I must admit that I don’t know much about clubs. I only belong to one association and that’s not really a club whereas social clubs are an area I have yet to explore. So when I heard that there was a new Shanghai Chinese restaurant in the Castlereagh Club in the city I had no idea where that was-well apart from guessing that it was on Castlereagh Street because of the name.
One beautifully balmy evening I meet Mr NQN and his colleague Viggo at his work and we walk to the Castlereagh Club where we meet Viggo’s wife Louise for some Shanghai treats. Shanghai Cuisine seems to have taken Sydney somewhat by storm. Witness the number of soup dumpling places in the city with windows where patrons can watch the dumpling aunties fold and pleat an endless amount of dumplings. And them might be fightin’ words but I had read in the media that the owners of Lynn they thought that their xiao long baos were better than Din Tai Fung’s.
First things first. Why the name Lynn? We have to ask the woman who seems to be the owner-only because she comes over to every table to shake every diner’s hand and ask their names (think “genki” crossed with Tony Robbins). She tells us that the reason why it is called Lynn is because Chinese restaurants often have names that aren’t particularly memorable citing variations on golden, dragon, palace, kingdom etc so she decided to give the restaurant a person’s name. They decided on Lynn because it is a name both in Chinese and Western culture. And she tells us that everyone now calls her Lynn.
Open for 5 weeks now the restaurant is fairly busy on this mid week evening. The opening special of 20% off the food bill until the end of October has probably tempted some and looking around many of the patrons are Chinese. The dishes on the menu marked with a red “Lynn” are the house specialties. The glass fronted kitchen takes up much space and we can see the chefs cooking and making noodles. The head chef (we deduce from the pictures on their website) Rong Bau stretches some noodles. To order you fill in the form and mark the quantity you would like of the item. Service is well meaning but at times can be awkward and a request for water is met three times with a cheery “Of course ma’am, no problems!” but no water. A small Lazy Susan sits on one end of the table with soy sauce, vinegar, chilli oil and other condiments.
The order form
Cucumber roll with garlic in special sauce $6.80
We start with the cucumber roll which looks quite different from it does in the picture where it looks glossy and braised. These are slices of thinly sliced cucumber rolled with a pickling juice over it-in fact it smells just like my mother’s cucumber pickles. There are also pieces of chilli and slices of garlic. It’s a bit watery and I much prefer my mother’s version as that has a good balance of flavours.
Shredded chicken in bean jelly on peanut sauce $8.80
The shredded chicken and cucumber sits on a bed of slippery mung bean glass noodles which I remember eating when I lived in Japan. They are very slippery and have no flavour in themselves (and no calories or no fat!) but we mix them up with the peanut sauce to give us a cooling noodle salad.
Crispy smoked fish with Shanghai flavour $9.80
The crispy smoked fish with Shanghai sauce has a sauce similar to Peking spare ribs-sweet, spicy and very flavoursome with a nice hit of star anise. The only issue is that there are lots of bones-and I mean a lot. It appears that they have sliced the smoked fish in vertical slices keeping the spine bones in. However the flavour is good so we polish off this serve to the end.
Combo milk tea (rainbow, pearl jelly and grass jelly) $5.90
The drinks arrive during the entrees after a few requests. The combo milk tea is a super sweet concoction with round pearl jelly drops, grasses jelly and rainbow coloured jelly pieces all suspended in a bottom layer of syrup and then topped with sweet milk tea. It’s actually quite nice indeed although very sweet indeed even when stirred through. And yes grass jelly tastes a little…grassy!
Famous Shanghai pork buns 6 for $8.80
Ahh the famous xiao long baos-the ones that the people at Lynn have been claiming are better than Din Tai Fung’s. They even serve them here the same way with fine shreds of ginger, vinegar, soy and chilli oil on offer. We take a bite. the skin is paper thin and almost translucent and the dumplings are plump with soup. They’re ever so slightly larger than the Din Tai Fung ones but not by much but other than that they are very similar. They’re also prettily pleated and disappear into the mouth with much satisfaction, the soup so plentiful.
Pan fried Shanghai style pork buns $10.80
The pan fried pork buns also have soup in them but less for these ones. The crispy bottoms could do with another minute in the pan for the really crunchy sensation although they are crispy. These are Viggo’s favourite.
Baked sesame pockets with sauteed minced chicken and preserved vegetables sprinkled with pine nuts $16.80
The sesame pockets are empty puffed up pockets paired with a mince filling similar to a filling for sang choy bao in texture. There is minced chicken, bamboo shoots and preserved vegetables and a generous sprinkling of pine nuts. You spoon the filling into the sesame pockets and eat them. It’s an innovative dish and one that we haven’t seen before with a satisfying flavour. And Mr NQN nicknames them “the things that look like sausage rolls” 
.
