Shanghai Pine Gardens Restaurant

We visit the restaurant when we're in the area. Stopped in tonight for a birthday dinner. Our fav's tonight we're the orange chicken and shrimp with lobster sauce and vegetables. Service was excellant. My wife had wonton soup and said it was very good.

☆☆☆EXCELLENT FOOD!☆☆☆ I highly recommend this place! The service was excellent as well. I was pleasantly surprised at just how delicious the food was and the quality of the food. I haven't really found a great Chinese restaurant, but now I have! It's a bit pricey, but two things... 1.) You get what you pay for. 2.) You're on Balboa Island! This place has been here since the early 1970s! So they must be doing something right! Right? If you're in the area and want GREAT Chinese food... don't hesitate to go here! Then, after you're done eating, you can go for a nice walk up and down the main street here on this quaint little island. I also recommend going down the street and getting a Dad's ice cream bar! Yum! Enjoy!

Great food!! The service is very good. We tried the Family Meal was great and enough after a big stroll through the island. So tasty ! Non greasy like others. Kid-friendliness: We have a family dinner.

We made a reservation here for Xmas dinner, but we were not seated for 30 minutes. The food did not get to our table after we placed an order for an additional 45 minutes. 75 minutes (with a reservation) until ONE dish got to the table is a nightmare. 3 other tables that were all walk ins without reservations were served their food, paid and LEFT, before we even got 1 main dish. HOW. The time between the soup and appetizer was another 25 minutes! We also ordered drinks, 4 times but they still did not bring them to the table, until we asked one of the bussing staff members to grab them for us. It appeared that there was only one woman allowed to be taking orders. She did not know how to prioritize or organize at all. You could tell the kitchen was a mess, even with a limited xmas menu. She forgot to place our order correctly with the kitchen also and came back to our table to take the order again, which was a very bad sign. They do not have an effecient system at all. If they can not handle their own dine in customers on a busy holiday they should also limit their take out to not overwhelm the kitchen. So many people were just standing around IN the restaurant waiting for their take out for a very long time. They also sat a table of 4 directly in front of a fire exit. The dining experience was overall very uncomfortable. The soup came out barely warmed, and the appetizer too. And the food following was mediocre. The Mapo tofu had no flavor (like a light soy sauce at best) not spicy and tasted nothing like what it's supposed to. The schezuan eggplant was also not spicy at all like the traditional dish. This place is more like American style Chinese food in case anyone was wondering what to expect. On any other day we may have enjoyed this spot. But because of how neglected our table was I don't think we would come back. The woman was not friendly at all, no apology, almost like they didn't even notice we had been there for over an hour twiddling our hungry the thumbs at the table. Overall, the food was just not anything special vs the price and dining experience.

Honestly the best Chinese food in the area. They give you real, white meat chicken and don’t over-fry or cook their meats and veggies. I’m a regular!

The orange chicken was white meat, which is honestly very rare these days. Very tasty Chinese food! I enjoyed it. By the way, they don't have Sriracha, which got me a little disappointed. So next time I'll bring my bucket of Sriracha.

Visited here after reading the reviews and craving good Chinese food. The service was pleasant and atmosphere ok. I noticed I did not smell food cooking, nor did I hear any sounds indicative of cooking, so that leads one to believe there may be Microwaved food being served. I get my wonton soup, and took a few sips of broth and ate some chicken from the soup!!! I moved my veggies in the bowl, and there it was, A WORM RESTING in a room temperature hot tub , that was served to me! I alerted the waitress QUITLY, and she responded with “ Oh! It must be from the fresh vegetables. Ill get you another one.” I asked her to please cancel my orders as I had no appetite for any food at the moment! This experience ruined my day!

Orange chicken is very good. Over the past 10 years the quality of the food has improved. Dining area is typical and basic.