Shanghai Street On Bourke

Excellent food at a very reasonable price. All the dishes were very tasty, with the green cauliflower, crystal trotter (lile terrine) and baby spinach with dried beancurd being the standouts. With some wine the final bill was $55/person, which is excellent for the quality and amount of food we had. The ambiance is not so great: formal white tablecoths and napkins, a brightly lit room, and the heating could not keep up with a very cold Melbourne winter evening. Service was fine though if you do like rice with your dinner, it’s a good idea to request it early and forcefully as it’s not typically served with Shanghai food. We really enjoyed our dinner and will be back.

I can hear staff complaining about customers. Menu inconsistent has Shanghai Street and Shanghai Flower. Food is below average. San Choi Bao - so much water dripping out not thoroughly cooked. Wagyu Beef Dumplings didn't taste fresh. Signature Shanghai salted pork, vegie fried rice was tasteless and had so much bokchoi it was too watery (see pic). Overall very disappointing experience.

This Shanghai Street branch is different from the rest because it serves sharing dishes on top of their normal dumplings. The dumplings are great as usual but the main dishes are a hit and miss. The diced beef is juicy and cooked nicely. The flaming duck have great presentation and succulent meat. The rest are pretty normal. The service was disappointing because it was really slow and food came out literally one by one instead of together. Food - 6 Service - 1 Vibe - 7 Price - $$$

We went on Sunday for lunch. The place was almost empty, except for us and 2-3 small tables. Ordered the flaming duck, shanghai juicy buns, fish, rice cakes and vegetarian dumplings. They all were good and we didn't wait for too long. Just be careful when eating the buns because they are very juicy. Bite the skin of the bun a little bit to suck the juice out. Service was good, staff was quite attentive. Price is on a more expensive side.

Shanghai style food. We went with a group of people and so were able to try 9 dishes. (See photos). Mostly they were in rich sauces and not at all spicy. The people from Shanghai loved all of the dishes, but they were not to everyone’s taste. There were not many people for dinner early on a Thursday night, but it was still noisy with a good atmosphere. I liked the sheng jian bao. The beef dish was tender, but the sauce was overpowering. There are other restaurants in this chain, but this one branch is more upmarket with white table cloths.