New Shang Hai & Tokyo Restaurant

New Shang Hai & Tokyo Restaurant
271 N. Main Street,(North End Plaza)
Rutland, VT 05701
Tel.: 786-8088, 786-8082
Wheelchair accessible
Open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday

The New Shanghai and Tokyo Restaurant on North Main Street in Rutland has a great luncheon menu, probably the most reasonably priced in town.

It’s a clean, efficient place, the food is delicious, portions generous and the staff Chinese, which is important for a restaurant claiming ethnic bona fides.

A popular dish on the luncheon menu is their General Tso’s Chicken,
deep-fried chunks of dark chicken meat, seasoned with ginger, garlic, soy sauce, rice vinegar, Shaoxing wine or sherry, sugar, sesame oil, scallions and hot chili peppers, and served with steamed broccoli.

A variation on the dish is their Sesame Chicken, a little sweeter and less spicy. How the dish came to bear the name of Zuo Zongtang (1812-85), a Qing Dynasty general from Hunan, is unclear. It is said that Zuo is unlikely ever to have tasted the dish because, as with a great many American Chinese restaurant dishes, General Tso’s Chicken is unknown in China. The literal translation of the name of the dish from an early recipe written in Mandarin is “ancestral meeting hall chicken,” but just try ordering it by that name the next time you go in there.

You can also get a savory and toothsome pork and steamed Chinese vegetables dish on the luncheon menu for less than $5. The lunches come with pork-fried rice or, if you prefer, steamed white rice and a fortune cookie, another Chinese restaurant staple invented in America.