First visit to "Taste of Shanghai" restaurant

Hey everyone, hope you're all doing well!

On good Friday (29th March 2013), I was with a friend of mine having a mini photoshoot and after the shoot we decided to go grab something to eat. So my friend suggested this restaurant called "Taste Of Shanghai" and have some dumplings and chinese food. I've heard of the name since there's one restaurant in Ashfield, World Square CBD, and Eastwood; but I've actually never tried it so we decided to go there.

We headed to the Eastwood restaurant since we thought we could avoid traffic and possible queues at the restaurant. Got to Eastwood at around 5.30pm and we see that there was a massive queue.

Found parking and headed to the restaurant to get a ticket for two to queue up which was approximately a 30-40 minute wait (it was hella crowded with people). 

We actually had to remind them about our ticket number which the service lady said she called out our number three times, but we clearly heard her saying "73, 73, 74, 74, 74, 75, 75, 75, 76 -ticket 76 gets their table-" .. we were number 72, but we told her that we were waiting just at the counter and didn't hear her ever calling out 72; nicely enough she gave us the next free table immediately so that was good.

Ordered straight away once we got our table since we already looked at the menu while waiting and decided on what to get, two dumplings and a main/side.

Here are the food we got:

no.005 Shanghai Xiao Long Bao

First thing that came out was the steamed soup dumpling shanghai style consisting a filling of pork and ginger with succulent juice contained within eat dumpling. For 8 dumplings it costed $8.80AUD which I thought was alright since I know other places that does steamed soup dumplings and cost heaps more.

These dumplings were steamed to perfection and you can definitely tell the pastry and the dumplings itself is fresh and handmade. The pastry was still moist, not dry and was still able to hold all the contents within the wrapper even when lifted (often cases the wrapper rips when lifted which causes the soup to leak out). The fillings inside was super hot and seasoned with balance flavors of pork and ginger. The only downer is that some of the fats used to make the soup did not dissolve, leaving it to just be a clump of fat. Overall fantastic.

no. 010 Pan Seared Pork Dumplings

 Second that came out was pan fried pork dumplings which costed $9.80AUD for 8 pieces. Now when they came out I thought they would be just like your typical gyoza HOWEVER these are quite different. The pastry is puffy and slightly more thicker and the filling actually contains soup like the soup dumplings above! This was the first time I've ever had pan fried dumplings where it contained soup and it tasted great. Once again the filling is like the steamed dumpling with balanced flavors of pork and ginger with lovely soup. This time however, there was no clumps of fat undissolved so it was really pleasant to eat. Be warned though, this dumpling is really filling because the pastry is more thicker and more puffier. Despite saying that about the pastry- it is still enjoyable to eat as the pastry isn't tough or chewy.

Pan seared Pork Dumplings as above, can see the soup pouring out and the thicker pastry.

No. 606 - Peking Style Shredded Pork with Pancake

Our final dish for the night was the peking style shredded pork with pancakes to serve which costed $16.80AUD with an extra $3.00AUD for pancakes. This dish is to be eaten rolled up with the pancake containing the shredded pork and the cucumber inside. Was quite enjoyable to eat since the flavors were really there and the leeks stir fried together really tied the flavors together. The cucumber wasn't so fresh, seemed like it was exposed to heat for too long so it kinda was semi-steamed? My friend and I thought that the dish just had too much sauce and was abit on the salty side so just slightly difficult to consume without the pancake. I would still recommend this dish since it's delicious and easy/fun to eat, pretty sure on a less crowded day then it'll be more enjoyable than what I had.
 I've had this dish before at Noodle King at Chinatown on Sussex St and when compared to Taste of Shanghai, I would say that the one at Noodle King is better ONLY because the flavors are more subtle and more balanced with the saltiness and the sweetness. 

My friend bought their Seafood Stir Fried Noodle no. 1306 to take-away for her parents and we were quite disappointed how it game out since it just looked like simple noodles with sauce and a couple of prawns. Not really so much of "seafood", more like combination since we saw beef pieces in it too.

One thing I took notice around me is that alot of people ordered "no. 006 Pan-Fry Pork Buns with Sesame" which seems to be one of their popular dishes. We were just too full to order it so maybe next time I'll go try it out.

I would say the service in general was quite good, considering the place was super crowded, they actually handled themselves and the customers quite well. Was fast and speedy, food came out quickly, calling for service was fast, tables and dishes was cleared fast etc. Only downer was the lack of communication between customer and the service people since they didn't really understand english. But overall quite good.

Well that's my trip to "Taste of Shanghai" restaurant in Eastwood and I definitely did enjoy it and will definitely visit again in the future. Would definitely take my parents here to try out.

For more information on "Taste of Shanghai" please check out their website at : http://www.tasteofshanghai.com.au

Until then, stay well & take care!