The contents of this blog are matters of opinion formed over one more visits. There has been some artistry applied and metaphors and similes should not necessarily be taken literally.
This may really just be the uneducated opinion of one westernised Chinese guy, but I really didn’t have that inspiring an experience at Princess J (Jiao Gong Cooked) Malatang 焦功煮麻辣烫 in Emerald Square Burwood.
I found that the menu options and pricing structure was confusing and not well denoted on signage, at least in English, making it difficult to know how different items were priced, in particular the division between the fried foods and the self-serve malatang options.
I also found that the differences in soup bases was not well explained, not only by signage but also by the staff working there when I asked. In the end we chose two separate base options, one of which was pre-seasoned and one of which was similar but without a mix of seasonings, leading to a more choose your own adventure. We found that both options were overall less tasty and less enjoyable than the standard mixture of condiments and bases from, for example, Yang Guo Fu Malatang.
Whether or not this reflects poorly on this particular restaurant or poorly on our basic westernised palates remains to be answered, but our experience here wasn’t something that would lead me to come back.
At least you can tell from the photos that the place looked quite clean and well maintained.
Princess J Ma La Tang (Jiao Gong Cooked Malatang) 焦功煮麻辣烫 Shop 9 27/31 Belmore St, Burwood NSW 2134
I’ve always wanted to try orange chicken, made famous by Panda Express of California, but I’d never seen it on a Chinese restaurant menu until now. Though orange chicken wasn’t anywhere near Chick Joy’s best sellers, and was in fact not mentioned at all in online reviews, I knew I had to take the rare opportunity presented to me to live out my dream.
It turns out that the orange crispy fried chicken (8 pieces for $15) was really just generically fried chicken with a separate orange sauce to be lathered on by the eater. Though initially an underwhelming concept, I guess this does make sense as it gives control over how much of the sticky sweet sauce is desired.
While I had expected “8 pieces of chicken” to consist of perhaps the classically known half-bird with all its different pieces, what actually came (and what in retrospect was clearly pictured in the menu photographs) was 8 semi-identical drummettes. Whilst this was a bit of a disappointment, I must admit that the drummettes provided were tasty and crispy, I think previously par-fried and then re-fried to order.
The orange sauce was sweet and sticky and really not that orangey – more of a sweeter version of a sweet and sour sauce, but not bad and good to try once.
I think that if these guys actually had a half bird divided into thigh, wing, breast, and drumstick pieces then they might be onto something real.
I will list this restaurant as Chinese as the middle-aged man manning the fryer had to get his son or colleague to take my order in English.
UPDATE In a comical series of events, my wife tried to go to multiple Taiwanese fried chicken restaurants in Burwood, which all ended up being closed even though they were still meant to be open. She ended up at Chick Joy again, and ordered some bird for takeaway.
The crispy fried chicken soft bone ($15) she ate almost all of in the car. She didn’t like it as much as the one she likes to get from Hot Star.
The crispy fried chicken wings ($15) were alright, but not special.
The plum sweet & sour crispy fried chicken ($15) was quite yummy, wiht a bit of a hidden five spice flavour to it that added an extra dimension of Chineseness.
Don’t tell any of my local Chinese restaurants, but I would not be mad if I had these pork and cabbage dumplings 猪肉白菜饺 (500g for $10) served to me in a restaurant.
They were large, plump, tolerated well my haphazard boiling with no stirring of the pot, and most importantly, tasted good.
The filling of the pork and cabbage dumplings had a good texture with a bit of meat texture which made it seem like more than just your classic mystery slurry, and a light but enjoyable flavour that was allowed to shine by the addition of some extra vinegar for dipping. I can recommend them.
Lucky Dumplings Pork and Cabbage 品质王猪肉白菜饺 EAN 9309002913068
Others:
Though I enjoyed the pork and cabbage dumplings, my experience with the country-style chicken田园鸡肉饺 variety was less rewarding. I enjoyed neither the flavour, which I felt was lacking, nor the texture of the frozen vegetable medley.
Conversely, the addition of a little bit of prawn (and I think a bit of chilli) in the chicken, corn, & shrimp 鸡虾玉米饺 dumplings, as well as the removal of carrot and peas, made them much more palatable.
I had the opportunity to not enjoy this pearl custard/egg tart almost 2 years ago, not post about it, and have the photo sit on my computer until now.
I had in fact forgotten about the experience, until I revisited it when I was served baked goods from Fujimi during a recent echocardiogram course.
Clearly not learning from my mistake, I had again the same tart. My main criticism about this arises from the fact that I don’t actually enjoy the pearls in bubble tea that much, let alone on top of a tart. They’re OK one by one, surrounded by a large mouthful of bubble tea, but when clumped in a group together I think they’re just too sticky and flavourless.
