New Shanghai, Chatswood
Tucked away on the bottom level of Chatswood Chase is New Shanghai, home of delicious Shanghai-style cuisine.
There are also a few other New Shanghai restaurants (including one in Shanghai!) but I’ve only ever eaten at Chatswood Chase so can’t vouch for the others.
Boyfriend and I try not to go to the same restaurant too often (there are so many out there left to try!) but we find ourselves queuing up outside New Shanghai every so often because their dumplings are so freaking delicious.
So last Thursday evening, we found ourselves there again.
New Shanghai is ALWAYS busy so we cheat the line by requesting a bench seat. These seats run along the window so you can watch the chefs handmaking the dumplings. Best seats in the house in my opinion anyway.
As usual, we ordered up a storm and were in for a treat.
First to come out was our “New Shanghai Xiao Long Bao – Steamed mini pork buns”.
Our Xiao Long Bao are hot and fresh, straight from the steamer. The dough is the perfect texture and inside the pork meat is sweet and salty and delicious. I love to pierce my dumpling and let the hot soup escape onto my spoon so I can drink it separately. That’s what they tell you to do at places like Din Tai Fung and it prevents you from shoving a boiling hot dumpling into your mouth and burning your tongue. (Yes, I’ve done that before. Back when I was a dumpling rookie).
Next to arrive at the table was our “Combination fried rice”.
This dish looks deceptively simple, but let me tell you – it is filled with so much flavour we can’t ignore it every time we come here.
Next came our beef and coriander dumplings.
These were a brand new menu item so we decided to give them a try. They were packed with so much flavour you didn’t even need to add soy sauce.
Last but not least, “Stir Fried Chinese Rice Cake with X.O. Sauce and Shredded Pork”.
We discovered these by accident one night and have been addicted to them ever since. They are little discs of chewy-textural goodness covered in flavoursome XO sauce.
All in all everything was extremely scrumptious, it was decently priced and there’s not one thing I’d complain about.
And now I’ve made myself hungry reliving this.
Would I go again? Yes. Regularly.
Oh wow! I want to be there… now!
I’m going back tonight! Exciting!!
Lucky you! Unfortunately there’s only the watered-down version of Chinese food available here… and I grew up eating good yum-cha every Sunday in China Town… so, yeah, anything less is a bit so-so 😉
Yeah that watered-down stuff isn’t quite the same! Yum-cha in China Town must have been amazing!!