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269 Swanston Street, Melbourne
Ph +61 3 9663 9898.
For our first review, we wanted to pick somewhere we hadn’t been before, and I remembered this place.
Ye Shanghai, a Chinese restaurant in the heart of the city in busy Swanston St, has been open about a year or more, but we just hadn’t gotten around to visiting. So today was the day.
I remember coming into this shop when it used to be Morning Glory, an asian store that used to sell Hello Kitty and Blue Bear merchandise, along with many other characters I never knew the name of.
Now, you wouldn’t recognise it. Exposed brick walls, wallpapered ceiling, decorative fixtures, and even an al-fresco dining area out back, accessed by a glass door in the corner.
As we were fairly early for dinner, there were only a couple of people inside already. The chairs have rubber stops which make it slightly awkward to sit down as the tables are fairly close together, but quite comfortable once you are seated.
The waiter presented us with menus and a wine list, and left us to read through.
As we weren’t overly hungry, we decided we would choose something from the ‘rice and noodle’ menu, all of which were under $10.00 each - though I was seriously tempted to order a whole Peking Duck instead, at a mere $38.00. Yum.
Louis chose the Noodles with Shredded Pork in Szechuan Sauce, ($7.80), and I selected the Special Fried Noodles with Seafood, ($9.80). We decided against any entrees, at least this time. Maybe dessert, instead.
The waiter returned and took our orders, and then provided us with two glasses of water when we didn’t order any drinks.
A few girls entered, and headed out the back. Then they returned, dressed up in their waitress outfits. Two of them headed upstairs, but one took up position near the bar. A short time later, our meals arrived.
Special Fried Noodles with Seafood
First thought: Presentation. Or lack thereof - it looks like how when i’m in a hurry, I scoop my stirfry out of the wok at home, straight onto a plate. Moving on, I was surprised at the amount of seafood that was actually put into this dish, considering it was under $10. There were prawns, calamari, mussels and fishcake as well as vegies mixed into the dish.
I’m not a big seafood fan, so I gave the mussels to Louis, much to his delight.
It was quite tasty, and they certainly didn’t skimp on the portion size. Sometimes you eat a dish like this and it’s pretty bland, but this had lots of flavour and wasn’t overly oily. (And according to the Engrish ‘About Us’ spiel in the menu, they don’t use any MSG.)
I also tried Louis’ Shredded Pork and it was quite tasty too, though i’ve never tasted vinegar in a Szechuan dish before.
As we were eating, I couldn’t help noticing the waitress, still standing near the wall, out of the corner of my eye. Slightly distracting, but I assume if it was a little bit later and there were more customers, she’d have something else to do.
Next time we come back, we will order from the main menu, and I will be ordering the Peking Duck. 
Noodles with Shredded Pork in Spicy Szechuan Sauce
Considering my dish was $2 cheaper than Damien’s, i didn’t really expect to get as much stuff as he did. As the description says, it was mostly shredded (thinly sliced) pork in a thick tasty/tangy sauce served with rice noodles. The sauce has a fair bit of vinegar to it, so if you don’t like sourish stuff in your food, don’t order this. With the Szechuan label on it, i was expecting something spicier, but then again, with my notions of spicyness, it’s usually difficult to satisfy my cravings. The portions were quite large, and you won’t be hankering for extras after this one.
The service was on par with what you would expect from most restaurants, though one thing i wished the waiters/waitresses wouldn’t do is stand so close to the tables, watching the customers eat. Even though i knew one of the waitresses weren’t looking directly at us the whole time, it was annoying to have her glancing at us while we slurped our noodles. This might be due to space constraints (i.e. not much room to hang around), so it is perhaps a minor quibble.
Pricing for all menu items are reasonable, and i would be tempted to go back and try their lunch menus, which are served as set meals so you get quite a bit for just $8.80! On the whole, i find Ye Shanghai a reasonable place for a quick bite, though to do an in-depth review we would have to go back again to try some of their banquet-style dishes.
They have this lunch special for $8.80 and it got so popular that their food is not as good anymore. Really the standards dropped
Left by Sue on January 8th, 2008