New Shanghai Restaurant Ashfield, Syney

We’ve been regulars to New Shanghai restaurant in Ashfield for many years. New Shanghai Restaurant started out in my memory as this rather small, cramped restaurant that was in need of a lot of TLC. Chipped bowls and cups and almost non existent customer service. But we love their great food choice, the value for money and most importantly, their consistently delicious food. J used to be the only non-Asian customer eating in the restaurant 99.9% of the time. But he didn’t mind it at all: “It’s a good sign, you know. Food here must be really authentic.”

That’s true. New Shanghai restaurant in Ashfield has really tasty food… and cheap. Eating out in this Sydney inner west suburb is not expensive at all. There is a row of restaurants on that street serving traditional Shanghainese dishes at relatively cheap prices. We’ve tried every single one of them, but New Shanghai restaurant is the one that we keep going back to. They just cook better. We always order a bit of everything whenever we eat there. Why not:)? For 50$ two people can have a feast, even a doggy bag or two.

Stir fried bean spouts

Drunken chicken – Chicken marinated in Chinese wine with herb & spice

We couldn’t remember its name for years. Every restaurant on that street has Shanghai in their names. And they all looked similar from the appearance. Believe me, it was quite hard to tell which is which. But New Shanghai Restaurant in Ashfield used to have a large glass window at the back of the restaurant showing staff working in the kitchen making buns and dumplings. That made it a bit easier for us to remember.

Newly renovated restaurant, still has big glass window on the side showing staff making dumplings.

You know what? Many people like us must have also remembered the good food or that big glass window at the back. Queues to get in New Shanghai restaurant got longer and longer. At times the waiting time was too much for us and we’d just go somewhere else. It’s been in the news lately, that a lot Sydney fine dinning restaurants went out of business in recent years. But don’t blame it solely the economy. Dinners are getting much smarter nowadays. Posh looking restaurants serving expensive, average food just won’t cut it any more. During the same period of time New Shanghai restaurant has opened a couple of more branches in Sydney. The original New Shanghai restaurant in Ashfield formally expanded its floor space and went through a full renovation last year.

Renovated interior, styled like a Chinese house in the old days.

Expended New Shanghai restaurant with new signs.

Even though New Shanghai Restaurant in Ashfield isn’t the closest to me, I still prefer eating at New Shanghai Ashfield simply because it has the biggest menu. There are more tasty dishes available in New Shanghai ashfield, like Fujian fried rice, pork and egg congee, Beijing style pork spare ribs. Yes, that’s right, New Shanghai Ashfield doesn’t just serve Shanghainese dishes.

Ashfield New Shanghai Restaurant Address:

273 Liverpool Rd
Ashfield, NSW 2131

Favorite dishes of all time:

• Drunken chicken – Chicken marinated in Chinese wine with herbs & spices
• Hot, spicy & sour soup with shredded pork and bean curd
• Stir fried sting bean with dried shrimps & soy sauce
• Pan Fried pork buns
• Steamed mini pork buns
• Beijing style pork spare ribs

I’ve put a few of our favorite dishes in bullet points rather than explaining the taste and look in details. Thinking or writing about these yummy, unpretentious dishes makes me hungry. All I can say is that I could finish the whole plate of Drunken chicken(refer to 3 picture from the top) less the skin all by myself, very quickly. You’ll just have to go and find out how good it is yourself.