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    New Shanghai

    3.1 (54 reviews)
    Open 11:00 am - 9:00 pm

    New Shanghai Photos

    NEW SHANGHAI ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Moderate noise
    Casual
    Good for groups
    Good for kids

    Recommended Reviews - New Shanghai

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    Reviews With Photos

    Xiao Long Bao (Steamed Pork Mini Buns)
    Tammy L.

    Fairly new to Brisbane is New Shanghai, the newest addition to an established Shanghainese restaurant chain in Sydney. The ambience is one based on an old Chinese dining parlor, with wooden furnishings, traditional-looking decor, and walls of vintage posters and paintings. The thing about Shanghainese food is that it's carbs, carbs, carbs! I love carbs, but it is a bit hard to control yourself when things taste good, and then it's all over. I personally love Northern Chinese food because of all the carbs - soup noodles, dry noodles, rice cake, dumplings, and more dumplings! Yes please. =) We got the Drunken Chicken, Steamed Pork Dumpling Buns [Xiao Long Bao, ], Shallot Pancake [], and the Stir fried Chinese rice cake with Shepherd's purse & shredded pork [] between the three of us, and it was an adequate amount of food. The Drunken Chicken looked poor, and tasted too much like rice wine, and the other spices (except for salt!) were not quite there. The dish just tasted too much like alcohol and salt, and too little of much else. Their Xiao Long Baos (7.5) are actually ok, with meat, as well as some vegetable inside (which isn't typical), and the flavoring was alright. It didn't deserve a standing ovation, and was definitely not even close to being as delicious as the ones at Din Tai Feng. The first comment one of my friends made was that the makers (in the window up front) looked "noob," and that the dumplings weren't quite uniform... The Shallot Pancake (6) was an interesting shape, and not at all what I expected, as it was much bread-ier than the usual. I would just recommend buying the store-bought frozen ones from Yi-Mei. Those are absolutely delicious an easy to make. And economical. =) Lastly, we had the stir fried rice cake (11.8), which is actually one of my favorite dishes ever, but this one was quite disappointing. The texture of the rice cake was good, but the flavoring was just all wrong. Everything else had been quite salty up to this point - but this dish ended up being pretty tasteless after all that flavorful food. My overall experience was average, but the service was a bit frazzled, as they brought the wrong food to us twice. I would return, out of curiosity about their other dishes, but I wouldn't particularly say I would recommend this place for delicious, unadulterated Chinese food.

    Braised beef noodle soup
    Brenda Y.

    It is difficult finding good Chinese food in Brisbane but New Shanghai was able to give me a warm hug after being away from home for 3 months. Decorated as if you were Asia, the open kitchen window gave me a view of xiao long baos and dumplings being made. It was enticing enough for me to want to order all the baos and dumplings made by the professional rollers and wrappers. I ordered the pork and crab xiao long bao (14 AUD), braised beef noodle soup (15.70 AUD) and the pan fried pork buns (13.80 AUD). I grew up eating those 3 dishes and back home, those dishes were often critic simply by the thickness of the dumpling "skin", al dente and mouth feel of the noodles, the taste of the meat's soup and the fluffiness of the buns. I personally loved the pan fried pork buns more than the xiao long bao and noodles. The pan fried buns was soft on top and had a crispy bottom. Although it didn't compare to the crispy bottoms back at home but the buns maintained its soft and crispy structure even with soup inside the bun. The dish had 8 and don't let the pictures deceive you! The buns are very close to the size of your usually dim sum steam buns, maybe just a bit smaller. The xiao long bao had skins that were too thick. So once the soup dumplings cooled down just a bit, the skin lost its elasticity and become sturdy. Usually when you use chopsticks to pick up the xiao long baos, the skin would be perfectly thin enough to just hold the meat's weight to the point where it could escape. Unfortunately, the skin stood talk and mighty, and did not drope like it should have. The meat inside tasted like your original Xiao long bun. I guess the carb was overpowered by the vinegar, soy and pork. The trick to eating xiao long bao is to bite the top knot of the dumpling and because the vinegar and soy sauce was offered in pouring bottles, you just pour the sauces into the dumpling. Sip your meat soup and then devour the dumpling with 1 bite. One annoying thing about eating New Shanghai's xiao long bao was the pouring vessels. It LEAKED everywhere when you attempted to pour the sauce out. So make sure your phone is out of site and you have tissues around. The beef noodle soup had tender but small pieces of braised beef. The noodles was alright and soup based was a bit salty but still rich in beef flavour. Next time I'll come back to try the glutinous rice balls filled with pork and the happy hour offerings cause asian desserts bring me to my happy place.

