New Shanghai — Restaurant in Sydney

I don’t like giving any business low star reviews, but sadly for us we did not enjoy our $150 meal for two today (price for food and a pot of tea, no alco or soft drinks)

Having come from Melbourne and being regulars at similar restaurants in Chadstone, this place looked worthy and we were excited to take a ticket and wait in line.

After a short wait we were taken to a nice and quiet table. The seating was comfy and decor on point. But once we sat down, the waitress told us to scan a qr code to place order online. Given the high menu prices, and that there was a $2 public holiday surcharge... on Easter Saturday!!!.... the food better be bloomin good to make up for this lack of service.

The jasmine tea came in a pot. $6.50 hmm.. nice but hmmm.

Then the first two dishes came out. Salt and Pepper King Prawns, about $36 I think - the batter had an odd taste and the prawns were super small, so much that I question they really were king prawns. About 15 in the serve. This dish left an unpleasant taste in my mouth and I wouldn’t recommend it at all.

The other first dish was salt and pepper tofu. Plain, bland, unseasoned, not worth the twenty something bucks at all. To quote a modern term... meh!

Next up were the dumplings....

Pan fried pork and crab meat. Finally, something to meet our expectations. Not bad. Good authentic Shanghainese tucker.

Then the vegetarian wontons. Well cooked and good thickness texture shape of the wontons. But, the chives were not blanched enough and were overpowering and tasted like lawn clippings.

The prawn dumplings were just ok, as expected, nothing special considering the hefty price.

Then there was the special signature dish, the ‘prawn explosion’... welcome to the 70s. More mashy battered smallmprawns, served on a couple of lettuce leaves in a martini glass, drizzled with a sauce that resembled praise maionnaise mixed with some tomato sauce. No fire,, no explosions, no chilli zing. Signature dish. Really? More like year 7 home economics dish.

Then we had prawn dumplings with peanut sauce. Well the floods must have wiped out all the peanut farms as it was basically dumplings in a watery completely flavourless broth. Again, another dish priced over $30 that fell way short of expectations.

And to top off this fine dining experience We ordered a bottle of still water to help cleanse our pallet of the lingering battered prawn taste. It arrived 15 mins after ordering when we had just decided to go outside (for a gelato cone), we had enough.

Won’t be going back. No way, never.

Should have realised this place was sub-standard. More caucasians than asians. When we go to the ones full of asians, they never disappoint.

Seems the business owners are playing a nasty money trick on the wealthy white north shore market.

And before any of you readers find that offensive, I am a well off white north shore boy, with an asian wife, and I have spent more than 3 years living and working in china.

This place is a fraud. Please discontinue your lease and let a proper restaurant...

it is very disappointed that the restaurant we used to like a lot has become a very unpleasant and rude place.

i went New ShangHai for early dinner on Saturday 22 January 2022 and asked for hot water. The waitress brought a boiling hot water in a glass bottle that should be for cold water. i waited patiently to let it cooling down so i can pour it into a glass. It just took too long and it is very hard to hold the big hot glass bottle. it did not felt safe either. so i asked a waiter if he can bring me some hot water in a teapot instead, which is what all other Chinese restaurant would normally do anyway. i waited and my dishes arrived. After another waiter served the table next to me, i asked this waiter again and explained him politely. Few minutes later this waiter came back and brought very hot water in a class!!!!!! so i repeated what i have said him earlier. the first waiter i spoke with who said yes at the time just forgot or completely ignored the message!!

The restaurant was not busy. After another long waiting, i walked to front desk spoke to the lady who initially brought the hot water in a big glass bottle to me. i explained my point again and also told her that i have been waiting for a while. she told me that they only serve HOT WATER IN GLASSES. Another waitress seems more senior joined the conversation, still repeating the same thing - they ONLY serve hot water in glasses!!! There is no way they would listen to the point and consider the safety in the place. Obviously my request was completely ignored and the previous waiters i spoke with did not even bother to get back to me!

Eventually i said them how about i order a pot of tea without tea bag or leaves in it. after another period waiting. finally, a tea pot and tea cup arrived. yes, i have to pay for it.

It is rude and disrespectful waiters completely ignore the customer's messages. Using glasses for hot drink is just wrong and it should not be allowed.

in the early days, especially when the restaurant was newly opened, it was not like this rough and rude. it had better customer service standard.

after seeing other negative reviews about the service, I'd suggest the management team review the standard of the...

I met my kids and wife at this restaurant after work I’m a Thursday and this is an honest post - the staff at the front door didn’t even acknowledge my existence for about 5-10 minutes even though I was clearly waiting For a table and was there with a three-year-old who was eager to sit down and have a meal. The staff finally came around to realising that I was in a request of the table but instead of acknowledging the fact that they had danced around me even though I was clearly in the right place for a table to be requested they insisted that I wait outside for a table to be available and made note that they were due to close with in the next half an hour.

Acknowledge that whilst the restaurant was due to close pretty soon we were still eager to have a meal and just sit down at a table. Staff were extremely rude I didn’t provide any assistance they didn’t even come around to take the orders it’s only until we got to a seat that we realise that the main dish prawn dumplings is not available - How do you go to a Chinese restaurant without prawn dumplings being unavailable?

I cannot explain to you how rude to staff at this restaurant was following a review of their menu and in request for our orders they simply did night and were not willing to offer any service to us even though at that stage it was myself my wife and two kids under the age of three. Something as simple as ordering a cup of tea and asking whether he could be a long seemed to irritate the staff at this restaurant to the point that I could overhear The waiter saying that I should just stick with green tea Hannah angry manner. At the station staff even attempt to apologise for the lack of service or just simply offer any human decency it was a very mechanical transaction are and the expectation was a quick get it out to the point where they won’t have our bill can’t say anything...