TASTE OF SHANGHAI - SYDNEY CBD

Taste of Shanghai
World Square
Sydney CBD

Taste of Shanghai is in World Square Sydney. This area of Sydney is busy with an array of different shops. Taste of Shanghai is deceptively big - you walk in and turn to the right and it keeps going - you wouldn't know this from just standing outside. It is so spacious and you can also watch the talented chefs making their delicious food.

Sir and Mlady LOVE dumplings! The menu is so diverse and the variety that you can order is amazing. The Pan Fried Pork bun is a classic. It was lovely pork wrapped in a soft and fluffy hot roll. So Nice! Then we had the pork and chive dumplings - how tasty and soft were these! They are one of the most traditional dumpling types and we really enjoyed them.


Xiao Long Bao is is a type of steamed bun (baozi) from the Jiangnan region of China, especially associated with Shanghai and Wuxi.

Traditionally it is  prepared in xiaolong, small bamboo steaming baskets, which give them their name. This was another tasty dish that we both enjoyed.

We moved on to the colourful wontons in a red chili oil sauce.

We have had plenty of wontons over all the years.

The combination of these savoury wontons accompanied by the heat of the chili oil - you have a winner!

Our next dish was an old favourite - spring rolls.

These Shanghai Crispy Spring Rolls certainly lived up to their name.

They had a beautifully crisp-crackly skin and inside was a tender-tasting filling.

We then moved on to some delicious grilled spring onion pancakes.

These are a tasty flatbread-like side traditional Chinese savoury pancake.


Our spring onion pancake was warm, flaky, chewy and incredibly more-ish.

Then it was on to the tofu with preserved egg. Tofu, also known as bean curd, is an unusual type of food. Most people either like tofu or don't.  Mlady loves it in it's natural state or cooked - Sir prefers it cooked. It can be combined with lots of other things but we had it with preserved egg. It was an unusual combination that was a really yummy dish.

Described as Peking style shredded pork and golden buns - we weren't really sure what to expect - but if we'd guessed we'd have been wrong. 

How nice was this! Yum Yum and triple yum. 

Tender, tasty pork coated in such a flavoursome sauce and served in thin pancakes - a lovely pork version of Peking duck pancakes. 

This was the Nanjing style salty duck. The history of the dish goes back hundreds of years, perhaps to the 14th century. 

Sir is particularly fond of duck. Even though he usually has his duck crisp - he simply adored this oh so tender version. This juicy and rich duck meat dish ticked all the boxes for him.

The chicken with red chili oil was both colourful and tasty.

This combined plenty of wonderfully tender chicken, with the bite of a good coating of red chili oil. 

It was another winning combination. Mlady loves chicken and with the added "bite" of the Chili Oil - so nice!

It sounded fairly simple at first read - eggplant and pork mince is sweet chilli vinegar.

This really was a great dish.

It was a bowl filled with hot and amazing flavours. It was sweet and tender - Ahh.

The fish fillet in chilli and chilli oil was by far the most colourful dish in our rainbow of food for the evening. It literally popped. The tender juicy fish fillets had a kick from the chilli but the ladle drained much of the kick - unless you scooped out more like Sir did! This was a dish that would impress anyone on arrival - and it tasted just as good.  

Crispy noodles are another favourite of Sir so he enjoyed the pan fried noodles with shrimp and shredded Pork. 

The noodles were nicely crisp and they went so well with the shrimp and the soft shredded Pork. 

Great combinations and textures.

We also had some nice stir fried beans with pork mince - as well as some salty pork with green vegetable fried rice. Both went well with the dishes. 

Then it was on to a simpler dish - the spicy sliced pork with bamboo shoot.

This was a fragrant and a little bit spicy and a great tasting dish.

We do so love our spicy dishes and this satisfied those hot food cravings yet again.

More fish please - oh thank you!

The whole Barramundi in sweet and sour sauce was an impressive variation on Chinese sweet and sour recipes.

The Barra was delicious and tender - tick, and it went well with the tangy sweet and sour sauce - tick again! Mlady loved this!


And finally, when we could barely fit anything else in - the mud crab with salty egg yolk.

Seriously - we were so full and this was so good it was almost cruel as we couldn't resist it.

It was crisp - so crisp - and had great flavours. It went well on its own and also with our side dishes.

Taste of Shanghai has several restaurants around Sydney. This one has recently been refurbished - and it shows. Group tables around the back are perfect for those larger gatherings. There are plenty of smaller tables for everyone else though. The menu is massive so it will be hard to choose, but there are some amazing wow factor dishes there that will impress on arrival at the table and continue to impress as you eat them. This is a bustling place with character, great food and efficient service. 

Sir and Mlady dined as guests of Taste of Shanghai. Special thanks to Vanessa Gregory of Wasamedia for the invitation and it was also great to chat with David Wasserman.