any. Oh and two napkins. Head to the salad bar, this has to be the poorest salad bar I've ever seen, consisted of salad vegetables,sweetcorn, peppers, onions, tomatoes , jalapenos and I'm guessing what was potato salad and coleslaw, something that looked like vegetable sushi, there was no meat, cheese or egg etc. Most of the food was lukewarm, and not much left in the containers. Very limited choice, and as most of the food looked like it had been been sat for sometime, some of the dishes were floating in grease,. So sorry but no way could I eat that. When we were at the buffet we did see a sigh up telling people use the same cutlery throughout their meal but to change plates. After my boring salad I fancied my main course which was thai curry and boiled rice, they seemed to have run out of prawn crackers, this was at 8.15pm, so I asked the young server for more, only to be told "the kitchen is shut". Not wanting to cause a scene, I ate my curry, which was really tasty but would have tasted better had it been slightly more warmer. Now to my husband, all he could eat was chicken, I don't think he has eaten as much chicken in his life, (this was because most of the dishes had seafood, which Incidently I happen to enjoy. We ate up, went to leave and not a single person asked,did we enjoy our meal or said goodbye to us as we were leaving. A lot of money for lukewarm, greasy food that looks like it's been lying out for a good while in my option. To allow guests in at 8pm, when they were clearly, running their food down and not topping it up, or like us, could not get prawn crackers with their curry. Surely this should have been explained to us at the door. Yes the servers cleared our plates and not once did they ask if we were enjoying our meal, plus as I've already mentioned as we left not one person said goodbye, in particular the bar staff facing the exit door. Well really, why should they, they already had our money! Like I said, I will never return to this restaurant untill things vastly improve. All easy fixes as well, I hope the owners take heed and try to sort these issues out

We drove 20 miles to come here having checked their opening hours on google and on the website. We drove into town, paid to park and walked over for 20:00. We were met by the head waiter who told us that they now closed at 20:30 and stopped cooking at 20:00: so we could pay £15 for leftovers, but only had half an hour to do so. I asked where their new opening hours were advertised as the board outside advertises to 21:30 still. On the door, below all the information is a printed piece of paper with the new hours. Around knee height. It’s fine to change your hours. But at least be up front about it and change what your information says. Pretty poor to be honest.

You will spend at least £17 there

Saw the busy restaurant and buffet as we passed and decided to give it a try. Food was plentiful, hot and was replenished as needed. Everything was tasty. Will certainly return. It was a bit strange paying for the meal before we even sat down, but that doesn't affect the food and service.

All you can eat..... More banana fritters wanted out for consumption

Very poor quality , buffet trays not replenished and very little choice . we went to restaurant at 7 pm we had to pay before we Were given a table . Some of the trays were empty and we asked them to be replenished the waitress went to tell the cook but Nothing changed it wasn’t expensive our table of 4 was £78 with drinks . We still felt we had been ripped off and as for people Who entered after us had even less choice than us . We asked the manager who’s only lame excuse was it’s been busy Wouldn’t go again and wouldn’t recommend it to anybody

Very good selection ,pleasant staff £15/each in Main Street of Carlisle can’t miss it !no need to book can just walk in

This was a terrible ordeal which we had to go through including overpriced bad foo. Burning tongs and excessively bad ice cream jelly. To add to this horrifying experience a was given a large pepsi which cost £3.30 when I ordered a coka cola. Can't you guys got the order right. over all I was disappointed and angry with this dinner. I do not recommend.

Cheap and nasty Chinese buffet. We complained to the owner/ manager and he was so embarrassed about it we thought he was going to cry! One of the highlights of any Chinese meal is the crispy duck in pancakes - not here, they serve crispy chicken! Another disappointment was the sesame prawn toasts - except in here they serve sesame chicken toasts!. If you can’t afford the real thing then don’t bother - don’t try to fob customers off and hope they don’t notice! The fact that you have to pay upon entry should have been a major warning sign but unfortunately we stayed and were massively disappointed. We won’t be returning.

Not the best buffet I’ve been to. The hosts were nice though

I go out of my way to Carlisle just to ho to Shangai Shangai to have its food. There are so many variety , the food is always warm and freshly made its also very tasty so highly recommended.

