New Shanghai, Queens Plaza, Brisbane CBD

February 06, 2013

New Shanghai, a new chinese restaurant located in front of coles in Queens Plaza in the Brisbane CBD.. Seems to be the talk of the town these days and so, when I had the chance to try it one afternoon while in city, I popped by and had a look and decided to give it a try... Known for its Shanghai cuisine , this restaurant has travelled from Sydney to Brisbane soil...

The exterior design of the restaurant was quite covered with wooden stools with a chinese lady as their wallpaper, they also have some seating out in the front, fenced by a steel patterned fence with vines through it..

As you can see, underneath the restaurant's name is a see through glass kitchen bench where there are asian females dressed in chef clothing making and folding their dumplings.. As they say, all of the dumplings are made in house...

I think that this is a good way of showing that products or dishes here are made in house and not packed bought or supermarket bought, especially for the typical asian restaurants who sell dumplings etc.

Floured dumpling skin in their hand, a bowl of minced meat with herbs as they insert the filling into the dumpling skin and folding it and then placing it on a floured tray... No gloves were seen used during this dumpling making...

When you enter the restaurant, the inside was different than the other chinese restaurants you would find in the CBD, wooden maroon coloured tables and seats were used which seemed to be styled and to remind diners as the old style or old way of hawker-feeling or maybe just the old chinese restaurant feelings where you wouldn't have any fancy interior designs..

Wallpaper reminds me of an old parchment, windows with chinese cuttings and have simple red flowers and greens...

All of the tables already has the menu, vinegar and soy, 2 chopsticks, 2 bowls and 2 spoons placed on it...

On the ceiling, reminded me of when I go to swim with the triangle coloured plasticky paper hung by string, but some chinese lanterns are also added to give it that chinese feeling I guess..

They do have a little somewhat private room that is decorated in red bamboo wallpaper and the seatings were quite different than the general seatings...

Both cashier and counter, pretty empty I reckon, they could decorate it or maybe even fill in the drawers more... At the bottom of the counters, chinese ladies as a wallpaper multicoloured... pot plants on top of the counter, which I found to be quite random...

Teapots and matching tea cups... looks japanese designed, and was not those plastic types...

Menu is printed on paper, both simple and easy, but no, not environmentally friendly.... But, I did like the idea of paper menu... And here comes the bad part, when I had decided what to order, I tried getting the attention of the waitress here and there, but they seemed somehow made themselves busy or not looking even though the restaurant was not busy at all during the time I was there...

Hearing about their famous Xiao Long Bao, I really wanted to try it and as soon as I read they had Pan Fried Pork Buns, I also wanted to try it... Whether the normal basic buns or even the buns with their crab meat which they also had on their menu.. However, when I ordered it to a waitress who finally came to take my order, she took my order and left.. After that, she came back saying that a part of the menu weren't available and started to mark the paper menu and she told me that from 201-205, 207, 211 and many more in their noodles or rice dishes that were not available... I was quite shocked upon hearing this.. This was only at 2 oclock by the time I came in.. And so, I had to change my whole order to a completely something different than what I had intended to order which didn't give me a smile of a good first impression...

So, the newly ordered dish came out and their hokkien noodle with shredded pork and vegetables came out and to be honest, it looked as if it was nothing special, I could cook the same probably...

After trying it, there was taste, but for me, it lacked abit of more flavour.. and the vegetables seemed to be selfishly portioned, the shredded pork was alright but overall, for me, it was nothing special...

The other eater though liked it because of the simplicity of the dish, so I guess it is based on personal preference...

Asked for chopped chillies but got this chilli instead, but that's alright...

Ordered their in house made pork and chinese cabbage dumpling... I'm usually not a big fan of dumplings when eaten in asian restaurants as most of them are usually just bought from the asian supermarket, but since this was in house, would be glad to give it a try...

Skin was chewy although it seemed as if it was abit too thick, but again this is due to personal preferences.. It was hot when it came out and the filling was not bad...

I would however, like to try their Xiao Long Bao next time, however, if this "this and this and this and this are all not available" moment does happen again, oh believe me, I will not be happy... I did complain though to the person in the counter when I was paying for the dishes before leaving, and all they could say was sorry and that their suppliers didn't seem to deliver their ingredients or something this morning... Not a good first experience for me in New Shanghai, let's see how the second visit will go...