Zhongshan Restaurant

Surprising on a kind of edgy neighborhood. You walk into the hostess seated at a large ornate desk. We were seated at an old table covered in cracked and faded plastic.

We ordered Items off the Dim Sum menu. Our review were split. The Rice wrapped in Lotus Leaf was amazing. The steamed shrimp dumplings were also very tasty. The other two items were just OK. The short ribs were flavorful but a the meat was not tender. It was very tough. We ordered another dish that was less than exciting.

The service was decent and the dim sum was reasonably priced. All in all we liked it enough to plan to back again.


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Perfect book choy. Crispy eggplant was so delicately light. Beef & scallops had a warm heart that snuck up on me. Yes! Perfect on a nice night right up the street from my hotel. Plus I slipped the rice and kept it low carb, yo.

The eggplant was not listed as spicy, but it was. Spicy-averse folks be aware that this menu may not be too accurate in that department.

The place is shabby and old in the best way. There's nothing chic about it and nothing on the menu is "fusion." The neighborhood is gentrifying but still pretty jacked up. I can't advise on parking. Well worth a short walk y'all!

My boyfriend and I put in a delivery order from Zhongshan and had a borderline satisfactory/mediocre experience. TL;DR: food is definitely not authentic and one of the dishes was way too salty, but it's probably one of the better options in the Baltimore City area. We ordered:

- Zhongshan Roast Duck (half for $13.95): Did not try myself so I cannot comment

- Steamed Bun with Egg Custard (3 for $2.95): a bit disappointing. I tried these for the first time at Chopstix Gourmet and their buns were big and soft with a sweet, gooey, warm interior. The ones here had a hardened interior and the bun tasted stale. Would not get again.

- Chicken Pan Fried Noodle ($12.95): I liked how the noodles were actually pan fried (and not stir fried in with the sauce) and nicely crispy. I also really appreciated that they separated the noodles from the sauce/meat so that it wasn't soggy on arrival. Not stellar in terms of flavor but probably one of the better things I ordered.

- Fish Fillet in Spicy Tangy Sauce ($15.95): I'm a seafood girl so was looking forward to this dish the most. Flavors were not bad but it was so salty that it was nearly inedible. If they could tone down the salt I would consider ordering again.

The food took a long time to arrive (around an hour), but it was the day before/day of (I forgot exactly) Chinese New Year, and the delivery guy was apologetic about the late arrival.

Final verdict: Not bad, not great. Considering it's Baltimore, it's not bad. Compared to "good" Chinese food, not great.

I'm in Baltimore on business and decided to try the online order and delivery service through Yelp (Eat 24). For the ease and convenience of ordering from my hotel room, that aspect of the service would get 4 stars. Quick, easy, understandable, helps you determine an appropriate tip, and no delivery charge. The only downside was the time. 71 minutes from completion of order to arrival at my hotel room door. To be fair, the Orioles were playing and traffic was heavy but the place is less than a mile away so it still seemed excessive. Once arrived, the delivery guy was polite and appreciative of my business.

The food was ok, but really nothing to yelp about. The menu has many dim sum items on it that sound good and maybe my mistake was that I did not order any of them. I stuck to basics and was disappointed. The flavors were not there and the dishes were boring. Ma Po Tofu had no ground pork in it at all, just tofu and a tasteless brown gravy. The Szechuan Peppercorn Shrimp was not even close. Breaded shrimp smothered in vegetables with a salty sauce and some dark whole chiles on the top. Hot and Sour Soup was neither hot nor sour. It was liquid so it was at least soup. They should rename it Brown and Oily Soup.

The best thing I can say about this is that the online order experience is good (the delivery was too long though) and the portion size was large. So I guess my take on it is that I had much more than I could possibly eat but when I was finished, I was not sure what I had just eaten. When in town next, I will give them another shot out of fairness but may stick to some of the dim sum.

I was really hesitant to try this place from the reviews but this place was fantastic. I was so happy that I could find a nearby dim sum place without having to leave the city or travel all the way to DC.

My friend and I ordered the egg custard bun, steamed pork buns, sesame balls, pork sao mai, and shrimp dumplings. We were quite happy with the food and even ordered plenty of extra pork buns and sao mai.

We are both from California so it was quite comparable to good dim sum out on the west coast.

I will definitely be making return trips.

Delicious dim sum. Just as good as Los Angeles. I'm so full. My sister and I shared Lunch. I am in dim
Sum heaven.

The delivery process was fine, food came on time & delivery guy was friendly. The food though was a different story...
The crab wontons had onions in them for some reason (which wasn't listed on the menu), and the pork spare ribs were small and extremely dry with minimal sauce. The steamed pork mao sai unfortunately were bite sized. They tasted decent, but definitely way too small and overpriced. Wouldn't order again. Waste of money.

Went to this place for a quick bite after a visit to the Walters museum. The location reminds me of the tender loin in SF which doesn't necessarily mean that it's bad. I also intentionally came for the dim sum. The restaurant had no atmosphere at all, and the two waiters definitely did not want to be there. Regardless, I ordered siu mai and the lo mein. I figured what could go wrong. Boy was I wrong.

The siu mai smelled funny, and the lo mein w/ what looked like week old char siu was very oily. Ever the trooper, I plod along and ate a little bit of both. The siu mai was bland and the lo mein had a passable taste, but was just greasy as hell. Thank goodness for the chili sauce, and thank goodness I didn't get sick.

