Shanghai Red at The Glen is the same restaurant that was open at Chadstone, but had to move due to Chadstone’s remodeling of its fresh food and grocery market place.
Shanghai Red is always a popular destination for diners. Most afternoons and evenings that I walk past it, t0here are queues. The reason for the queues are obvious, the food is delicious and it is very reasonably priced, e.g. AUD$10 to 15 per dish. You can choose from dumplings, including Xiao Long Bao, noodles, soups and other main dishes, including Kung Pao Chicken and Pipi with XO Sauce. Shanghai Red delivers a fantastic modern interpretation of traditional Chinese meals where people used to gather around the table and were able to savor each dish.
For traditional Chinese meals, everyone has a bowl of their own rice and maybe their own bowl of soup, but everything else on the table is a shared dish that everyone can enjoy. Normally you would have maybe one or two dishes with meat and the rest of dishes are normally vegetables. Of course, you don’t have to stick to tradition. You can order whatever you want.
Shanghai Red is located near the bus terminals at Chadstone Shopping Centre alongside many other restaurants. If you are looking for it, it shouldn’t be hard. You can’t miss Shanghai Red as it is situated just outside the entrance way.
The set up of the restaurant is akin to a traditional, olden day Chinese restaurant where most of the tables were wooden and to help with the décor the owners added oriental ornaments and other olden day designs. There are clearly some liberties taken with the aesthetics, but it at least most of it makes for a decent backdrop.
I found the service to be very good and attentive. I normally come with a baby, so when we get to our table, the high chair is normally already set up and a water jug plus plastic cups are placed as we get seated.
On all occasions, the menu is easy to follow and many of the dishes had accompanying photos to show what they look like. Looking at the prices, I thought everything was very reasonably priced, not many dishes are above AUD$30.
I have been here a few times and am always impressed by the quality of the food and the portion of their rice and noodle dishes.
In our December visit, we ordered some Braised Gluten and Black Fungus, Sichuan Style Chilled Poached Chicken with Noodles and Pan Fried Pork Bun.
The Braised Gluten and Black Fungus was a cold dish and was surprisingly delicious. It was slimy in a good way and had a nice delicious sweet savory, peanut sauce. The braised gluten was very satisfying and juicy, but not watery, to bite into.
Sichuan Style Chilled Poached Chicken with Noodles was a very nice cold dish. The chicken was cooked very well and the sauce was spicy, but not too spicy. Along with the spiciness, the sauce had some savory flavor which may have been either a hoisin sauce or oyster sauce, but I am not sure which one it was. Nevertheless the whole dish was delicious and worth it.
Pan Fried Pork Bun was nice and crunchy on the base and fluffy at the top. It reminds me of a steam bao with an excellent crunchy base. The Pan Fried Pork Bun has soup inside, so it is best to poke a hole to release the soup into your spoon or else you risk spraying your neighbor with pork juices. (You can do it by ‘accident’ if you don’t like your neighbor.)
The cost of our meal was as follows: Braised Gluten and Black Fungus (AUD$8.80), Sichuan Style Chilled Poached Chicken with Noodles (AUD$14.80) and Pan Fried Pork Bun (AUD$8.80) for a total of AUD$32.40 for two people. (We didn’t eat much, but this was plenty to satisfy our hunger on the day.)
I see a lot of families visit the restaurant. I would recommend having lunch or dinner here at least once.
Shanghai Red is located at The Glen Shopping Centre, Shop 18/235 Springvale Road, Glen Waverley VIC 3150:
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