SHANGHAI DUMPLING - CHATSWOOD, SYDNEY

Shanghai Dumpling
Victoria Ave
Chatswood, Sydney

Sitting on the main street that runs through Chatswood - Victoria Avenue - is the second venue for Shanghai Dumpling (their first being over in Ashfield). Their Ashfield restaurant opened 10 years ago while Chatswood has only been open a year.

This isn't a fancy place - they don't go overboard on frills. It is comfortable though and they do serve some really good dumplings here. Their dumplings are made fresh on the premises each day and when they run out they run out - there aren't frozen ones thawed to use here. They also don't serve hundreds of varieties of dumplings, but there's always plenty of variety on offer every day.

We sipped on a Chinese tea while we studied the menu trying to decide what to start with.

A dish made up of thinly sliced cucumber isn't something Sir would normally devour - but here he did.

The cucumber chunks were thinly sliced almost through and served in a bowl with a generous pouring of vinegar. The sharpness of the vinegar went beautifully with the fresh crispness of the cucumber.

The first dumplings to arrive were fried and had chive and pork and also Chinese cabbage and chicken fillings.

Pleasingly these were clearly quickly and lightly fried and so they weren't oily at all.

The light pastry went well with fillings that also tasted great.



Next were some lovely steamed dumplings filled with a great mix of salted duck egg and pork inside them.

These were simply presented but tasted great.

The filling was delicate and divine and the pastry again didn't overpower the flavours or textures at all.



The chilli dumplings that arrived next were certainly stronger in their hit and more colourful in appearance too!

These were shown on the front page of their menu and had caught our eyes immediately.

The bite of the chilli was so lovely as was the tang of the whole dish.

The spinach dumplings arrived next swimming in a very light and delicate broth.

This not only kept them warm it added great flavour to each mouthful.

We couldn't help eating - well in reality drinking - all the broth after eating all these dumplings.




The most unusual dish of the night arrived as our final "main course".

This dish had dumplings in a savoury soy milk broth.

It looked like milk too but had a great almost nutty taste with no sweetness at all - yet not bitter either.

We loved this and would eagerly have it again.

The finale to our meal was a lovely serving each of sago with mango ice cream.

Shanghai Dumpling was a delight. This simple place hand makes delicious dumplings fresh every day. They also sell them to heat at home and occasionally freeze some for take away too. It's well worth visiting.

Sir and Mlady dined as guests of Shanghai Dumpling. Special thanks to Carlton for arranging our visit.