Shanghai Night Chinese Restaurant

275 Liverpool Rd
Ashfield, NSW 2131

Exams are looming and Ming is as busy as ever, so it’s time for a guest post from Chris!

Hey everyone! It’s been a while since I last had to write a guest post for the blog. A fair bit has happened since then – we moved to Sydney, I got a new job, and we got engaged!! But in these times of change, if there’s anything we can rely on to remain constant, it’s simply got to be our shared love of dumplings (…oh, and each other I guess).

It’s this shared love that saw us venturing out to Ashfield to get some good old-fashioned dumplings at Shanghai Night Chinese Restaurant. The venue is a little difficult to find; not because it’s out of the way, but because you might get a little confused when you stand outside and see 4 very similarly named restaurants all next to each other – Shanghai Night, New Shanghai, New Shanghai Night, and Flavour Shanghai. Don’t ask me if any of these restaurants are affiliated with each other, because I honestly don’t know. All I can tell you is that as soon as Ming and I walked into Shanghai Night, we knew we were in for a good time.

Shanghai Night’s decor screams cheap and cheerful, which from my experience is the best sign of a good dumpling place. Those plain walls and table settings elicit an almost Pavlovian response in me, so by the time we’d sat down all I could think about was wanting some dumplings right here right now.

I watched on enviously as several plates of dumplings were brought out and served to the other patrons, eagerly awaiting the Pork and Chinese Cabbage Dumplings ($10.8, 12pcs) that we had ordered. Once a plate was finally set down upon our table, I could hardly wait for Ming to stop taking her photos so that I could take my first bite. Once I did, I realised that these were exactly what I had been looking for: comforting old-fashioned pork dumplings that were juicy enough to have a bit of a soupy flavour, but not so much as to make the dumplings soggy. It had clearly been too long since I last had some dumplings like this, because I would have gladly sat down to a meal of these alone.

Alas, Ming didn’t feel like having a meal of just dumplings that night, so we also got ourselves a Sliced Pork Belly with Preserved Chinese Cabbage Hot Pot ($14.8), which was heaped with generous amounts of pork belly, accompanied by Chinese cabbage, pickled vegetables, and vermicelli. The rich flavours here mingled together to make a great broth, with a bit of tang granted by the pickles, and the pork belly was nice and tender. Although we were getting quite full, neither of us could resist mixing in some rice with the leftover broth to make a delicious end to the meal. My heart still belonged to the dumplings, but I must admit that this made for a good companion dish.

I don’t know why it took us this long to go get some traditional dumplings since moving to Sydney, but boy am I glad that we finally did. It’s like there was a dumpling-shaped hole in my life that I didn’t even notice until it was filled. But now that I’ve had my taste of it, I can foresee many return visits to Shanghai Night whenever I need a dumpling fix.

Rating: 13/20