    New Shanghai noodles and fried chicken/rice dish (can't remember the name) and real mango and lychee frozen drinks
    Huan T.

    Hands down my new favourite Asian restaurant. This place is wonderful, the atmosphere is great, service is friendly, menu is affordable and the food is delicious. My friend took me here and I had a feast of goodness. They have these mango and lychee slushy type drinks that were off the chain. I've been craving another ever since. I just recommend you get there early before peak hour, but i can assure you that you'll leave beyond satisfied.

    Lani P.

    Visit 1: Think "I'll grab a quick lunch at New Shanghai before the real office lunch crowd arrives". I'm seated and left to my devices. For quite a while. So long in fact, and after attempts to lure the attention of a waiter, I leave. Visit 2: Take-away New Shanghai. "Pan Fried Pork Dumplings" are what I've been told are "the best" so I figure with a quick window between meetings I'll grab them take-away for a dumpling dinner. My order is taken quickly and I go to pay with Eftpos. They've got a $30 minimum. No biggie, there's my banks ATM just outside. Huzzah. Wait about 15 mins for the dumplings to arrive and I'm on my way. One word. Squirty. These little suckers are super squirty. Filled with a meaty pork parcel and surrounded by broth, bite into each dumpling delicately (one to avoid burning your tongue and roof of the mouth and two to stop it squirting all over yourself or into the face of the people you're dining with. You've been warned!). The dumplings were tasty but lacked, for me, any wow factor. I should say that while I like dumplings I'm just not at the crazy obsessed about them stage some of my friends are. New Shanghai might be located in a food court but it is restaurant style done pretty well. I feel I need to dine a few more times before I get the full experience and breadth of the menu. Stay tuned...

    Shepherd's Purse wontons
    Tara R.

    OMG! OMG! OMG! Xiao Long Bao in Brisbane!!! (I'm holding myself back on excessive use of exclamation points, people. Trust me, it's for your benefit). One visit had hubby & I planning our next trip before we were even out the door. This Shanghai-ese eatery located in the food court of Queen's Plaza (weird, yes, but delightfully cool) is fitted out to look a bit like Old Shanghai (or maybe a traditional Chinese tea house) and is just a treasure of delicious dumplings and yummy food. We literally ate 43 dumplings between the two of us. But, to our defense, the menu just made us so curious to keep trying more. (Not to mention the price - averages about $1.25 / dumpling.) The Pan Fried Pork Buns were an absolute treat, and the crab meat Xiao Long Bao reminded us of ones we had whilst visiting Shanghai in April 2012. The restaurant accepts bookings Mon - Wed, so we were seated straight away. By observing the Asian patrons, we learned to get service just to raise our hand. They are not licensed yet, but we were told they were waiting on that. Service was prompt and being able to watch the dumplings being made out the front add the wonderful experience.

    Rinna D.

    We came during happy hour so we got free drinks! I like the Xiao Long Bao/Pau (8pcs for $9.50 with free drink, we chose dragon green tea). We also tried their braised pork belly meal with rice and additional jellyfish salad side. The meal also comes with a free drink if you will buy it during the happy hour window (3pm-5pm).

    Henrique K.

    I went to New Shanghai for lunch with my relatives (eight of us!) and were lucky to arrive just before the lunch peak hour and score a table straight away. All dumplings were super fresh and steamed to order, we ordered almost all dumplings on the menu! The pork belly was delicious! Worth trying! Overall we had great experience and enjoyed the food.

