Shanghai House

By Franz Scheurer

Adelaide traditionally has the best Chinese restaurants in Australia and walking along Gouger Street is almost an 'overload for your senses'. But, as I found out recently thanks to Cheong Liew, there is more to Chinese food than Gouger Street.

Shanghai House is on busy O’Connell Street in North Adelaide, in the middle of the live music strip. With its acres of glistening red and gold its street front couldn’t be anything but a Chinese restaurant. The interior, crammed full of white tablecloth-clad tables and red velvet chairs, matches the exterior perfectly. What is unusual, though, is good, attentive service, and reasonable wine list and stemware.

There are only a handful of Chinese Master Chefs worldwide, and one runs the kitchen here. His food shows depth, understanding of textures and flavours and the produce he uses is excellent. One problem, though, and this is, in my experience, unusual for Adelaide, is that the printed menu is squarely aimed at the Western clientele with a long list of classic abominations from Thai-style chicken to lamb with satay sauce… As the restaurant doesn’t seem to have a Western clientele I suppose this doesn’t matter as everyone just asks for their favourite dishes or accepts one of the chef’s ever changing banquets.

A selection of cold entrées is particularly rewarding with a mixture of cold cuts, pickles, pickled vegetables, cold marinated fish and a superb, meltingly tender cuttlefish. Amongst the myriad of main dishes a hotpot of pork and cabbage stands out and a chilli crab platter, Szechuan style with more chillies per volume than crab. A Spicy Szechuan-style Beef shows a lot more flavour than just heat and the steamed prawns are silky smooth. A hot ‘Fruit Soup’ finishes the meal proper, followed by a cleansing fruit platter and a bright yellow blanc mange-like mango mousse.

Value for money is astounding. We had more than a dozen dishes and a few beers (we brought our own wine as they allow BYO) and the bill came to $34 per person. I can’t even begin to imagine how they break even.

So next time you’re in Adelaide don’t just walk down Gouger Street, take a cab to North Adelaide and give the Shanghai House a try - I have no doubt that the lovely hostess, Helen Zhang, will look after you.

Score: 6/10

For more information or bookings:

Shanghai House

128 O’Connell Street

North Adelaide SA 5000

Tel.: 08 8367 0218