Written on Tea

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Rebecca and Patrick Ling are from Nanjing in China where Patrick trained as a chef. This is their third restaurant venture in the city and, along the way, they seem to have learnt the lesson so many of Australia’s ethnic restaurants fail to take on board – that an increasingly sophisticated and well-travelled public wants to experience authentic flavours and ingredients rather than dishes that are dumbed down to cater to perceived Western tastes. Here, in a commendably short menu (for an Asian eatery), the Lings deliver the unpretentious, rustic food and true flavours of their home region of Nanjing in equally unpretentious surrounds and at prices that make it some of the best value eating in town.

A beautifully spiced, earthy and slightly fermented-tasting pork and cabbage broth resonates the flavours of rural China. Steamed and filled Xiao long buns are as good as any you’d get along the Bund in Shanghai. Even more impressive is the slippery silkiness and delicacy of their dumplings while, at the other end of the delicacy scale, chicken comes with all its chilli and pepper guns blazing, the meat succulently tender, served chopped on the bone – the whole a plateful of delicious, mouth-tingling flavours. Green beans infused with the charry smokiness of crisped ground pork and soy are simply a knock out. Little wonder the place has been packed since shortly after opening.

Graeme Phillips