Good choice of food enjoyed ourselves

Certainly not the best buffet style restaurant I have been to. The first sign that it would be poor was the insistence on payment up front. The food offered was a small selection of chicken and pork dishes that were bland and lacking in flavour, with exception of the chicken curry. All sauces I tried were very thin and watery and the soups were the same. The fruit salad was sour and drinks, as normal in this type of restaurant, very over priced

Food was decent for the money and service was good

Food was great, plenty of choice, there could be more puddings, not many chocolate ones. At the end of the day it's a run of the mill Chinese buffet place with great coffee. No frills but no shocks either.

Great choice of food, always topped up, great value for money, would highly recommend.

We went for lunch. It was a great price, the food was hot and fresh.

Food was delicious and plentiful and fresh, friendly staff, couldn’t ask for more

Good venue, great selection of food on offer.

Food was good but had to wait a long time for drinks

My favorite place to eat in Carlisle all you can eat Chinese food is always hot the staff is always helpful and the food always tastes good.

Cheap for an all you can eat Buffet i love it and eat it as often as I can

Comida asitica tipo buffet, fui 2 veces, no me gustaría volver...siempre sirven lo mismo

Friendly greeting on arrival. Nice selection of food.

Cheap, plentiful, popular. Maybe put price up slightly and greater choice . Would still go again. £12.95 all you can eat buffet. What's not to like

Never fails to satisfy !! Always come away stuffed !! Lovely

Staff very pleasent food was bland but plenty of options

Great choice of food wonderful staff very welcoming will be returning

My favourite go to restaurant in Carlisle when I visit.

Only 1beef dish, too many chicken dishes

The food is still as nice as always. Usually always fresh or doesn't take long before it is refilled with fresh, quality food. The mens toilets are clean enough (for a blokes bathroom anyway). Slight change to paying and seating now as you now pay at the bar before being seated (I'm fine with this and think it's fair enough as it saves alot of hassle for the restaurant as I've been in once or twice and a seen a couple scruffy clowns try and dodge paying for their meal). The only thing I can really ask be improved is to offer a high chair to any family that comes in with a young child/toddler as twice now I've not been offered one and had to go and grab one myself , no idea if they have been sanitised prior to me grabbing this or not. If it's a covid thing that's fine but the waiter or waitress needs to say this otherwise it just annoys people. I have still left a 5 star review because overall it's clean, well prepared & tasty aswell as decent value for money.

TERRIBLE service, very rude bar man, complained he was to busy even though we had already booked. Took ages to bring our drinks out, and to top it off there was hair in the dessert. Wouldn’t advise anyone to go.

I have got to say this place is terrible, Food was poor quality & Some of it just warm, Mixing prawn crackers in with fish filets & hash brown with crab bites what is that all about, Also charge you full price for kids just because they are tall ? I would not recommend this place if you do go your wasting your money!

Ordered a takeaway and the food was awful. It arrived promptly but it was very watery and absolutely tasteless. Never again.

Great meal ,staff very friendly,clean

Table not booked, but we were seated immediately. Excellent range of dishes at a very reasonable price. Friendly staff. Recommended.

The delivery reminded me exactly why I stopped visiting the restaurant in the first place. Not recommenddd

So we decided to pre order from this restaurant on Just Eat early in the day on New Years Eve. It said the restaurant would confirm the booking around 5pm, however at 6pm I received an email saying my order had been cancelled ! This is outrageous and the whole New Years Eve dinner ruined. Thank you Shanghai needless to say we will not be using you anytime in the future. Thank you Golden Dragon for saving the day.

Because of the current situation, Shanghai Shanghai have changed to a takeaway service. We collected a very nice set meal for 2 - generous portion sizes, well packaged and still hot when we got home. The service in the restaurant was well set up for hygiene and safety and the price - £18.00 was very reasonable.