I also had this purple tart, which I can’t identify, but was slightly better. My main complaint about the pastry was that it was soft, rather than crispy. Was this due to the travel-and-wait time, or is this a factor inherent in these tarts?
I don’t know, but I don’t want to have them again to find out.
New Shanghai Night 新夜上海 is the third in a line of consecutive Shanghainese restaurants running from West to East on Liverpool Rd and in our opinion the best. Though other sources will provide the rich history of these three related restaurants, I have not done any original research on this matter and to be truthful the lore does not interest me as much as the food, which was good, and better than the rest.
We started with these deep fried bean curd in salt chilli & pepper 椒盐豆腐 ($15.80). They were not bad, with only a light starched batter, true to our preference.
They were, however, served in this basket, which if you look closely at it and think about it makes you wonder how often it is cleaned. For this reason, I would not order these tofus again, and I would aim to avoid anything served in this kind of kitchenware.
The Pork with Chives Garlic in Dumpling 韭菜猪肉水饺 ($13.80 for 12, steamed) were really good. They had a green filling with a good density of chives and a high degree of fragrance and sweetness. I don’t know if the sweetness was the natural sweetness of the vegetables, or from added sugar into either the filling or the flour, but nonetheless the taste was good.
These dumplings are also available pan-fried (more expensive), or to take home frozen, and are some of the best I’ve had. There’s no option that combines pork, prawn, and chives, or pork, egg, and chives in a 三馅 style as apparently these are not Shanghainese in tradition, and though many dumpling would’ve suffered from the absence of a third ingredient, the cleanness of this two-ingredient combination was a winner for me.
The Pan Fried Pork Bun with Shallots 生煎包 (10 for $13.80) was another winner.
The dough was soft and airy but not too thick, and with perfectly fried bottoms.
The filling was moist, flavourful, and a little bit but not too soupy. Again I thought these shen jian bao had a bit of a sweet taste to them – possibly a house characteristic of either their filling or dough – but not problematically so. Absolutely elite tier.
Chilli oil you must ask for.
I think the tea was pu’er which is not my favourite but what can you do?
Other The staff speak very good English and also seemingly no Mandarin, which I guess makes sense since they are a Shanghainese restaurant, despite general Mandarin hegemony. They were confused and unable to produce a tax invoice when requested. Service was generally good and nicer than at New Shanghai .
Overall the best Shanghainese restaurant in Ashfield. It is a wonder how the other two even have customers, let alone lines outside New Shanghai whilst there are still tables free at New Shanghai Night.
This is a cat we saw on our walk to the restaurant. Hopefully we can go for more walks to this restaurant in 2026.
UPDATE MARCH 2026 We went back today, for lunch rather than dinner. Perhaps this was our big mistake, as the restaurant is not called New Shanghai Day. The meal was not as good as last time, and if this had been our initial experience we wouldn’t have come back a second time. The staff also spoke to us in Mandarin. Is there a separate crew for the day shift?
First, the pork ribs in black bean sauce on rice豉椒肉排飯 ($15.80). My wife had not gotten the memo to not order generic Chinese food from a regional Chinese restaurant, but mostly because I hadn’t communicated this strategy. These weren’t what we expected (from only the English title) – we were more expecting yum cha style steamed pork ribs.
The flavour was OK even thought it was not what we wanted, but the pork was randomly battered and deep fried for seemingly no reason – something another online commenter had mentioned about another dish. A reasonable portion size, but it almost seemed like a meal designed for someone not Chinese?
I will take credit for choosing the steamed Shanghai style mini pork & crab bun xiaolongbao 南翔小籠包 ($12.80), which at least are regional Shanghainese cuisine. These weren’t terrible, but did not stand out like the shen jian bao had on our first visit.
I didn’t think they were better than frozen supermarket XLBs, and I couldn’t appreciate the crabbiness of these allegedly crabby bao.
My order of pork with coriander in dumpling香菜豬肉水餃 ($13.80 for 12, steamed) was another attempt to replicate our previous success, which again didn’t go that well. They were nothing to really write home about, and led me to wonder if as an adult one could suddenly go from someone who enjoyed coriander to someone who doesn’t like coriander.
Comments 2.0 Perhaps I had betrayed us by making us get things outside of what we’d already had and knew we enjoyed. Perhaps it was the B ‘day team’ at a ‘night restaurant’. All I know is we weren’t particularly happy with our meal.
New Shanghai Night 新夜上海 267B Liverpool Rd, Ashfield NSW 2131
