Me Wah Chinese Restaurant

PROFILED BY DE GROOTS MEDIA
This is the very impressive, sumptuously decorated southern offshoot of Launceston’s Me Wah, long recognised as by far the best Chinese restaurant in the state. With starched linen, beautiful Chinese screens, ceremonial wishing bowls and wall panels, an imposing entrance guarded by Chinese lions and a plush takeaway section, it makes the fanciest of Hobart restaurants look decidedly dowdy. The black-suited, predominantly male Chinese staff know their stuff, can bone a baby snapper in the blink of an eye, fold a Peking duck pancake with a few deft twists of the wrist and are at a waiter-to-client ratio double that of any other establishment in the city.

Specialising in Hong Kong-style Cantonese, but with forays into northern China and westwards to Szechuan, the steamed dumplings of pork and crab are excellent and the Peking duck properly served, tender and nicely cooked, the skin glossily lacquered and crisp. There’s a classic Szechuan hot and sour soup, crayfish in a variety of ways, meltingly tender Cantonese beef in oyster sauce and duck san choy bao along with a long list of other temptations. But the biggest temptation is perhaps the fabulous novella-length wine list spanning well-selected locals, through a run of Granges and Hill of Graces up to Grand Cru Burgundies and First Growth Bordeaux including the 2000 Petrus, 1990 Le Pin and topping out with an Imperial of the 2000 Lafite at $19,500 for when you’ve had a win at the casino.

Graeme Phillips