taste of shanghai @ world square, city

Reading food blogs often comes in handy. Whether it's learning about new places which have opened up, dishes to try at certain restaurants, what not to try, what to expect, where to shop for food, what's new in food; there's so many food blogs out that that provide this information that you wouldn't find anywhere else. I'm constantly seeking out new food blogs to read and then there's also those select few which I've gotten quite attached to. Amongst those select few is missklicious who I remembered when looking for a place to eat last Thursday night.

There's a Taste of Shanghai in Eastwood (which I've been to a couple of times), the original store in Ashfield (which constantly has a queue) and there's now a new store in World Square (downstairs opposite Coles). J&I were at the store in World Square at about 6.30pm on a Thursday night and were given a ticket to wait in the queue. The wait wasn't too bad; just 5-10 minutes before we were seated at a table.

Pork & Crab Meat Xiao Long Bao. If you come here, you must order this dish. From all the Xiao Long Bao's I've had in Sydney this is arguably one of the best. The skin is just thick enough to hold the dollop of soup that's inside (and don't worry, that soup won't cook your tongue, it's at just the right temperature).

Originally we were going to try the Cold Dumpling & Sesame sauce noodles but was told it was unavailable at the time. Ended up having the Pork Mince Noodles with the fresh sliced cucumber. It's a very generous serving and I suggest you share this one between two.

J loves the Chinese Sweet & Sour Soup and insists on ordering the medium serve. The medium serve is actually quite good value ($9) as opposed to the small serve ($5). The medium serve works out to be at least 6 individual bowls - I suggest you only order this if you're like J and can stomach all that soup. I had the one and was already quite full. Also some advice, make sure you mix up the soup before you drink it. I had a nasty surprise with my bowl having all the pepper in it!

Salt & Pepper Pork - pieces were bite sized and well seasoned; I could've kept eating this one! (but had to stop for fear of a sore throat)

For two people, I admit that 4 dishes is a lot of food. J&I were both quite hungry but J was insistent that he was hungry enough to get through all 4 dishes and he did end up eating all of it. And well, I do have more than average appetite when it comes to food so I'm probably not the best person to advise on how much to order. I guess my motto is that always order what you want to eat and well, you can always take it away if you have too much.

Anyway, I do think that this Taste of Shanghai branch is much better than the one in Eastwood. Service is a lot faster and the food is much better (not sure what's happened with the Eastwood branch because the food is definitely not as great as when they first opened up).