new shanghai chinese restaurant

It seems like everybody's been to New Shanghai. And so, after not-so-casually showing the parents various reviews from eat, show & tell, notquitenigella, chocolatesuze and various others, we made plans to high-tail it down there for a super Sunday lunch. It didn't take us long to find. Ashfield is, after all, a not-so-long strip of food-related shopfronts, with the odd op-shop in between. And when one used to live in Ashfield (as we did, some 20-odd years ago), everything is vaguely familiar.

There was a queue at the door, as often occurs at well-reputed local institutions, and we thought about going next door, or across the road, or... when the boss (you can always tell who the boss is) called us over to a table in the middle of the room. We were hungry, and there were dumplings. And noodles. And so many other exciting looking things to try that we had to stop ourselves (only slightly successfully) from adding more, and more and more to our order.

dumpling ladies working their magic

We watched the "magic dumpling ladies" while we waited. They stand in a glassed in section at the back of the restaurant. Sometimes talking, sometimes laughing, sometimes silent. Always with their hands creating pleat after pleat at an astonishing pace.

And then the food arrived. *pumps fist*

#49 New Shanghai spicy noodle soup $7.80

The noodles arrived first. Fermented tofu, bamboo shoots and cubes of gelatinous pork floated around on top of the slippery noodles in a clear, flavoursome pork broth. We slurped contentedly, chopsticks muddling around for an extra piece of pork until there was no more.

#1 Famous New Shanghai steamed mini pork (xiao long bao)$6.80

Just as we were finishing off the noodles (ok, just as I was finishing off the noodles), the dumplings arrived! This was the dish we'd all been waiting for. Were the reviews true? Were the xiao long bao really better than at Din Tai Fung?

xiao long bao interiors

Dad definitely thought so. I was enamoured at being able to retreive an entire spoonful of the soup from each dumpling. Mum saw someone order the crab ones and called the waitress over to order some of those.

#3 Famous New Shanghai pan fried pork bun $8.80

And as she did, *PLONK!* went the plate of pan fried pork buns. Amazingly, these had soup in them too! I'd only ever had the soup-less ones. The pork inside remained moist, and the crunchy bottom really won me over as I munched, and munched and munched and OH NO!

While we were waiting for the crab xsiao long bao to arrive, Mum spotted a plate of chicken float by. Then a plate of fish... and so, somehow, they were ordered too. Takeaway of course. By this stage, we were hardly able to fit the next dish in - much less half a chicken!

#2 crab xiao long bao $9.80

The crab xiao long bao have a sweeter, less distinct flavour than their porky cousins. The little orange bit used to distinguish the two is not, as I'd first supposed, carrot, but ginger. Mmmm yum! I think we decided we liked the pork better (my notes say "V. Good!" and not much else).

Later that evening, the rest of our "lunch" appeared alongside some fried rice for dinner.

#78 Chicken in special chinese wine sauce $8.80

*swoons* I'm a dumpling fan. Believe you me. But this chicken? Oh! I would go back to Ashfield just for this chicken! Amazingly tender and infused with the sweet flavour of Chinese Wine... I can hardly form a sentence just thinking about it. Must. Try. MUST.

Seriously though, we got half a chicken for $8.80. I love me some Ashfield pricing :)

New Shanghai smoked fish $8.80

The fish? Well it was interesting. Smoky and dry with a sweet sauce. Good to eat, but not a repeat dish. I'm not sure if it was because the rest of the food there was so good that this didn't stand out, or if it was the dish itself. Poor fish.

We've already lined ourselves up for another visit. Not too soon, but not too far away either. And with lunch (and dinner!) costing only $50.80, we'd be mad to forget about this place any time soon.

New Shanghai Chinese Restaurant
273 Liverpool Rd
Ashfield, NSW 2131
ph (02) 9797 7284‎