Tokyo Shanghai Bistro

We've ordered from this place multiple times in the past as well as others here at work so they are consistent for the most part. We were going to order sushi here for our first time but someone ordered ahead of our scheduled day and said the sushi was frozen and cold. This turned off way too many co-workers from ordering here that scheduled day as well as in the future for some odd and strange reason. About a week later, some of us separately tried out the sushi and it was just fine. Though, two different people ordered the same type of California rolls, they put the order together in the same tray and we later found out about this after we began eating and couldn't find the other tray.

This is the closest place for sushi downtown and it is not within walking distance. We all know the city of Buffalo is behind and lacks in diversity downtown for food. There are some Polish and Italian communities here but it’s just not strong enough. There are many delis, bars, and pizza places, but not enough culture at all. After twenty reviews, this is our first eastern culture place as our first Chinese review.

This one of the only Chinese places near downtown that has a website and menu online and that deliver. This Chinese cuisine opened up just last year on Elmwood. They have a huge selection on their menu and it goes deep for rolls and Japanese meals. Their lunch specials are a deal priced at $4.75, which is the best bet on the menu.

Today, we called at 10am to no answer. They open at 11am but some places are open before then to take orders and apparently they weren't so we called later and placed the order. The order came with utensils and napkins, which was nice. We ordered the Sesame chicken, Spicy Tuna Hand Roll, Orange chicken, and the General TSOs chicken all with pork fried rice. Yes, all these meals are very similar too with sweet, bright sauce on chicken.

Probably one of the best features of the meal was not the food but what it came in. The lunch meals come in these great round containers as this avoids any use of foil. Although they also wrote on the container what lunch special each one is, the lid is see through so it is easier to see what's in them. They are plastic and they can also be reused if you wanted. First off, the chicken itself was a bit hard. The orange chicken's sauce was fine but the little orange skin slices in there were small so it got in the way of eating the actual meal. The sushi roll priced at about $5 was not worth. They ended up putting it in a separate bag, but they didn't need to since it was so small. There was only one roll hand wrapped in some black layer. The order called for hot & spicy but yet it was so cold without no hotness to it. It was disappointing as it felt like eating a five dollar scoop of rice instead. In the past, the hot & spicy chicken was not hot either. There were too many vegetables and not enough chicken. Do not count on your spicy orders to be spicy. Aside from that, the meals are enjoyable and they do listen exactly to what you ordered. One of us didn’t want any vegetables and they went with that.

Overall though, one lunch meal is worth the price and it will fill you up. They already became the go-to place for Chinese food here and if you're looking for something healthy and maybe try out some sushi, this will be the place for delivery.

Final Rating: 3.0 out of 5

Tokyo Shanghai Bistro
www.tokyoshanghaibistro.com
494 Elmwood Avenue
Buffalo, NY 14222
(716) 886-3839