Project Team

Design: Giant

Suppliers

Photography: Andrew Worssam

Celebrating the saucy ambience of 1930’s Shanghai is New Shanghai, a Chinese restaurant located in Chatswood, Sydney. Think Indiana Jonesand the Temple of Doom, pre-war decadence, old hawker stalls – all a world away from the shopping centre the restaurant resides in.

Designed by Giant, New Shanghai is entered through a faux Chinese temple gate and once inside it is a sea of black, red and timber. The floor is black cobblestones, vertical blinds delineate spaces, parasols decorate and teapots, urns and other such trade items are scattered casually. Antique Chinese posters abound breaking up the red and black with soft, feminine images. Ancient Chinese painting in sepia tones wraps a column and the vertical shutters.

The main room features a bar and a glass-faced kitchen that protrudes into the dining space. Both the bar and the kitchen are reminiscent of hawker’s stalls with Chinese posters in repetitions, brick work and corrugated iron.

Giant designed the tables and chairs which are simple and wooden using traditional shapes. The tables are timber with curving red lacquered legs, while the stools are timber legged with traditionally shaped red lacquered seats.

Whilst the main dining area resembles a Chinese streetscape there are other areas such as a single long table below strings of red flags and the room decorated in red and gold bamboo print wallpaper and glowing red glass chandelier.