Te Aro, Wellington
Rating: 2
Orange beef with rice
Szechuan lamb with rice
Fried dumplings
BBQ pork
Fried squid
Shanghai Restaurant claims to be Wellington's oldest Chinese restaurant, being in service for over 50 years. Their decor supports that - it's proper classic Chinese restaurant stuff, with tablecloths covered with a glass panel, a crowded lobster tank and tacky art on the walls.
The food was mostly middling to poor, but we would like to give a shoutout to the orange beef. It was hot, fresh, juicy and flavourful. Inscrutibly it came with a whole head of steamed broccoli which was very unwelcome, but otherwise it was excellent.
The rest didn't fare so well. The dumplings were waterproof in texture, which was no use for sauce absorption, and the innards were crumbly. The squid was chewy with floury batter and sad sauce which didn't stick well to the food. The BBQ pork and szechuan lamb were middle of the road.