Shanghai Stories 1938

Shanghai Stories 1938

Shop 4 The Concourse, 405-419 Victoria Ave, Chatswood

(Ph) 9412 3880

Last time I came to Sydney I came to this delicious Shanghai restaurant called New Shanghai in the Chatswood shopping centre - best xiao long baos and fried dumplings and fried pork buns ever. My parents had just gone back to this restaurant a couple of months ago so this time we decided to try this fancy looking 2 story Shanghai restaurant at the newly built Concourse outside of the Chatswood shopping centre.

I don't know how many bloggers started this post with the line "Shanghai, also known as the Paris of the East, was a flourishing city in the 1930's brimming with elegance and romanticism" - you know why? It's 'cause it's on the website =P But seriously, what a funny name for a restaurant, what happened in 1938 to warrant it being in the restaurant name? Maybe they just wanted a number ending in 8 'cause 8 is just lucky in Chinese? =P

I made a booking for 7pm on this Thursday night, but we were running late so I called them and told them to move it to 7.30pm and they were fine with it, which I was actually surprised about 'cause I thought this restaurant is quite busy.

We all picked a dish to order - I of course got the Shanghai Xiao Long Bao (6pcs) $7.80

Shock horror! One of the XLBs was actually popped! Lucky there was still some soup inside but that's a disappointment =( The Skin was very thin and the soup very full of flavour though.

Mum wanted the Pan Fried Pork Bun with Sesame (6pcs) $8.80

Crunchy bases also with delicious soup and juicy meat inside - love!

My brother wanted the Poached Pork & Vegetable Dumpling in Chilli Oil (10pcs) $8.80

It wasn't that chilli and was nice to have some steamed dumplings for a change which I normally never order.

Dad wanted this starter on the special menu - Szechuan Style Spicy Bean Starch $6.80. Some sort of rice noodles with a very spicy sauce. Didn't really like it, all I could taste was spiciness  =/

Typical of Dad to also want the Slow Cooked Pork Belly Shanghai Style $15.80

We were so surprised how big this was! It's normally like a quarter of this size! And surprisingly it was very delicious! Alternating layers of fat and meat - super soft and drenched in the tasty sweet sauce =)

My brother loves this Shanghainese dish - Prawns & Crackers in Fresh Tomato Sauce $20.80

Pretty much rice crackers drenched in a stirfry - gotta eat the rice crackers before they get soft! Yummy crunchiness =)

And just for some carbs we ordered the Shanghai Fried Rice Cake with Vegetable & Shredded Pork $12.80

This was a massive disappointment =( I don't usually like noodles but I normally love this dish, but these rice cakes were so thick and way too chewy and there wasn't much flavour in the dish. Boo =(

Before the Prawns & Crackers and the Rice Cakes came we didn't feel like we had much food inside us yet - all of the previous dishes felt quite small so we ordered 2 more dishes. Totally shouldn't have we were sooo full by the time these dishes came!

After the delicious buns we decided to also get the Pan Seared Pork Dumpling (6pcs) $8.80

Didn't disappoint us at all! Crispy bases with very thin skin and deliciously juicy meat =)

We saw lots of tables had ordered this dish so we got it to see what the big dealio was - Pan Fried Bean Curd with Prawn $24.80

This was a bit of a disappointment - doesn't look that fancy and it tastes quite ordinary. Just a few pieces of tofu with some prawns on top hmmm.

Food~
7/10 - come here for the normal foods like dumplings which are quite good for value, but not really the main dishes... actually except for the Pork Belly that was very tasty =)

Atmosphere~
4/5 - very nice upstairs in the corner with a view and some sort of privacy - though it meant it was harder to get the waiter's attention 'cause we were in the corner =P

Service~
3/5 - service was quite good for an Asian restaurant, maybe 'cause we were there on a week night and quite late. Although, there was a new waiter there who firstly, gave us the cake still in the box and plastic bag when we said we were ready to have the cake =P then when we asked for spoons and plates gave us tiny cup plates. Another waiter came and apologized to us and told us she was new lol but wouldn't you think when we ask for the cake it'd mean we want to eat it then? lol =P

C.
xo