Shredded beef wok fried with sweet and sour sauce and a hint of chilli served with pancakes $18.80
This dish tasted very much like Imperial beef, the flour coated and deep fried beef strips that have a sweet and slightly sour sauce to it. However I never thought to put the filling into pancakes which is actually a great idea and these are great in the pancakes when fresh and hot. The ratio is a little off-there is a lot more filling to pancake and one thing we notice is that there was no offer to upsize the quantities of six in this dish and the above one and below one to accommodate the fact that we had four people which would have been a nice gesture. We do ask for some more pancakes (the rest of the filling fills up at least four more) and that’s no problem and extra pancakes are charged at 50c each which is fine although we notice that we’ve been charged twice for this item. And when we ask for more Teresa trills “I didn’t hear please!!”
Sauteed string beans with bamboo shoots $12.80
The sauteed string beans with bamboo shoots were well cooked but the description didn’t mention the ground pork in it so I don’t know how vegetarians would fare with this menu. But nevertheless it is a pleasing vegetable side dish that gets polished off and the bamboo shoots are taken from the top of the shoot and sliced vertically.
Nanjing crispy duck served with golden buns (half duck) $25.80
The duck was the last dish to arrive and we were already pretty full from the rest of the food. These were said to be served with golden buns but the buns are white steamed buns shaped like butterflies. You split them open in the middle and spread some hoi sin sauce on them and then wedge some pieces of duck in them.
The butterfly bun
Opening up the butterfly bun
Again they’re good but you do need about double the amount of buns for the duck (not that you’d complain about getting too much meat, that’s generally a good thing) but the portion sizing in relation to the wraps and buns seems to be a bit off.
Steamed pumpkin pastry dumpling with lotus paste $5.90
Sticky and sweet these were cute as a button and had a mochi type of outer and a sweet lotus inner and stuck to the chopsticks like well.. white on rice .
White fungus, lotus seed and red date soup $5.80
This was like one of those soups that you get at the end of a long Chinese banquet. It was a pot of sweet, hot soup with clear white fungus which honestly isn’t as odd as it sounds-it has a very mild taste and certainly not that of mushrooms. There are two lotus seeds and two red dates soaking in the soup and it gives a nice warmth and final satiety at the end of the meal.
There’s more noodle twirling in the kitchen…
So tell me Dear Reader, who do you think makes the best xiao long baos? And do you belong to any clubs?
And it looks like a noodle jumping rope!
Lynn Shanghai Cuisine
Ground Floor, The Castlereagh Club
199 Castlereagh Street, Sydney CBD, NSW
Tel: +61 (02) 9267 7780
Open Monday to Saturday 11:30am-9:30pm
20% off food bill until the end of October if you make a reservation online and put it in the voucher field-cash only
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50 Comments | Add your own
ooooh this all looks so very tasty!
I love the duck buns and pumpkin dumplings because they are so cute! I am a member of Frenz of the Enz, and that exhausts my club memberships.
Okay, I’m there if only for the duck and the xiao long bao.
SSG xxx
YUM! The buns look sooo good! I love steamed buns!
I don’t think I’ve ever had true chinese food like this.
How cute are the butterfly buns!!
It has been way too long since I ventured into the city. I must take little G when she can eats solids hahaha
How do they do those noodles? I am always in awe when I watch them. The place looks so good. I think that beef was what I would go for, and I always wonder with things like that—say peking duck, why they are so cheap with the pancakes.. they cost nothing and it’s such a drag not to be able to eat them with the meat component since they run out 1/2 way through!!
Wow – great CBD find, though I’ve never even heard of the Castlereagh Club…!
WOW this place looks amazing! I’m loving the shredded chicken with mung bean noodles and the butterfly buns so cute!
I’m a relative newcomer to Shanghai dumplings. I’ve had two versions, and I thought I preferred the ones at New Shanghai in Chatswood Chase to the ones at Din Tai Fung.
I love love love it! Great review – finally a funky place for us to eat at. I am so excited. This reminds me of Hong Kong – A place called Superstar. Bestest ever… Thanks L. for the awesome review. Can’t wait to go to Lynn… I am taking a crowd with me as well.. Yihhhhhaaaa
shanghai restaurant at kl.
and no, i do not have any affliation.
Seeing chefs making noodles and dumplings is priceless, I love it! And I adore the cute pumpkin dumplings, I want them!!!
Those xiao long bao I had in Shanghai on West Nanjing Road which had crab roe in the pork mince filling were the best :> Apparently the restaurant is a favourite amongst the locals and you see Shanghainese-speaking grandmas lining up to buy the xiao long bao filling which they sell at the restaurant – so it must be good!
The grass jelly caught my eye immediately. I’ve had bobo in Korean restaurants in LA, but never grass jelly. Hmm…sounds a bit icky, but interesting. And I love the look of the sesame pockets…oops, I mean the things that look like sausage rolls.
Can I have a steamed bun?
Ohh..yum…gotta try this restaurant soon!
I have walked past this place many times now and wondered….
definitely keen to try and the xiao long bao looks pretty good too!
I love the butterfly buns!!! They are too cute.
It has been way too long since I have ventured into the city for anything!
