New Shanghai

New Shanghai

226 Queen St, Brisbane

(Ph) 07 3108 7652

I went back to Brisbane for a short visit a few weeks ago - of course I had to try the new Shanghainese restaurant downstairs at Queens Plaza! I had been to New Shanghai in Sydney on various occasions before so was super excited they had opened one up on Brisbane! Finally Brisbane has some good quality XLB without the crazy prices like at Bamboo Basket.

We came here for lunch on a weekday - came at noon and it was packed already! Luckily the wait wasn't too long (when we agreed to share table with other poeple) as they like to get people in and out quickly, so don't come here expecting a nice long lunch!

The decor is very authentic with wooden stools and an old bicycle outside - like you're really in a Shanghainese alley. There are lanterns and firecrackers hanging inside and paintings of Chinese ladies on the walls - just like the other New Shanghai restaurants.

We started off with some starters - Chopped cucumber tossed with fresh garlic $4.50

I don't know why my parents like this dish so much - it's just cucumber, and yeah, it was just cucumber lol. I think it's meant to be cured a bit which softens the cucumber, but these were quite raw and crunchy.

Mum also wanted the Braised dry bean curd with black mushroom soaked in soy sauce $5.50

Quite flavoursome, but they weren't very generous with the black mushroom.

My favourite! <3 New Shanghai Xiao Long Bao - steamed mini pork buns (8pcs) $7.50

They're not as regular and pretty as at Din Tai Fung, but the skin was still quite thin and the meat was juicy with lots of soup inside. Yum <3 Would have liked it if they gave us some ginger to go with them though.

Next came the Pan fried pork dumpling (8pcs) $9.50

Super crunchy bottoms with slightly thicker skin but juicy meat and delicious soup inside again =)

Another favourite - New Shanghai pan fried pork bun (8pcs) $9.90

What's with the random sesame seeds on them? =P But look at the beautifully crunchy bun bottoms! crunchy on the bottom but soft on the top - and again, juicy meat and lots of hot soup inside =)

We also got some main dishes - Deep fried fish served with cold noodle $10.80

Cold handmade Shanghai noodles with sesame sauce. The deep fried fish was really delicious - fried yet juicy like it's been cured.

Last came the Stir fried eel with garlic, ginger, pepper & soy sauce $19.80

Looks kinda bad aye? =P This wasn't as good as we thought it'd be, it had a bit too much sauce and was too salty. We actually wanted some steamed mantao's to go with it but they don't make mantao's here! So we just had it with the noodles from the deep fried fish dish which helped cut some of the saltiness.

Food~
7/10 - stick with the usual Shanghainese dishes and you'll get some great food =)

Service~
3/5 - very quick with their dishes, think they premake some of the popular dishes 'cause they know most people order them

Atmosphere~
3/5 - I really liked the decor of the restaurant!

Now they just need a New Shanghai in Melbourne! =)

C.
xo

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

Taste Gallery

Taste Gallery

Market Square Shopping Centre, 

Shop 20B, 341 McCullough St, Sunnybank, Brisbane

(07) 3423 8483

I didn't go out much when I went back to Brisbane, but one of the places I did want to try was the new Taste Gallery at Market Square. Seemed like it popped out of no where but then I realised Coco Fruit Market is not there anymore?

We got there at 7pm on a Sunday night - the waiter said there'd be a 15 minute wait, so we sat down and were given a MASSIVE menu, seriously so heavy and big and requires 2 people to hold it... how awkward =/ 

The decor is quite fancy here with chandelier and all, and kinda like Din Tai Fung where you can watch in the window at the chefs busy wrapping your dumplings =)

We only waited 5 minutes before they said there was a table for =) The tables here are very small, and feels too high compared to the chairs. And they cramped wayyy too many tables in, so you can barely walk between them to get to the bathrooms etc =/

And yes, the menu really did take up the whole table, no wonder the waiter only gave us one menu lol..

My parents decided to go all out 'cause I was only going out once with them this weekend =P

So of course we had to order Shanghainese steamed mini pork bun (8 pieces) $8.80

Xiao Long Bao

Mmmm my absolute favourite food in the whole wide world! <3 Skin was thin but not easily torn, and there was lots of delicious soup inside =) Meat wasn't too tough or anything - just the right size =) too bad they don't give free ginger slices here, which you're normally meant to eat with XLBs but I don't really like ginger anyway so I didn't really mind.