Oh and, the service sucked.

Update 6/21/17
Aaaaaand the driver just complained to me that my house was soooo far from the restaurant. It's a couple miles away, bro. Should've restricted your delivery zone! I can now see the validity in the delivery complaints from other Yelpers! Ha.


Update 6/16/17

After living here for almost 2 years, I still hold this has some of the best Chinese in B'more. But what Chinese do I mean? The more authentic Cantonese dishes. If you're used to Chinese-American (things like Kung Pao chicken, which I still am not sure what that exactly is...), don't go here. Their strengths lie the other way. (I've seen the pics and reviews of supposedly awful dishes and service. I'm glad to say that's never happened to me!) However, the atmosphere and the service in restaurant still is not the best, so order out or get delivery! :)

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Just moved here from the Bay area (and originally from the LA area), and I can say that this is one of the more legit places you can get within the Baltimore city borders. (DISCLAIMER: I say that specifically, as there are better places outside of town: ie, Hunan Taste in Catonsville)

Dim sum was satisfactory, but the entrees definitely impressed. I got the siu mai and chicken feet. Not very flavorful, but it satisfied a craving. As for entrees, I got the beef chow fun. It was delicious as I'm used to, back in LA. (Note: I'm Chinese and grew up eating the authentic stuff.)

As for the more American Chinese style foods, like orange chicken and General Tso, I can't say. I hear they're meh here, and should be avoided. However, by B-More standards, the more legit stuff is up to par. I at least know I'm coming back for more.

Tip: Beware of Park Avenue! Unfortunately this is in a sketchy area.

Okay, so I wrote a review for their delivery previously. This review was a dine in experience and it was extremely disappointing. I needed some tamarind paste so I went into this Asian market on Park then decided to take a risk and try some Dim Sum at Zhongshan. The hot and sour soup was definitely the most bland and unappealing I've ever tried. The cream cheese wontons, beef short rib, and shrimp balls were all pretty bland and boring. The food tasted like it was prepared with little to no passion which is sad.

The service was okay and one of the waitresses seemed extremely unhappy; she just kind of plopped the items, cups, tea, utensils, and napkins at the corner of table without any care or a smile.

The prices are low, but so is the quality. I definitely recommend you travel somewhere else for Chinese food. All around an extremely disappointing experience.

Zhongshan is one of the few places (along with Orient Express) in Baltimore city proper that makes Chinese food Chinese people would actually enjoy eating. The trick is to know what to order, which is difficult because the Cantonese things are good, whereas it sounds like the Americanized dishes and dishes from other parts of China are terrible.

General tips/warnings for ordering:
1. Expect late delivery times -- I've never gotten an order on time, with delays ranging from 5 to 30 minutes.

2. They don't always have everything on the menu, and names of dishes (even in Chinese!) can be vague and misleading. So if you want to order something for delivery, you might want to call ahead to make sure you're getting what you want.

Specifically, I've ordered steamed beef honeycomb tripe a few times, only to find that it had been substituted with (still delicious) book tripe (labelled as "ginger and scallion beef tripe" on the menu). After calling about it, it turns out they haven't had honeycomb tripe for a long time. I also once ordered the "crispy pork", labelled as "crispy skin meat" in Chinese, but instead of the crispy-skinned, roasted pork belly I was expecting, I got something more akin to tangcu pork loin (sweet and sour pork?) -- a dish that I personally cannot stand. :(

3. There is no ice in the water because Chinese people (well, most people outside of the US, really) don't drink ice cold water. Also, drinking cold water while eating greasy food can make your stomach hurt -- look it up on NCBI/PubMed.

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Good things I've had here:
Zhongshan roast duck - Your typical Cantonese style roast duck. Greasy and flavorful, with soft skin.

Beef tripe - steamed with ginger and scallions. I think they only have book tripe now -- I've never been successful at getting honeycomb anytime I've ordered in the past year or two.

Chicken feet - I am normally not a fan of the chicken feet served at Cantonese restaurants because the sauce is usually too sweet for me, but I really liked these. Not too sweet but still tasty.

Crispy salt baked pork - This also isn't the roasted pork belly with crunchy skin. Instead, it's salt pepper pork with onions. It's still really tasty and is not sweet or covered in sticky sauce, so it suits my Northeastern Chinese tastes well.

Crispy pork - You might like this if you like sweet Cantonese food -- I think it's tangcu pork ("sweet and sour pork"? Not sure what it's called in English). It does taste like it was made for and by Chinese people, though.

Skippable things:
Peking roast duck - I was really impressed that they actually provided (store-bought, not house-made) wheat pancakes for you to wrap the duck in, instead of serving it with white rice as most Americanized Chinese restaurants would. However, it's drier and less flavorful than the Zhongshan roast duck, as well as more expensive. I'd skip it and get the Cantonese style Zhongshan roast duck instead.
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Now, this probably isn't a place you'd take your Chinese parents or friends from California -- for that, I would probably go to Hunan Taste out in Catonsville, which does Chinese food for Chinese people much better. But as a local, with no special occasion to celebrate other than my own craving for Chinese food, the generous portions, convenience, lack of delivery fee, and delicious roast duck and beef tripe are enough to keep me coming back.