Good value for your money and a good selection of food service was good as well not to busy as the weather was quite bad

Called in to the Shanghai Shanghai Oriental Buffet for the evening Buffet on the 29th Jan 2020, Before we sat down, we were asked what drinks we wanted , Didn't even get the chance to take our coats off.Disappointed to find that the duck for the pancakes are now replaced with very dry chicken.One good thing which we did like was the mussels and salted Spare ribs/and normal spare ribs, After that the food went down hill face, You could see new cooked food mixed with old food and the sweet and sour pork/chicken was just mush in batter, No real chicken.for £10.50 each, It was not worth it IMO, I will not be going back and it does not compare to other cities, Maybe that's why the food tasted cheap and nasty, No real competition in the city

Visiting the area and ate at this restaurant again last night. The restaurant very busy but did not have to wait long for a table. The buffet was well stocked with plenty of variety and staff made sure there was a constant supply of piping hot food. There was plenty of staff to keep the restaurant well run. The quality of food was excellent. Will certainly eat there next time we are in the area.

Lovely mean nice warm great choices

Great choice of food and excellent service.

Lovely food, great selection especially if you're wanting to try something you're not sure that you'll like and great value for money

Just getting back from this Chinese Buffett and it is the worst I have ever been to, went for 7.45pm greeted nicely and shown our table, place seemed spacious plenty of empty tables, now I know why, I wouldn’t recommend going at this time or later as they turn people away after 8.30pm as they don’t top up the food, had to ask for a few things, but no fresh food was brought out, so what we got was slops and dried up food, did read reviews and thought it can’t be that bad, well it is, and no sea food, Except for scabby shrimps and empty muscle shells, no crispy duck, did have crispy chicken and it was crispy, and just thinking there were no prawn crackers but there were some scattered amongst some chicken, we were out of there within half an hour and will not be going back, defiantly not worth the money, very disappointed.

Downside:limited options, i.e.: no seafood. Pluses: amazing food. Simply delicious. Extremely cheap.

Called in on Saturday 6pm quite busy food plentiful but of poor quality. Ribs chicken wings and curry sauce tasty but that’s it all the rest of our food was gloppy lukewarm,(even though good turn over and replenished) tasteless and I tried a varied amount, certainly not worth the £28 pound charge for 2 adults with one glass of red wine small at that and a glass of water. Rubbish really, go to a take away see what £28 gets you then sit in the park and watch the world go by.

Came here with my son. Reasonable price and walked straight in no wait. Plenty of choice and the food was replenished regularly. It was varied and what I had was tasty. Parking close is ok and there is a small car park opposite which charges 80p an hour. Lively street. Might return next summer.

makes a different evening meal out with friends - certainly not the very best but still worth it and food regularly topped up.

O.K. its a bit like a works canteen in its functuality however the CXhinese dishes on offer are great value and at busy times replenished regularily meaning they taste freshly cooked.The evening menu is more expensive than the lunchtime but does include extra dishes, we were disappointed to find that the duck with pancakes has been replaced by chicken.Alcohilic drinks are available.

Excellent choice of food well prepared help yourself always hot very tasty food great choice and reasonable price clean restaurant

Delicious definitely worth the money as long as you go in hungry

We had a day in Carlisle and decided to eat here, what a mistake that was, the sauce in most of the dishes was congealed as another reviewer had also said, plus the food wasn’t that warm and the chicken was quite stringy , the pineapple fritters were ok but the syrup was definitely watered down, normally I love Chinese food but I couldn’t face going back for more, no draught beer either as there was a problem, we will definitely give this place a miss from now on

Good food and price! However very disappointing that it has no baby changing facility at all! When asked, they confirmed they didn’t have anywhere to change a baby apart from on the corner of the sinks in the females bathroom which I find very disappointing.

We ate here buffet style, the food was ok, you don’t go expecting great food at a buffet in my experience you get what you pay for it’s tasty some dishes better than others. It was near to our hotel the weather was terrible so we popped in out of the rain. We enjoyed the atmosphere and some of the food. What you see us what you get and it’s cheap enough so you can’t complain really.

if you are hungry go there. good and cheap food. you eat as much as you want, but you never take cola, is not good.

Went in for an early evening dinner before the rush to find all the food freshly put out and was it delicious. I've heard that the quality gets a bad rap but I couldn't fault it at all. Staff were really friendly too. Very happy.