Their specialty here was the Multicolour's Mini Pork Buns (4 pieces) $6.50. It's really XLBs but with a coloured skin.

1. Spinach (green) - "taste the fresh spinach with pork dumpling"
2. Purple cabbage (purple) - "a magnificent feast of taste"
3. Pumpkin (yellow) - "unmistakable taste of Pumpkin"
4. Carrot (orange) - "these morsels are infused with pork and delicate the taste of the carrot"

Multicoloured XLB

Hmmm the orange doesn't really look orange - more like a brown lol. I had the spinach one, and if I really concentrate and use some imagination, you can "kinda" taste the spinach? Lol not really =P the soup and meat inside was the same as the normal XLBs and just as delicious =) though this skin was more delicate, my mum broke her's when she picked it up, probably 'cause they've mixed stuff in to the skin.

My parents had tried the Pan fried pork buns (4 pieces) $4.90 at Shangpaign Kitchen at Pinelands - it's opened by the same people but much smaller and less fancy there and smaller menu. They said the buns were very tasty so we ordered some too.

Pan fried pork buns

And yes indeed they were just as they're meant to be! Crunchy base with a much thicker bun compared to XLBs but still lots of soup inside - I'm pretty sure the inside meat and the soup is the same as XLBs?

Dad wanted a Panfried pancake stuffed with garlic chives, egg shreds and glass noodles - $1.80 each. He felt bad just ordering one, but we were ordering too much food, and we're Asian, can't feel bad about things like this =P

Chives pancake

Super crunchy on the outside =)

And lots of filling inside =) their own version of a 葱油饼 but chives instead of spring onions =)

My brother wanted to try the Potted broth with stewed Korean ginseng and duck $6.80
Functions: Effectively enhancing vitality, refreshing mouth, and stabilizing spirit - lol, whatever you say =P

Ginseng broth

It was full of flavour - I love double boiled soups =) Kinda oily but yeah, it's meant to be good for you =P My brother even ate the ginseng though I think it doesn't taste very nice - once you cook it in soup, the goodness gets into the soup, right?

Mum said she had always wanted to try the Crispy sweet and sour whole fish, but unfortunately they ran out of live fish and only have frozen fish for $23.80. When we asked the waiter what fish it was she said she didn't know and didn't even offer to ask for us or anything =/ But anyway, we decided to order it anyway.

Crispy sweet and sour fish

It was very crunchy, but my parents said they should have cut more slits into it so more bits of the fish were crunchy, they only made large cris-crosses in it. And the belly part was kinda bitter 'cause it wasn't fresh - boo =( They poured sweet and sour sauce over it, and the poured some cooked prawns over that as well?! the prawns weren't cooked with the sauce - weird lol.

My brother wanted to get the Stuffed with stir fried pork shreds and bamboo shoot strips with sour & spicy sauce $15.80, served with pancake (10 pieces) $5.00. He was choosing betweent his and Braised pork belly with chestnuts and brown sauce $17.80 - ugghh, that would 100% go to my butt lol.

Stir fried pork shreds

Kinda a mix between Peking Duck and San Choi Bao =) Though it was kinda too hot for my liking, and I don't like bamboo shoots so I wasn't really a fan =/ They only gave 10 pancakes and we didn't want to pay for more so we just got a doggy box and packed it home =P

We were SOO full after all this - could barely finish the fish and we were just sitting there like slobs =P and then my brother says he still wants to order his dessert =P Boiled glutinous rice balls in sweet rice wine (small) $4.50

Glutinous rice balls in rice wine

Lucky I don't really like these glutinous rice balls, especially not in fermented rice wine lol =P they said it was very tasty though =) kinda reminds me of soup rice - my grandpa used to put rice in soup so that the rice would soften... *shivers*

Food~

7/10 - overall was quite good, the best were the Shanghainese favourites, xiao long baos and fried pork buns =)

Atmosphere~

2/5 - felt a bit cramped and the tables were so small, lucky all the dishes are small so finish them rather quickly or we would not have fit all our stuff. They try to make it super fancy and high class but fail in so many aspects lol.

Service~

2/5 - we tried catching their attention soo many times to ask for extra bowls but they don't have enough people working =/

All in all was quite an enjoyable night though =)

C.

xo