Taste of Shanghai has been on this Sydney food blog’s radar for a while simply because it’s always packed… and the fact that it’s on the site of the old Chicken Express; a fast food chain that had a particular fondness for added MSG.

The first surprise for a Chinese restaurant is that the young staff were relatively friendly and helpful, there’s even a staff member to open the door for you.  True to form, at 7pm on a rainy night, Taste of Shanghai was busy, clientele were all Chinese, of a wide cross section and ages.

There’s a good variety of Shanghai and some Sichuan dishes from cold entrees, hot pots, vegetarian, home style dishes and of course, dumplings.

I order the enigmatically named wined chicken, which was chicken in rice wine, simple but with high octane flavour.

noodlies steamed pork dumplings

The Shanghai steamed mini pork buns came in eight (of course) pieces, pastry nice, tonight the filling was a little watery, but still very enjoyable.

I’ll be back.

If you can’t get out to Ashfield, Taste of Shanghai is also in Sydney’s World Square and Eastwood.

Taste of Shanghai
264 Liverpool Rd, Ashfield
(02) 9798 2877

Taste of Shanghai on Urbanspoon