Shanghai Night

The Liverpool Road stretch of Ashfield is littered with dumpling houses these days but Shanghai Night was arguably the first. Back then, staff would make dumplings at one of the back tables in the dining room; now they’re stationed within a modern glassed-in kitchen with fancy laminated menus to boot. They’re still serving up some of Sydney’s cheapest xiao long bao soup dumplings at $7.80 for eight. But wait. There’s more. Steamed and fried dumplings arrive in hearty portions of 12 for the small serve, 18 for a large. Aside from the usual pork chicken, beef and lamb variations, fish and shallot dumplings are particularly tasty. Vegetarians score a steamed dumpling filling of mushroom, carrot, tomato and vermicelli.