I feel really sad for people who think the food here is delicious. The food is terrible. I couldn’t find a single good dish at their buffet. Wish I would have never eaten here.

My friend and I visited with two children whilst on a day trip to Carlisle. The restaurant looked clean and there were a number of other diners so we decided it would be a good choice to give the children opportunity to try a few different dishes that they perhaps wouldn’t usually have.

Clean with a great variety of dishes to choose from plus you get to serve yourself as much of whatever you want. It's a 5 from me lovely people 😁

All you can eat at reasonable price. Staff are constantly checking the food and restocking all the dishes. A great choice of food.

A Chinese buffet restaurant. I enjoyed the food, and the atmosphere. Great for people visiting the city.

Myself and a friend came here 4 an evening meal. We were seated quickly. The restaurant wasnt very busy but did become so. It's an all you can eat buffet so you can go back more than once. There wasnt any duck meal options sadly. Most of the food was really nice

This was not as good as our last visit. The food was very mediocre and not as tasty as our last visit a few years ago. Perhaps if we had gone later the buffet might have been a bit more exciting as it was it was very poor and not good value even if it was cheap

I took my nephews here as we had just been to the cinema and wanted to eat somewhere quick and cheaply. And for those those reasons, this place ticks the boxes.

The most appalling food. It was only half past eight but only greasy remnants were still available. When we asked why none of the trays had been replenished, we were met with an angry tirade and accused of being drunk. Both my friend and I are teetotal.

I was here with my friends and little one. It was good food, decent priced and while we were there everything was getting freshened up.

Food was very basic, tasteless, and for £10.50 for the grand buffet I will not be returning here again but however we also ordered 2 pints of orange cordial at £2.10 each and was tasteless complained to the manager we said we are not paying for that as we didn't drink it, and was very a apologetic and offered us a small coke on the house plus knocked off the drinks, overall the manager was very polite and professional and handled the situation very well, but the taste of food needs sorting I have seen other reviews on other sites saying the same, if it improves I will not hesitate to go but until then I will not be returning

Food was very basic, tasteless, and for £10.50 for the grand buffet I will not be returning here again but however we also ordered 2 pints of orange cordial at £2.10 each and was tasteless complained to the manager we said we are not paying for that as we didn't drink it, and was very a apologetic and offered us a small coke on the house plus knocked off the drinks, overall the manager was very polite and professional and handled the situation very well, but the taste of food needs sorting I have seen other reviews on other sites saying the same, if it improves I will not hesitate to go but until then I will not be returning

Saturday afternoon. Fairly busy. Good choice of dishes but sadly the taste seems to be irrelevant to the chef.

Went here with the wife whilst we were in Carlisle it was right next to our hotel have to say it's one of the worst Chinese I've ever visited food is bland and not a great selection of dishes compared to other buffets I've been too won't be back!

I popped in here after stepping out of the cinema opposite and decided to give it a go having never even seen it before!

I have had better buffets for the price. Soup was cornstarch and the prawns were not even chew able. It was a complete rip off and im not entirely how its a buffet you would expect it to have a large quantity as well as variety. My mother was not at all satisfied with the meal, and for the price paid the quality of the food from all these people surely should increase. This review is not trying to be a rant of such but rather a way of expressing that the buffets standards for the customers are really low which is a disappointment rationing the prawns bit by bit across the seafood curry aswell as the cooked prawns. But I disagree with the price, I would've paid more for nandos rather then this. The dinner is more expensive then the lunch only because of the chicken and pancakes.

Shanghai Shanghai so good they named it twice ! I've been in many places that offer buffet, but this is the best. The food was fantastic. Very good service from the staff too. The spare ribs, chicken fried rice and the chicken wings were awesome. Definitely going there again on my next visit to Carlisle. Thanks for a great lunch.

Ate here with our adult son on our first trip to Carlisle. The restaurant was reasonably busy but we were seated quickly. I found there to be a good selection of dishes and it compares well to other similar buffet style restaurants we have visited. I found the price for both the food and the drinks to be very reasonable.