LOCATION Just off Chapel Street, near the corner of High and Chapel Streets. Easy access via tram or from Prahran train station.
PROFILED BY DE GROOTS MEDIAFor more than ten years David’s has been a go-to restaurant not only for excellent Chinese cuisine but also for the nourishing, restorative qualities of its menu. Owner David Zhou has expanded a business that started as a small tea shop on Chapel Street to a relaxed and elegant restaurant, offering food that reflects both his Shanghainese roots and his herbalist background.
A soft golden light is cast through the spacious restaurant that is punctuated with dramatic yellow lamps overhead, while deep red banquettes wrap around the walls. Food and tea here, is not just about taste, but the benefits for the body. Herbs, berries and teas combine on the menu of Shanghai dishes to nourish the palate and body. Traditional tonic soups offer exquisite flavour but are brewed to increase longevity, immunity or mental clarity. A classic hot and sour soup helps stimulate digestion, while double boiled duck soup nourishes the tastebuds and, with the addition of red dates and wolfberries, promises to enhance vitality and libido.
To create such pure flavours and benefits, extensive preparation and cooking goes into each dish. The eight-treasure duck (order two days in advance) is certainly the piece-de-resistance of any special dinner. Boned and stuffed with a mixture of straw and shitake mushrooms, smoked pork, Chinese sausage, red dates, shrimp, lotus seed and sticky rice, it is steamed for four hours and comes to the table rich and delicious. Infused with flavour it is served with a sticky, caramel-coloured sauce and steamed bok choy.
Desserts lift the bar, but might bring more pleasure to the palate than good health. Delicate steamed dumplings encase gooey melted white chocolate and are sprinkled with coconut, while textured red bean pancakes, or steamed chestnuts dusted with ginseng served in chocolate sauce offer more than the ubiquitous banana fritter. Locals flock here for excellent home made dim sum, and on weekends, yum cha is a popular choice. And if you do happen to over-indulge, well, David’s can offer you a tea for that as well.
Angela Costanzo