Shanghai Villa - New York

Authentic newly-opened Shanghainese restaurant in the west village. The owner and kitchen all speak Shanghainese. Not only you can find popular dishes like Xiao long bao and pan fried pork bun, there are many other less known dishes like “small dumplings”. Service is warm and vibe is casual.Food: 5/5

Such a fantastic meal! The dishes I tried were all excellent — dynamic and delicious flavors. Great service too! Excited to return.

Walked in with a friend and immediately noticed how quiet it was. The man who seated us turned out to the the owner. I know this because he chatted with us through our entire meal. I barely talked to my friend except to comment on how chatty this man is. He is very passionate about vegan/vegetarian food. My friend is vegetarian and once she shared, that they had an extensive conversation that started there and took us on a tour into history. During our meal a few people drifted in and others came in for take out. The place was a little stuffy and smelled like cooking fumes. My friend said its notable this place accommodates diets that dont eat garlic, onions, and green onions. 5/5 Appetizer sampler (choose 3): Miso eggplant, king oyster mushrooms, kao fu4/5 Sizzling Soy Cutlet i saw multiple reviews mention this dish so I ordered it but thought it was okay. I'm pretty familiar with vegetarian meats and asian cooking so this was not a stand out for me4/5 Pineapple fried rice good. It was a little wet, probably from the pineapple. Would have liked if it was a little drierI am on the hunt for a food vegetarian place so I was excited about trying Go Zen but sadly its not a top contender mainly because the food here is a little too sweet for my palette. We found out the chef is Shanghainese and they tend to make their food sweeter so if that's more suited to your taste you'll like this place! Each item is good but having multiple sweeter dishes is a lot for a meal which is why even though I rated the dishes well, the overall experience gets a 3 (also factoring in the environment). Perhaps I didn't order the right things to balance out the flavors. Would return if I was in the area.

The food wasn't the worst it just wasn't the most flavorful. All the fried foods need a sauce, the cedar rice was good. Their oyster button mushrooms are battered nicely and taste similar to a fried wing. I would eat here again if there was nothing left on earth aside from that I wouldn't go back.

Great casual sit down restaurant with awesome vegan (and non-vegan) dumplings, BBQ seitan and Asian noodles. We ordered the sesame seitan, all the veggie dumplings and Singapore noodles and one other noodle dish.All was served quickly, service was great and the food tasted delicious. Highly recommend!