Shanghai Dumplings

There was a rather long queue when I arrived at Shanghai Dumplings and it seemed like they were understaffed. However, they still managed to work quite efficiently to minimise waiting time. Their dumplings are made fresh everyday which is always great to know and they have quite a wide range of fillings. I would suggest choosing dumplings in chilli oil or fried for extra flavour and texture as the dry ones can be rather ordinary. It was also unfortunate that the beef noodle soup was extremely bland.

Pretty excited to try this place because DUMPLINGGSSS~!!! Ended up being underwhelmed. The skin of the dumplings was THICK and chewy, the noodles were overcooked. Really, that’s all I have to say about this place. It wasn’t great and I won’t be going back any time soon, but it’s not so terrible that I wouldn’t go back if a friend wanted to try it.

So, yesterday I decided to tag along with mum on her visit to the bank in Chatswood, after getting some basic assurance that we’ll be having lunch too. Yes, I’m a poor excuse of a son who only leave the house for food! No no I had some web development work which needed reasonable temptation to drop.
After the bank, it was time to scout for food! With no real idea in mind, we started to wander around. Around didn’t exactly last long. 3 doors down, we noticed that a new dumpling eatery had opened. After a quick discussion, we decided we were in the mood for dumplings, and decided to give a new place a try.
The shop is in trial operation mode (not sure if it’s common practice in the western world, but it is in Asia, but basically there’s usually a limited menu, not everything is in the right place, there might be too many or too little staff, may or may not be a small discount and customers are meant to be more forgiving) and it’s obvious. The waitresses, while courteous and friendly, seemed mildly stressed. Hopefully with a bit of experience this will ease, because there really weren’t that many patrons. They should also try to seat everyone a bit tighter — the shop’s quite small and given it’s clearly a cheap-​and-​cheerful (with prices sitting on the edge of acceptability of cheap and cheerful) Chinese eatery, people should expect to have to mix with others with seating. They’ve got people spread out and a single kid had to be asked to move to a double table so that our trio could take his four-​seater.
The shop also trialled with a concept which I’ve seen for the first time — having a menu with a checkbox next to every dumpling type, and staff would tick the box of the available flavours on the menu at the start of each day. This to me has a few problems:
1. The menu books already looked frayed and the restaurant is still in «beta mode». Not sure how long this trial mode has been running, but let’s say it’s been 2 weeks — would that mean menus would have to be tossed out every month or so due to high usage? It’s obvious that the extra interaction with the printed material is increasing its wear.
2. The ticking rubs off. They’re written with whiteboard markers, and by the time we sat down, which is barely 1pm, my menu and my brother’s menu showed different flavours available because mine’s had a few rubbings.
I would say that the better way is to have a number with each item, and the shop could simply put up a blackboard somewhere prominent in the shop, to indicate which flavours are available for the day. From memory, there are 16 – 20 flavours, and they only make 4 available each day, so the specified model can work.
Now, on the plus side, I think having only a limited selection of dumplings available each day is a great idea. My brother lamented this and said that «they should have everything available», but my view is that it simplfies the production process, increases efficiency, allows some rotation of the menu, ensures freshness of ingredients and output, and reduces wastage of unused ingredients. And four flavours is enough to cater for most tastes.
As for the food itself (good on you for reading this far, to get to the thing you’re really interested in!):
1. The noodles (pictured, noodles stired in dark soya sauce with beef in five spices): prepared well, not too soggy like some places. Might be slightly better if the sauce is spiked with chilli oil. I certainly found it that way after I got some of their numbing chilli oil from their self-​serve stand and mixed it in. The beef was fine, maybe slicing them slightly thicker would be better to the bite.
2. Pork and salt-​pickled duck egg yolk dumplings: We had this dish served pan-​fried. The wrapping was very thin but glutenous/​al-​dente (very important, as opposed to these thick doughy, or soggy skins, from other places). They were generous with the yolk which is great to see. The rest of the filling has great flavour.
3. Pork and coriander dumplings: We had this served steamed. Again great flavour from the generous inclusion of coriander, although especially for this dish, it would be better if they served it with the suggested sauces on the side, as I doubt everyone in the Chatswood community are well-​versed in what sauces go with what dumplings. The correct sauce is red vinegar, and some with a little chilli oil. The dish did have a small section for sauce, but was not filled. I put this down to the beta mode of the shop, so expect this will rectify itself over time.
All in all, for about $ 10 a person (about $ 12 once the 15% discount expires with the end of the trial operation period), it’s great value for Chatswood and great value for dumplings. Recommended!