Asheville North Carolina is a place that I’ve treasured for years. Originally I began coming here for their wide selection of thrift stores in the city. Once I started taking plenty of solo trips to the area, I got comfortable enough to get an Airbnb near the city that allowed me to spend some time away in the outdoors but also be minutes away from downtown. Asheville has an incredibly unique feel to it. To say Asheville has a modern hippie aura to it, is putting it lightly. Asheville welcomes anyone and everyone and the people are so incredibly kind. Over the weekend we took a small day trip to the Goodwill outlets (highly recommend if you’ve never been before), and decided to take a trip into the city for lunch afterwards.
Shanghai Dumpling House
The Dumpling House is located in downtown Asheville, on Biltmore Avenue. Situated on a downhill slope and squeezed in the middle of Manicomio Pizza & the WXYZ Lounge this restaurant is short walk from hundreds of shops right nearby, and in the heart of the bustling city. Shanghai has been operating since 2019, and was formerly known as Doc Chey’s, and rated at a 4.4/5 from nearly 1000 google reviews. Shanghai offers exquisite authentic Asian food. Popularly known for their Homemade Soup Dumplings, and Pan Fried Pork Buns. There are tons of options to choose from here and you can’t select a wrong choice.
What to expect upon your arrival
Parking & Arriving
When planning a trip downtown for lunch, parking is always something I stress about. Shanghai, being directly in downtown means you have to either be extremely lucky and find a spot alongside the road and hope that it’s not too busy for you to have time to parallel park, or you have to find a parking garage. Luckily there is a parking garage pretty much directly across the street from the restaurant, you do have to pay to park here, it’s by the hour although I found this rather expensive. Thankfully this trip we were able to find street parking right up the hill from the restaurant. Do not forget to pay to park before you leave your car, there are meters beside each parking spot where you can use coins to pay. We paid 3.75 for an hour and a half to park.
Walking to the restaurant was a breeze and took us less than a minute to get to. Once you get to the entrance of the building you’ll see large glass windows that really open up the restaurant and give a view of the entire inside seating arrangement. After entering you’ll walk down a short hallway area to the front desk where you’re almost immediately greeted by one of the friendly wait staff, and taken to your seat. Keep in mind the restaurant is not very large, although we did see a rather large party sitting closer to the entrance, but I find it more comfortable to have a smaller party in this sort of setting. We were seated at the table closest to the windows, anywhere else this would bother me because people staring at you while you eat is just not my idea of fun, but if you’ve ever been to Asheville you know everyone is focused on where they’re going and what they’re doing that you never have to worry about that here. In fact it’s the perfect opportunity to enjoy your meal, and people watch yourself.
What to Order
I immediately knew I wanted an appetizer order of the Fried Dumplings. Obviously, dumplings are one of the most popular reasons people come to this location, hence the name. You can choose between pork, chicken, shrimp, or vegetable. We chose the pork dumplings and they came out steaming along with your chopsticks. As you take your first bite you’ll be met with a combination of the beef and soup inside making it compact and flavorful, but quite necessary to have a napkin nearby. Each table comes with a few complimentary sauces but we chose to stick with soy sauce to dip them in. I would rate the dumplings a 7/10 for flavor, I would be interested to come back to try the steamed dumplings as well.
For our main course we ordered the Beef Ramen Noodles in Soup & the Pineapple Fried Rice with chicken, pork, and shrimp. Both orders came out around the same time and smelled delicious. Everything comes out steaming so you know you’re getting your food as soon as it’s prepared. The Pineapple bowl comes out in half of an entire pineapple stuffed with rice, chicken, and shrimp. The appearance is photo worthy and the taste was phenomenal, the only compliant I have is the amount of meat you get is rather small for what you’re paying for it. The Beef Ramen was absolutely mouth watering. The beef easily melted in your mouth and was the perfect combination with a mouthful of flavorful noodles and soup. The flavor palate was diverse and each bite left you wanting more. Everyones food looked delicious and you could easily find something for everyone.
Overall Experience:
Prices do vary here but I would prepare to spend anywhere from $15-20 per person minimum. The appetizers ranged from $5 – $10, and the main entrees were anywhere from $10 – $26 a meal. If you’re wanting to try different things out I would prepare for a range of about $50 – $70 for 2 people. The staff were all incredibly friendly and the restaurant was clean, with 2 very pristine bathrooms as well. The food was all delicious but depending on what you get, the portion sizes vary widely. The staff checked on us throughout our experience and the only slightly negative takeaway was our food took quite awhile to come out and they forgot about taking our order several times. However this was just one experience and I’ve been there plenty of times where this was not an issue. Please be mindful of when you plan to dine in as sometimes there are busier times of day which can delay service. Everyone was very apologetic and sincere and was no ones fault except it being a busy hour.
Staying Close-by?
If you’re anything like me, after a meal I feel like I always need a little sweet treat. Although it’s hard to gauge your day because you have to keep an eye on the time in correlation to your parking reservation. We had about 30 minutes to spare and decided to walk about 5 minutes up the road and visit Asheville Chocolate. This place had an open and inviting atmosphere with plants hanging and couches, and chairs throughout. We tried their Salted caramel chocolate balls and their 2 cheesecakes. We had a White Chocolate Raspberry & Chocolate Chip cheesecake and both were absolutely incredible. I highly recommend taking the time to walk the 8 minute walk to this spot and enjoying a sweet treat. There are many incredible spots in this area that are worth staying and experiencing. Asheville recently fully opened back up after the Hurricane Helene flood and are welcoming all the visitors for people to support local communities and businesses. Be kind and plan to travel to Asheville this summer.
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