shanghai stories 1938 @ victoria ave., chatswood

Can it please stop raining?! Why is it even raining at this time of year?! It was on a rather rainy weekday that Mashi and I made our way over to The Concourse at Chatswood to try out one of their restaurants - Shanghai Stories 1938 (next door is a pizza place called Gusto which I'm certainly keep to try - anyone up for it?) The occasion was a belated birthday celebration for Mashi and it actually worked out to be quite a nice place for the occasion; unbeknownst to both of us, Shanghai Stories leans towards the upmarket but still being affordable and being a school day, the two of us dined like royalty on their upstairs floor which is decked out quite nicely (certainly not your average Shanghai dumpling house)

The menu features a mixture of the familiar (dumplings, pancake, noodles) but also has its fair share of fusion items (pringles, Peking Duck and Osmanthus Jelly is one of them but I had this on my second visit), family dinner dishes as well as seafood sold at market price. There's definitely all sorts to suit different budgets so assume this is what the restaurant owner has set out to offer. According to the boy, their wine list is also quite extensive and very reasonably priced too.

Snowy River Sweet Pork Ribs - this dish features on the front page of their menu (and which we also missed until the waitress kindly recommended it to us as we were having trouble deciding); it was definitely too pretty not to try and ended up being a very tasty choice.

Mixed Cold Cuts Platter - the tomato is definitely the highlight of this dish (well for me anyway, it was something new and different and the sweet taste of the tomato was not something I was expecting from eating Shanghainese food)

Sesame Pastry. Despite looking at the menu and reading about what this item was (as it was one of the highly recommended items), neither Mashi nor I were prepared for the sweet inner of this pastry, we both thought it would be savoury and personally, I do think it would've tasted better if it were savoury.

Braised fish fillet and fungus in wine sauce. I actually love this dish for the fungus and could do with it just being fungus only - but that's because I love fungus.

Soy sauce Pork Fried Rice.

Panda & Panda buns! We knew that we were going to order these ones even before we started the meal - they're too cute not to. The inner is a red bean paste and yes, they are really too cute to eat!

With a pot of tea to share between us also, we wrapped up the meal for $90. Admittedly, not the cheapest fix of Shanghainese food in Sydney or even just in Chatswood where you actually have several cheaper options. Being a special occasion and with the level of service we had that night, it was a great school night dining option. I've actually already been back for a second visit (though we sat downstairs this second time and the atmosphere is actually quite different; actually more laidback), well I guess it speaks for itself, food is solid and with such an extensive menu, it will bring you back.