Shanghai Night

8 Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  7      Service  7      Value  9     

Best shanghai food in Sydney. You can order three dishes for less than $25. I always have take away from these three dishes. The dishes that I order regularly is the xiao long bao (steamed pork dumplings), wo tip (pan fried or steamed pork dumplings, coriander or chives are best) and the zha jiang noodles (pork, cucumber hand made noodles). These three dishes come to under $25.
I am a regular at this dining institution.

The son of the owners have just opened a new restaurant two doors down, I can't wait to try his place, congrats yan on your new venture!

Jan 10, 2012 

8.8 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  8      Service  8      Value  10     

From the welcome we received when we were at the door through to the friendly service until the end I have to say we were delighted with everything here. How other reviewers can complain that the staff only speak Chinese is utterly ridiculous - it's an authentic Chinese restaurant in a very Chinese area. Go to your average suburban Chinese for sweet and sour if that's what you prefer.

The food is superb - dumplings so fresh and so plentiful you wouldn't bother eating dumplings anywhere else again. The soups were excellent and we can't wait to return. We had a feast of food for 3 and it came to $38. Seriously, where else can you eat in Sydney for that price?

Nov 23, 2011 

6.5 Recommended

Food  7      Ambience  3      Service  8      Value  8     

Agreed that the skin is slightly thick for the xiao long bao, but the flavour is still divine. Was disappointed by the zha jiang noodles, not sure if this is the authentic style but I personally didn't enjoy it. The XO stir fried rice cake was good and the winter special lamb skewers are also recommended. Very good value for money, will visit again if I'm nearby.

May 30, 2011 

5.3 Average

Food  5      Ambience  4      Service  5      Value  7     

The decor is naff, it's a sit-eat-leave type of venue, but boy oh boy it's as cheap as *dumplings* here. The beans and pork mince with XO sauce is good, crispy wok fried green beans with a hint of salty spice. The dumplings range from good to average. The lamb and onion had a real mutton flavour, I didn't enjoy it at all, best bets are the pork and mushroom and the xiao long biao (pork and ginger soup). The pan fried dumpling skin was slightly too thick and glutinous for my liking but the crispy bottoms make a nice variation from steamed.

May 09, 2011 

6.3 Average

Food  7      Ambience  3      Service  6      Value  9     

Came on a Friday night and it was moderately busy. Chose a seat at the back and there was an odd old smell so decided to sit at the communal tables in the middle of the room. The food was nice (highlight for me was the chinese new year rice noodles and hot sour soup). I was mostly disappointed with the thick dumpling skin used for the sticky rice and xiaolungbiao. Service was good, the girl came by quickly when we caught her attention. Good as a cheap eat on a casual night out.

Feb 14, 2011 

5.3 Average

Food  5      Ambience  5      Service  6      Value  5     

Came here with the family after another place stuffed up our booking, the place is very squashed and cramped, tables and chairs are uneven and rock side to side. First impressions aside, the menus were very old, sticky and falling apart, ordering was quite the challenge as they weren't at all fluent in English nor at the basics of it. When the food arrived it was very much average, the dumplings lacked flavours and white rice was undercooked and tasted stale. Like a lot of other restaurants around this area, one visit is enough for me.

Jan 06, 2011 

5.3 Average

Food  6      Ambience  4      Service  2      Value  9     

Can't argue with the value for money, but I suppose this could be accounted for by my having to chase up my order and then a takeaway container - three times in a more than half empty shop- and it wasn't a language problem.

Steamed beef and scallion dumplings were superb, especially with their chilli sauce. Spicy and sour tofu soup was also great, full of flavour and not too chilli hot.

But the supposed highlights were the letdowns - about half of the xiao long bao (steamed pork dumplings) didn't have soup inside the too-thick skins, and none of the pan fried pork buns had soup - such a disappointment. Flavours otherwise were okay but not spectacular.

I understand that you get what you pay for and I don't have a problem with crowded and shared tables - but it's not fine dining - I shouldn't have to wait over 25 minutes for my next dish or 10 minutes for a plastic takeaway container.

Oct 25, 2010 

6.5 Recommended

Food  10      Ambience  5      Service  1      Value  10     

There is no doubt that it's great value for money but honestly, the service is atrocious. The waiters/waitresses generally speak little to no english. Yeah, sure it adds to the authenticity of the place but oh, so difficult for english speakers.

Other than the horrible service, the food is superb and well worth the trip. I definitely recommend the steamed chinese dumplings (xiao long bao), eaten with their chilli sauce and a dash of vinegar. Yum! They're pan fried pork dumplings (wo tie) are just as amazing. They come in plates of eight and really, what are eight pieces to starving students? We devoured them in mere seconds. They were piping hot, mind you.

The noodles there are quite good as well. I'm pretty sure they hand make their noodles. One that I strongly recommend is the noodles with pork and cucumber (zha jiang mian). Since the noodles are tasteless, the pork and cucumber mixture provides a very tasty combination when paired with the hand made noodles.

Overall, great value for money! But, beware of non-english speaking staff.

Sep 08, 2010 

8.3 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  7      Service  8      Value  9     

The top spot in Ashfield for dumplings! Also quite a few vegetarian options and good service from the staff who know what does and doesn't have shellfish and fish sauce in it, which is great if this is something you need to avoid. Staff are always friendly, decor isn't much to speak of, but that's not what you're here for. Good value Shanghai style food that's always tasty! A regular haunt of ours.

Oh, and FYI star_fire and anyone else wondering, it is standard for any place I've been to in Australia that serves dumplings to have vinegar And soy sauce on the table, so the reason your soy tasted like vinegar is because you chose the wrong bottle! Personally, I like a mix of vinegar, soy and chilli to dip my dumplings in anyway.

Aug 16, 2010 

8 Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  7      Service  7      Value  9     

Yummy xiao long bao (although the skin is a little thick), and I like their Pan Fried Pork Buns and their noodles. Great value as well!

Jul 14, 2010