New Shanghai

Dumplings were good. Was pleasantly surprised that we were able to reserve a table with less than an hour before arrival. Once arrived we ordered a tray of the xiao long bao, the pan fried pork buns, a braised beef noodle soup as well as the fragrant crispy half duck with steamed buns.
The xiao long bao was nice. Skin not too thick and good amount of soup in each bao. The pan fried buns were the same. Not many I’ve had before had soup in their pan fried buns/​dumplings so was a surprise. Beef noodle soup was delicious too but that’s where it stops.
We were really looking forward to the duck dish. When it arrived everyone around us was just in awe. The duck was presented sitting on a bed of shredded lettuce and shredded cucumber. With the sauces sitting on the side and the steamed buns around the plate it. Upon tasting it was disappointing. The duck itself was too dry and we actually wondered if this was one of those supermarket off the shelf duck meal boxes that you can prepare at home. For $ 35 it was definitely not worth it.
All in all started out strong but ended on a low.

I was looking forward to dining at New Shanghai. From the outside looking in it looked inviting, the décor was in line of a modern day Asian restaurant. I was sort of greeted at the door, and what I mean about sort of is that I asked for a table and the host just turned around and escorted me to my table, not a word was spoken, no expression was given. I went through the menu and I was excited, it had a a good mix of modern and traditional dumplings and Asian dishes. I ordered the beef and coriander dumplings and the crispy rainbow beef. As I was waiting for my food I looked around and found whilst there was a lot of staff on they all had the same zombie like demeanour, just walking around and having no interaction with any customers. First to arrive was my rainbow beef. The serving was large and looked appetising. The positives stopped with my first mouthful. It was over sweet dry and the flour was not cooked out. My dumplings arrived soon after and to be honest the presentation was really bad. I dipped the dumplings, which had been boiled, into the chilli sauce that was provided. What can I say, I’ve eaten a lot of dumplings and these would have to be the worse dumplings I have ever had. The skin was over cooked, the filling over cooked and no flavour at all. Out of the 10 dumplings I could only eat 3.
For the price I was expecting a lot better, unfortunately I’ve had better dumplings in Chinatown.
The experience was disappointing and they really need to look at their cooking methods as well as pumping some life into their staff.

I had lunch here last weekend, and it was a pleasant one. It was my first time trying dumplings!
Ordered steamed pork dumplings and also the deep fried, both were great! Also got a side dish of veges and tofu in a soy sauce! Both were very tasty!
I found for being an extremely busy lunch service their service was still very good, didn’t have to wait long at all for drinks or food, and they were very courteous to any needs people had.

My favourite place to have fried pork buns and Shanghaiese food. I know I know, there is a certain famous XLB restaurant just one level up. But to be honest with the price and the flavours are much better at New Shanghai.
Fried pork buns at New Shanghai has this amazingly crispy bottom. With delish soupy inside that could literally scald you if you eat this too quickly!
The XLBs are pretty good as well, although the skin is ever so slightly tougher than normal and they didn’t serve it with thinly sliced ginger.
I don’t normally order spring rolls but my colleagues ordered it. The spring rolls were delish! I ate like three of them!
The xo sauce fried rice was quite nice as well, with the sauce covering each grain.
The negative of this place? Well, it felt that they have use a crapload of MSG cos I was super thirsty afterwards.

Came here after work just because. This is the place that convinced me to love Xiao Long Bao! Before this, I absolutely maintained I didn’t like it. But I got them here because I was in the mood to give them another chance. They didn’t disappoint! Hot, soupy, flavourful. Masterful xiao long Bao. I got a second order therefore can’t review the rest of the food because I didn’t have room!

Agree with another reviewer, possibly your only choice for dumplings in the Emporium main food court and that’s all we wanted that day! It’s very busy at lunch hour but we were seated in under 10mins for two. Friendly and punctual table service.
Thin & crispy shallot pancakes that still had a nice chew to them. Fantastic pan fried pork dumplings with lots of juice sealed in (so often missing from the fried versions). The peanut & chilli sauce prawn wontons were quite different to my expectations (a thin watery sauce) but still delivered great flavour and punch. Could do with more chilli oil.
But you want to know about the XLB. I rate them 3 out of 5 stars. Good thin skin but a coarse chunky pork mince with not enough sweetness and only a hint of ginger, hence soup a little flat. I still ate as many as I could though because hey, it’s XLB.

New Shanghai is your best bet (and maybe your only one) for Dumplings at the flashy Emporium shopping centre.
Tucked away in the sprawling food court on the 3^rd floor, New Shanghai is a fairly large eat in restaurant. You can watch the chefs prepare the dumplings in the window, a bit gimmicky, but hey they’re freshly made! The main dining hall is adorned with faux red doors and hanging plants on the balconies, which for a fleeting moment will make you forget you’re in the shopping centre.
If you’re hungry after shopping, this is a good spot for dumplings especially if you want something more substantial that the fast-​casual offerings in the food court. The steamed xiao long bao is the favourite though I prefer them pan fried… just eat carefully as even the pan fried dumplings have hot broth inside! I also recommend the deep fried crispy skin chicken, it tastes like deep fried rotisserie chicken, super tasty.

Not sure there is such a thing as bad dumplings. This restaurant is tucked into a corner off the food court in the Emporium, 3^rd level. It was quick and slick and I was very happy. The Shiraz was actually really nice, unlike the usual dumpling restaurant offerings. Oh and reasonably priced. We were tried it for dinner but it was quick and efficient enough for a work lunch. Happy!

Came here for lunch. First thing I noticed was the nice friendly service. 小笼包 was quite good. However the sour spicy noodles 酸辣汤面 I had was very average with little ingredients for the price. Overall not impressed with the food especially in comparison to other places in Chinatown.