I was craving for xiao long bao and my friend suggested New Shanghai at the Emporium. Since I haven’t been yet we decided to give it a go. Emporium, Melbourne’s new shopping centre with a gazillion shops and confusing escalators and layouts to lose your orientation, we finally found our dumpling spot (with the help of the electronic information stand thingy of course). At the front it had people making the dumplings so you could watch them (looks at them creepily hohoho).
I groaned as I saw the line but it moved quickly and we were seated within 2 minutes when it was our turn (peak hour for dinner, 6pm on a Thursday night). We were shown to our table and was seated on a huge table that shared with another 2 groups of people (no intimacy at all but what can you do).
As soon as we were seated, we were served the New Shanghai pan fried pork buns which was complimentary because…..IT WAS THEIR FIRST BIRTHDAY!! WOOOO HAPPY BIRTHDAY NEW SHANGHAI!!! Not only was the bun super juicy (not as juicy as a xiao long bao), it was super moist and amazing! If I didn’t get this complimentary dish, I would have totally ordered this.
Complimentary New Shanghai Pan Fried Pork Buns
We started ordering and my friend wanted the drunken chicken which was basically chinese wine marinated chicken (I thought they feed the chicken wine and get it drunk…whoops). This looks kinda gross but once you have a bite, it’s actually pretty good. The dish is served cold but the more I ate it, the more saltier it got so I stopped and waited for dumplings!!
Drunken Chicken – $10.80
Finally the dumplings!!! I got my fav, XIAO LONG BAO!! Also known as juicy dumplings, soup dumplings or whatever you want. Its so good and I always soak it into my sauce (vinegar and soy) and pop the whole thing in my mouth and the dumplings will explode and mix the juice and dipping sauce with the pork of the dumpling!!! MMMMMMMMMMMMM!! I was so greedy I made sure we had two servings (clearly it was too much, eyes bigger than my belly). I’m glad we did because it was DELISH!!! Just make sure you be careful and not pop the dumpling and the juice runs out and you end up with a juice-less dumplings (booooo).
New Shanghai Xiao Long Bao – $8.60
Finally our last dish was the prawn wontons with chili oil, peanut and sesame sauce. THIS. WAS. AMAZING! The peanut made it creamy and the wontons were amazing. So much filling (now who would complain???) and the sauce, my gosh the sauce!! It was a tad chilli (my chilli tolerance isn’t very high though) but you need all those flavours. Make sure you scoop the sauce and pour it over your dumpling before popping it into your mouth. Don’t be shy and slather it in the sauce.
Prawn Wonton with Chili Oil, Peanut and Sesame Sauce – $16.30
Overall, I enjoyed this place and will definitely come back for the pan fried bun, xiao long bao and the prwan wontons in the peanut and sesame sauce. Great service, relatively average priced and you can stop here for when you’re too tired from all the shopping. EAT ALL THE DUMPLINGS!
Shop 323, Level 3 Emporium, 287 Lonsdale St, Melbourne CBD
Tel: (03) 9994 9386
Website: www.newshanghai.com.au