new shanghai restaurant @ chatswood chase

For my cousin B's birthday, we celebrated at New Shanghai Restaurant @ Chatswood Chase. This is the newly furnished version of New Shanghai (you can find other branches in Lemongrove Shopping Centre and also Ashfield). I've been to the one at Lemongrove and without doubt, this one at Chatswood Chase is much fancier.

The birthday boy at the head of the table.

My family were the first family to arrive after the birthday boy so we took our places near the head of the table. The reason why I say this place is fancy? Well, take a look at the decorations you see in this pic. There are paintings adorning the walls, the tableware is modernly chic, there's a touch of authenticity (with the wooden furniture) and my favourite would be the wooden table blocks holding the sauces (is there a name for these things?)

The ordering of dinner was quite an event in itself. With the volume of food we ordered, we had three waitresses try to tell us that we'd ordered too much food. We were insistent that we could eat it. They were insistent that we couldn't and stressed that 'never in the life of this restaurant has any table ordered this much food' (and I kid you not, those were their exact words). In the end, we ordered everything we wanted and well, there were quite a few takeaway boxes but it was all in good fun! Here's the Minced Pork Noodles...

Boiled Dumplings and one of my favourites from the night (if only I knew what it was called?!), prawns deep fried in an egg yolk batter. They were divine (probably not good in terms of cholesterol but absolutely divine!)

Xiao Long Bao (definitely one of the staples to order).

Shandong Chicken. Love this one. Great also that the sauce comes separate so that the crispy skin of the chicken doesn't get soggy.

Braised Pork Belly. The size of the pot is a little misleading but eat a piece of this, you'll think twice about wondering why they don't fill up the entire pot.

Boiled dumplings in a peanut sauce. As heavy as this one looks, I do love it!

Every inch of the table was covered up with food.

After awhile, it did get a little stuffy in the restaurant (we were at the back where the entrance to the kitchen was). Without any water in sight, J resorts to drinking some dumpling soup with a straw.

So how many boxes of takeaway did we have at the end of the night? I think it was 11 and each and every one of them was packed to the brim. I actually don't mind Shanghai food eaten the next day - it reheats well in the microwave and retains a lot of the flavour. I asked my dad what he thought of this place (he rarely likes to try something new) and well, he thought it was ok. He still thinks that the Eastwood Peking Restaurant better and between him and I, we do miss the the Peking Restaurant that was in Chatswood before they pulled down the lot it was in to build the new council building (I wonder if those owners have reopened up elsewhere?)

Anyway, Happy Birthday B!