Tag: dumplings

Categories
Chinese

Cheng’s Xi’an Traditional Foods (程记西安名吃) – Burwood NSW Restaurant Review

I want to skip forward and just say that this place is on the elite tier of Chinese food in Burwood.

The first time we contemplated eating at Cheng’s Xi’an Traditional Foods we peered in from outside to a completely empty, dingey looking restaurant, and decided to go somewhere else instead. This was clearly a mistake, because the next time we walked past, the place was completely bar one table, and once we were seated, others had to line up outside behind us.

The food was really quite good.

We had these 12 chicken and mushroom fried dumplings 鸡肉香菇煎饺(12个) ($13.80), which weren’t my first choice in terms of dumplings but were quite delicious despite that. The wrappers were relatively thin and crispy, with a nice lace applied to the bottom. The filing was plentiful and juicy, and the dipping sauce was an extraordinary mix of vinegar and chilli crisp. My partner reflected as we walked back to our car that despite eating dumplings for decades in all kinds of situations, she was still surprised by the quality and tastiness of this sauce. I’d like to come back for some more traditionally filled dumplings in the near future.

The Xi’an Stewed Pork Burger 肉夹馍 Roujiamo ($8.50) was less good but still not terrible. It featured quite a tasty filling with a mixture of lean and fatty pork, albeit without any chillies or capsicums or other green fillings that these often have. Where it fell down, however, was the bread, which I found to be quite dry, a problem that not even the juicy meat could compensate for. There are better roujiamo in Burwood for sure.

The Xi’an Home-Style Pork Spinach-Noodles 陕西哨子干拌菠菜面 ($18.80) was truly very delicious, some of the best noodles I’ve had in some time. This is a dry bowl of noodles, with vinegar and chilli oil, some cubed celery, potato and carrot (mixed bag of frozen veggies from the supermarket-style, but probably cut in house given the dimensions and irregularity of the cubes), tofu, scallions, green noodles, and fatty pork.

The noodles are clearly made in house, green due to the addition of spinach juice to the dough, and are quite springy without being raw – a distinct feeling of jīn dào (筋道) in opposition to the rawness of some Italian pastas marketed as al dente. Mixed up together before eating, the flavour was extremely good, with each strand of noodle being well coated by oil and sauce and an excellent balance of flavour – spiciness but not too spicy, a bit of tanginess from the vinegar, and a whole lot of umami.

THOUGHTS
Delicious. Skipping Cheng’s Xi’an based purely on external appearance would be a mistake. I’d like to go back.

Cheng’s Xi’an Traditional Foods (程记西安名吃)
9/258 Burwood Rd, Burwood NSW 2134

Categories
Chinese 四川 (Sìchuān/Sichuan) 重庆 (Chóngqìng/Chongqing)

Yummy Noodle King 巴蜀小面 – Burwood NSW Restaurant Review

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.

Yummy Noodle King 巴蜀小面
181C Burwood Rd, Burwood NSW 2134


Categories
Chinese Groceries

Lucky Dumplings 品质王 饺 – Grocery Review

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.

Lucky Dumplings Country-Style Chicken 品质王 田园鸡肉饺
EAN 9309002913099

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.

Lucky Dumplings Chicken, Corn & Shrimp 品质王 鸡虾玉米饺
EAN 9309002913051

by FD Catering Service,
Unit 3/31 Ascot Vale Rd
Flemington VIC 3031

Categories
Chinese

New Shanghai Night 新夜上海 – Ashfield NSW Restaurant Review

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

Categories
Chinese Groceries

Ruyee Golden Potstickers with Chives Egg and Dried Shrimp (黃金鍋貼 韭菜鸡蛋虾皮) – Grocery Review

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