I can’t wait to take little G, when she’s eating solids of coarse LOL
OMG, being told to say please like that would SO piss me off! Best Xiao Long Bao I’ve had so far is at Shanghai Night in Ashfield, but then I’ve never been to Din Tai Fung. I would love to try the fungus soup one day.
Oh this is so close to my work! I need to check this place out. Love the things that look like sausage rolls
How I love this style of meal! I thnk that bean dish is exactly the sort of veggie dish that would appeal to my husband the carnivore!
I don’t belong to any clubs, but does following blogs count?
YUMMO…everything looks mouth wateringly good, and there are quite a few dishes on offer that I’ve never seen before.
Those pumpkin dumplings are just too cute! I would love to try those soup dumplings, they are my favourite
Yum! Shanghai cuisine has also seemed to take off here in Auckland too -looking at your pictures made my mouth water. Those pumpkin pastries look so adorable!
Love discovering new places to feed my dumpling obsession!
The best ones I’ve ever had were in Shanghai itself. It wasn’t Din Tai Fung but a place that is meant to come in so close to it that they’re almost as good.
I’m a huge fan of Din Tai Fung, too. So, these are as good? Wow! I’m still hoping Din Tai Fung opens up in San Francisco some day. The closest one to me is in Los Angeles — and I don’t get there nearly enough to satisfy my craving.
Dear L.
— Everything looks superb. Are those buns dumplings? The “Baked sesame pockets” are what I’d order. Oh, and the cucumber roll-ups. Oh, My. What do you do when you’re not working? Bake? Watch True Blood? Read? Xx
Now I want to check my bill to see if they charged us for our extra pancakes!
I have equal favourite xiao long bao in Sydney – Din Tai Fung and Ashfield’s New Shanghai.
I think I need to go here, just for the butterfly buns and pumpkin dumplings! So gorgeous
I was a member of my local RSL club but it closed down
the bean jelly and peanut sauce looks very interesting to try..
haha the pumpkins look like chefs gallery
the shredded beef looks lovely and I do miss good XLB! can’t seem to get a good one here in London ever since I tried DTF in Taipei and Shanghai.
The best I’ve had is in DTF at the Yu Yuan Garden branch in Shanghai
The kitchen looks pretty large. Its fun to watch the hand pulled noodled being pulled. I guess the price of the meal includes episodes of the noodle pulling show:)
I love going to the CBD, and belong to City Tatts in Pitt Street which has fantastic restaurants – Esperanto and Zest, plus a good cafe.
Ooh, so if I ever get bored of Hannah and want to change my name, I should open a restaurant called, say, “Lahlia’s Raw Vegan Dessert Emporium”?
(Don’t ask me why Lahlia. Is that even a name?)
Also, I love the innovativeness of the sesame pocket dish! And the pumpkin dessert because, well, dessert.
Ooh now I have to go try these xiao long bao and compare!
I will be heading there for the sesame pockets alone!
I love these places! I love the craft and thought that goes into these dishes!
I will love to try the dumplings and buns. And the noodles since it is hand made.
I have to admit, I am not one for Chinese food — in Toronto it just tends to be fried, fried and then fried. The food in your photos look absolutely delicious. We have quite a Vietnamese trend in Toronto with Pho being high on the list. I love it, but sadly it is far too high in salt and I swell up like, well, we really don’t want to go there. They also give you a check list to order from! It looks like you had a lovely night out, Lorraine.
Wonderful photo’s!
The steamed pumpkin pastry dumplings look quite novel.. definitely a stand out!
How odd that pork wasn’t mentioned in the bean dish description.. kind of wrong on more than one level. What about if you’re Jewish?!
I’ve got to try me some white fungus soup one day.. it looks hearty and comforting.
I’ve not seen cucumber rolls like that on a menu before.. I’d be the only one eating them because I’m the only person in my house that likes cucumber or anything pickled!
Re: clubs.. I used to belong to a Hungarian social club when I was a youngster and part of a Hungarian dancing troupe. The club still exists though the dancing troupe’s (two of them) haven’t existed for years. You can go down the club’s rooms (like a hall with a kitchen) of a Thursday night and order a home cooked Hungarian meal for less than a tenner.
Seeing this post yesterday made me take Mr K to New Shanghai last night for a dumpling fix. I blame you!!
yum! shredded beef and sauteed snake beans are two of my fave things to order at Chinese restaurants
OK – day late – life can get impossibly busy – this looks super yum, actually!!
!
Craving xiao long bao and shredded chicken salad now
I never knew there was a Castlereagh club either, must check this place out, I think my parents would approve!
That beef looks definitely worth a try with the pancakes – thanks for the intro to this place
It is hard to beat Din Tai Fung; they are perfectionists. It has been a while since I have eaten at their original store on near Yongkang St in Taipei — it is a long wait but usually worth it. Glad to hear there are now more Shanghai style dumpling restaurants in Sydney.
How cute are the pumpkins?!!
Yess a new dumpling joint close enough to the office! I can’t wait to try it out, today’s weather would have been perfect for some steamy xlb’s
As for clubs..my friends have made me the honorary president of the five inch heel club due to my obsession with heels!
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