Shanghai Village
Phone (03) 9663 1878
Shanghai Village is as cheap and cheerful as you’re gonna get in this town. Located in Melbourne’s Chinatown district behind a heritage facade, you will be quite taken with it’s interior; hot pink walls, red leather/chrome seating, Chinese lantern lighting and a quirkiness that just absolutely delights (well…it delights me anyway!).
For around $6 you can get a plate of “whatever on rice” or “whatever on noodles” or a dozen Peking dumplings, steamed or fried. The choices for each of the above are innumerable - you could eat every meal here for a month and never have the same dish twice. And the dumplings - traditional, pork, chicken, prawn, vegetable and every other combination therein available. There is also the option of purchasing a dozen frozen ($4.50) for devouring at home later.
Above is a plate of steamed vegetable dumplings. What was surprising was the lack of cabbage (the great extender), which I was very happy about. Filled with earthy shitake mushrooms (reconstituted), carrot, tofu, spinach/water convolvulus, and spring onions - they are a fresh mouthful of vegetable goodness wrapped in a tender pastry casing. Serve with vinegary soy for optimum effect.
Whilst on the dumpling theme, check out Project Dumpling for some dumpling goodness. The link might be fairly old, but amazingly enough, most of the info is still current.
Written by mellie on
January 11th, 2007 | Tags: Chinese, restaurants | Category: Uncategorized
| 
Print This Post
| 
Email This Post
| Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL
January 20th, 2007 at 9:00 am
Yummo. Those pics turned out great too, particularly the stealthy one of the couple. That hot pink really does come up… vibrant.
It’s absolutely yummo. Can’t wait to try it again.
January 20th, 2007 at 11:12 am
The hot pink is confronting, but the food is excellent. I was infact there last night!
wrt Project Dumpling, Camy’s in Tattersalls lane is closed (second time i’m aware of this year) for what i hear are health code violations. Funnily enough it never stopped us going again (and again and again!).
January 21st, 2007 at 9:57 pm
welcome to Mel’s blog, Keatus hehe. hope all is well
shame to hear about Camy’s, but were you really surprised?! but yeah, we all keep going back for more! it’s great to eat dangerously
January 21st, 2007 at 10:50 pm
Heya Anna - uh huh, my stealthy “camera on the table pointing backwards and hoping to hell I get the shot” actually worked out quite well. I just loved the picture of that little ol’ couple chowing down in front of the hot pink wall. And yes, we’ll definitely be back for more.
Hiya Keat - welcome to the blog
So tell me, what are you favourite dishes at Shanghai Village? I’ve only been a handful of times, so any recommendations would be well received. And hey, don’t let something like a health code violation stop you from a great feed. I’d say half the places in Melbourne could be shut down for their dodgy practices - if they were caught ;-).
Hey there EG (xx) - hmm…perhaps we can start up extreme eating challenges and visit venues that have been shut down due to health code violations
January 23rd, 2007 at 3:42 am
OMG camy’s is shut??? for health code violations???!! I’m coming down to melbourne for the long weekend and i’ve had a hankering for their steaming plate of dumplings for a very long time. What a shame! Lucky though there’s shanghai village which i haven’t tried before where i can get my fix for dumplings. Thanks for the reviews! Is there no better tasty morsel in the world than the humble little dumpling?
May 17th, 2007 at 4:01 am
Went to Shanghai Village for the first time last night, having read your review, and loved it! Have vowed to never go to Camy’s Shanghai Dumpling again (despite my fondness for chilli oil dumplings) because of the mild bout of food poisoning I got there last time. I quite like Chinatown Dumpling (next door to Cookie), but the drawback there is that they won’t give you chilli sauce.
But Shanghai Village will now be my go-to venue for cheap cheap dumplings! As you said, the veggie ones had more than just cabbage in them, and their chilli oil dumplings were tasty too. The staff were smiley and friendly, and the red bean pancake was crisp and not too oily. What more can a gal ask for?
May 17th, 2007 at 6:22 am
Hey mutemonkey - glad you enjoyed S.V. Yes, food poisoning from Camy’s is really not a very good sign (and an oft reported one too!), as are their numerous code violations of the food safety act
I’ve been to Chinatown Dumpling once, and had a bowl of spinach dumplings with noodles. The MSG was a little overt though - so I haven’t returned since. I don’t mind a little, but a lot just doesn’t do it for me.
But I do like the vegetarian dumplings at S.V. - the fried ones especially. And I just love the building and the decor. That hot pink rocks!
October 11th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
[...] Shanghai Village Dumpling Inn, also hidden off in one of the little laneways. Lots of people got sick here from food poisoning last year, but I notice its still open. [...]