    Sweet n sour pork ribs w dark vinegar
    Liz Y.

    Went back 2 years later to see this place has still got a massive line up for dinner but it does move quite quickly. The quality of food was pretty high, I tried the deep fried versions of the dumplings too but I think the classic steamed were better. The Sweet and Sour pork in dark soy was really quite nice (I like the soft bones and there were plenty in there, so if you aren't a chinese 'bone cruncher' you may not like this dish). The drunken chicken was a cold dish, really tasty as well. The New Shanghai fried noodles with pork and vegies was okay, I found the noodles really fat... a lot fatter than hokkien ones which made this dish a little harder to eat but hey... everything we ordered came out quickly, hot, fresh and super tasty. 2 years and still kicking on with gusto... love this place.

    Dumplings

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    2 years ago

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    1 year ago

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    1 year ago

    The pork ribs were over cooked and dry. The pork and chive dumplings were mostly chives and tasteless. Will not return.

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    2 years ago

    Great location, New Shanghai has the food that can capture your tastes buds and kept coming back to this place again and again.

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    13 years ago

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    12 years ago

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    5 years ago

    Terrible service and awful australianized food. Not authentic. Also poor flavor. Grade F-.

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    Page 1 of 2

    Review Highlights - New Shanghai

    Theres a tricky $1 surcharge on eftpos these use and if you do the math that comes out to at least a couple grand a month they make from.

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    Bamboo Basket

    Bamboo Basket

    3.6(35 reviews)
    1.4 kmSouth Brisbane
    $$

    This place is just off of the attractions of South Beach, and represents a significant change in…read moretone from the artificial play areas to a cool, somewhat upscale environment. It's one of the few places in Australia where I've had what I (as an American) would consider table service. Corresponding to the service and the location, it's a bit more costly than other places I've tried, which was really my only knock against it. They've got a menu with clearly labeled vegetarian options, and if you don't want to go for the entrees, they have an extensive dim sum menu as well. The salt and pepper tofu was tantalizing either alone or dipped in chili oil (conveniently available at the table), and the tofu and vegetable dumplings were delicately made and varied in their fillings. There are quite a few Chinese people eating here, and conversing with the staff (I honestly couldn't catch whether in Mandarin or Shanghaiese). That's usually a good sign.

    Having passed this several times already, it seemed like a popular place, so we decided to give it…read morea try. We each chose a dish and got the Braised Pork Belly in Dark Soy Sauce ((18.9) with the Steamed Flour Bun (4), as well as the Leek & Garlic Stir Fried with Lamb (22.9) with rice (3/bowl). Jo was hesitant about the pork belly at first, since it's quite fatty - but I decided I wanted that, and it turned out to be quite good, besides my first piece, which was a bit dry. It tasted pretty authentic - maybe the closest I've had to authentic Chinese food in Brisbane so far, so I was quite impressed. The buns were quite tiny and a bit too chewy for my liking, but they were super cute! I think they are cloud-shaped, but correct me if I'm wrong. The lamb dish was also quite tasty - tender slices of lamb with red capsicum, onions, and leek, and the meat was tender and glazed in a hoisin (?) garlic sauce. It was a bit salty, so we got rice, but the rice was grainy and pretty terrible, and $3 a bowl. Say, what?? Yeah, no rice for me next time - I'd rather go for their other bun/wrap choices. Other than the fact that this place is a bit more pricey than other Chinese restaurant around, it is overall more comfortable (other than the really terrible acoustics) and more authentic than other places around Brisbane. There's a possibility I'd try out their dim sum sometime...

    Photos
    Bamboo Basket - Glass window into kitchen.  Cool thing to see your food being prepare

    Glass window into kitchen. Cool thing to see your food being prepare

    Bamboo Basket - Menu as of 26/11/18

    Menu as of 26/11/18

    Bamboo Basket

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    New Shanghai - shanghainese - Updated June 2026

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