Review: Shanghai Joe

Hubby and I went to my in-laws during the Labor Day break. On our way home, we spontaneously decided to drop by Robinsons Manila to buy some stuff and to take advantage of the mall’s air conditioner. Hahahaha! Ang init e! :p

But who would have thought that one random trip to the mall would lead us to another food discovery? We were about to rush out of the mall when Boyet told me that he wanted something to eat. We were just a few steps away from the parking lot when I noticed a flock of people surrounding a food stall. It happens to be Shanghai Joe. I am not sure how long it has been operating in its location, but I only became aware of it that day.


I initially thought that it was selling lumpiang shanghai. Bwahahaha! But apparently, Shanghai Joe offers affordable hot pot. It’s just a very small stall yet the flow of people was non-stop. That piqued our curiosity and convinced us to give it a try.

I picked sharksfin among the skewered treats. Kuya asked me if I wanted to put some hot sauce. I said yes. Then after a couple of minutes, my skewered sharksfin dumplings were served with free soup. You may actually opt to add as many kinds of skewered balls as you like. I believe you can also have noodles added to it.


On the other hand, Boyet decided to try their cup noodles. It was served with kikiam, crab nuggets and squid fingers.

We weren’t really expecting too much from our food given that we only spent PHP85 for it. But we were surprised that the soup is really tasty. Most of the time, the soup we get from food stalls is either too oily or too salty. Shanghai Joe’s version is perfectly seasoned and does not give that yucky aftertaste that you usually get from ingesting too much oily food. Among all the skewered treats, the crab nugget is my favorite! =)

More than the food and the value for money, what we appreciated the most was this guy!


He single-handedly took the orders and prepared the food. I’ve seen a lot of grumpy crew members who do not know a single thing about good customer service. ‘Yung parang napilitan lang pumasok sa trabaho! But not this guy! He didn’t rattle even if he was working all by himself. He was very accommodating and even offered us to use their chest freezer as our table. Ganoon karami ang tao! Anyway, whoever owns this franchise, bigyan ng bonus si Kuya! =)


Shanghai Joe
Ground Level Faura Wing
Robinsons Place Manila