Shanghai Street (Melbourne, Australia)
This was the one I am mentioning on my last review post, the one when we sneaked out and find some Asian feed. There were six of us who craved for some Asian food, for me I don’t care what type of Asian food as long as it has rice or noodles, but the rest of the group was debating whether what to have Chinese, Japanese or Indonesian. It was torn between two factions since we had three Indonesian and two Chinese on the group, the Indonesians want and Indonesian fare while the Chinese wants some Chinese or Japanese. On our short walk to China town they continued arguing until we passed by Shanghai Street, the Chinese from our group marketed it well to the rest so this became our feed for tonight.
One of my colleagues told us that the Xiaolongbao is their specialty here and they do it really well, he was craving for this so the tried to sway the non-fans. We came in around 8:30 PM and they were still open, if this was in Auckland changes are places like these are closed already. It was a packed restaurant, so I got a good feeling on this one, luckily there are few tables left unoccupied, so we grabbed that.
Shanghai Street is marketed as Authentic Shanghai cuisine where it features Jiangnan-style dumplings and noodles complemented by their signature dishes of home-cooked Chinese cuisine. Based on those specialties those are what we ordered so we first started with a couple of Xiaolongbaos.
First was their Homemade traditional steamed Shanghai Pork Xiaolongbao ($11.80 / 8pcs), this was spectacular. I especially liked that it was not served piping hot because my experience with this is usually burning my mouth. It was very porky, in a nice way and the broth is very tasty.
Next Xiaolongbao was their Homemade traditional steamed Shanghai Chicken and Prawn Xiaolongbao ($12.80 / 8pcs), it was not as soupy as the first one, but I love the flavour and texture of the filling. It was quite firm like a shumai and it was very flavourful, I can definitely taste those prawn on it.
Then our Chinese colleague recommended this Shanghai noodle with dry shrimp in homemade spring onion oil ($6.80), at first I was not impressed on how it looked, it was underwhelming since it does not have any ingredient at all but after that first chopstick bite, that simple looks is the total opposite of the flavour, while the taste is not that strong, it was delicious. This dish you tend to concentrate on the quality of the noodles, its texture and the bit of flavour that the oil imparts, it is definite must try.
We also got some Pork & prawn wonton in soup ($11.80 / 15 pcs), again another tasty fare, soup was very good, and the wontons were perfectly prepared, the skin was not soggy and cooked just right.
The Indonesians wanted some fried rice, so we grabbed some Special fried rice with prawn & bacon ($11.80), while this may not be the Nasi Goreng they expect for, with the help of the chilli oil it can spice it up bringing life to the dish. For me I am not bothered, either way I love rice.
Finally, the one I am craving for, some noodle soup dish and we ordered it in the form of Traditional Beef Noodle Soup ($11.80). The soup tasted like the soup used in the wontons and the noodles have the same texture of the simple noodle I mentioned above. It was like a perfect combination of the two with some added beef slices that was quite generous in portion. Clean, simple flavours and I love it, that dish definitely fixed my craving and hunger.
After that we were quite full since we had some bites already from Bobby McGees before even going here. So, we stayed for a while and drank some tea before heading back to our party. Shanghai Street indeed was good without a doubt, was it authentic? Well my Chinese colleague who was originally from Shanghai says so. So, if you are craving for some Chinese dish specially wontons and Xiaolongbao, this is the place to be in Melbourne CBD.
Shanghai Street (Chinatown) ĺ°Źç± é¤¨
Address: 146 Little Bourke St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia
Phone: +61 3 9662 3226
Website: https://www.shanghaistreet.com.au/
