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.
Google Maps lists Yummy Noodle King 巴蜀小面 as a self-service restaurant rather than a Chinese restaurant, and in a sense that’s true.
We walked in with no expectations and asked for two noodles to be recommended by the staff, resulting in two noodle dishes and a plate of dumplings.
The pork and peas noodle 特色豌杂面 ($14.80) was really yummy, with great umami flavour from the soy braised pork mince, as well as a bit of chilli oil and the weird creaminess of the corn. The dish was, I thought, better eaten as pictured rather than mixed together, as mixing it up made the pea goo go everywhere, making it impossible to avoid when I wanted at times to just have a purely meaty mouthful.
The braised beef noodle soup 红烧牛腩面 ($15.80) was quite delicious, apart from the actual beef, which I had mixed feelings about. The taste of the broth was good, as was the presence of the sour Chinese pickles, though the beef itself had a bit of a corned beef or silverside flavour, which was weird to contemplate in the setting of a Chinese noodle bowl. Overall, I don’t think this made the bowl unenjoyable, however, I probably would have preferred a more Chinese tasting braised beef.
The pork and chive dumplings 水饺, which were 12 pieces for $13.80, were below par for the local area. Though the filling was reasonable, with sweet chives, the wrappers were a bit thicker than I would have liked, making the dumplings more floury and less meaty.
Overall, quite a nice restaurant, and we do have vague inclinations to come back, probably before this post is published.
The self-service nature of this restaurant refers to the fact that once the food is ready, our number was called and we had to go pick it up from the counter. The restaurant, similar to My Aunt’s Handmade Noodles, offers free noodle topups, though we did not take advantage of this as the shop was closing and we were very full already.
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.
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
Straight off the heels of having tried the Chive and Egg Dumplings from Ruyee, here are my brief thoughts on their Golden Potstickers with Chives Egg and Dried Shrimp (黃金鍋貼 韭菜鸡蛋虾皮). Dedicated readers do not have to fear, for these quickly jotted down thoughts will not interrupt the usual posting schedule.
These are clearly smaller than the previously reviewed egg and chive pockets. The photo on the packet has them being cooked still stuck together as a batch, though they did not come this stuck together in the packaging.
Though the supermarket I brought them from advertised them as chive, egg, and prawn, I could not appreciate any prawn whilst eating them, and a subsequent a close reading of the packaging revealed that the prawn was only dried prawn.
I’m open to any suggestions about how to de-carbonise the sides of my stainless steel cookware. Barkeeper’s friend doesn’t get rid of all of it, so often I find it’s less drama to just use carbon steel.
All faffing aside, these were only fine. The wrapper to filling ratio I felt was weaker than that of the ‘pockets’, and given the choice of the two I would choose those instead.
Ruyee Golden Potstickers with Chives Egg and Dried Shrimp (黃金鍋貼 韭菜鸡蛋虾皮) 9369999096892
We were the only diners at Taikoo Li at 4PM on a Tuesday, which was weird to us at the time because there’s quite a bit of real estate for just two Asians, but less weird to me now that I think about the way our schedule differs from that of the average Burwood human.
We had this very good braised pork belly with preserved veggies & chilli with rice ($15.80). The moist fattiness and umami flavours of the pork melted into the rice, stretched and complimented by the pickled chillis and other green pickles. Though the helping of rice was relatively large, the dripped through braising liquid from the pork belly, as well as the selection of delicious pickles meant that there was enough yummy flavour for us to finish it in its entirety.
The braised sweet duck (half) ($20) was not bad, though nothing in particular to write home about. I think I would still prefer your average Cantonese roast duck, but it’s good to have some variety once in a while.
The spicy boiled beef (Sichuan boiled beef) ($17.80) was a huge serving for the price, and great with rice, which was an additional $2.50. Can recommend for 水煮牛肉 fans.
The pork dumplings with chilli on side8pcs ($10.80) tasted good, but were disappointing in their own way. They had a meat only filling, which was flavourful, as well as a dipping sauce that was savoury, oily, and not very spicy, which were all winning ingredients for success. What made me sad however was that some of the dumplings still had raw dough in them, which made it difficult for me to want to eat them, despite their good taste. I also dropped two out of eight, which was completely my fault, but this meant that the ratio of cooked to raw dumplings available for me to eat decreased even further.
Overall thoughts: I agree with my friend PMR that this is good quality, Chinese cuisine. Oddly enough, he and his partner were also the only customers when they ate, also at 4PM on a weekday.
Taikoo Li 太古里 47 Burwood Rd, Burwood NSW 2134
Note 2025: This restaurant may have moved to 150 Burwood Rd, Burwood NSW 2134
