An influx of new generation restaurants and bars – with one offering a $2500 nip of whisky – is transforming Sydney’s Chinatown.
The precinct’s borders are also expanding to include Darling Square’s new Steam Mill Lane to the west, sandwiched between the Convention Centre and Paddy’s Markets. It gives visitors more dining options, including noodle shops, high-end restaurants, fusion food bars and coffee shops.
Jason Ang and group beverage owner Yoshi Onishi behind the bar at Bancho.Credit:Christopher Pearce
It’s all part of a generation shift around Dixon Street, Haymarket, Sydney’s premier destination for dumplings, noodles and cheap corkage since the 1970s.
Now Sydney’s redevelopment surge is attracting savvy new operators and causing existing business owners to rethink their food options in the area.
“We’re hoping to capture a lot of professionals that work nearby,” said Jason Ang, the 34-year-old owner of Bancho, Chinatown’s first small laneway bar which opened this week. “There’s a lot of new corporate offices in Darling Harbour and the International Convention Centre is bringing more hotel guests through the area.”
Mr Ang is also the owner-operator of Tokyo Bird bar in Surry Hills and Osaka Trading Co. at Harold Park Tramsheds. He said he wants to provide customers with the kind of world class bar experience Sydney’s Chinatown has always lacked. “So many people want to eat quickly and move on when they come to Chinatown. We would prefer guests to relax at the bar and enjoy the space,'' he said.
Bancho Bar in Chinatown.
Indeed, with one rare Japanese whisky priced at a whopping $2500 a nip, Bancho is going well beyond the quick service model of other Chinatown venues.
David Yam, manager of Market City shopping centre above Paddy’s Markets, is targeting a new demographic of residents in the area.
“When Darling Harbour was in the planning stages of redevelopment we realised we would have an additional 3000 people at our doorstep,” Mr Yam said. “High-rise developments attract Asian buyers used to vertical living and we saw an opportunity for those new residents to eat dinner with us. We already had a 14-store food court that was going gangbusters but we wanted to evolve with the market.”
The third level food court at Market City was transformed into the deluxe 1909 Dining Precinct in April and new restaurants (there’s eight with two more set to open) must adhere to a strict set of guidelines to convey a professional appearance – you won’t see any handwritten signs for daily specials taped to windows, for instance. 1909’s glitzy Chinese hot pot restaurant, The Dolar Shop, is rumoured to have a fit-out that cost more than $2 million and may be the only shopping centre restaurant in the country with a Penfolds 1979 Grange on the wine list.
Chinatown’s borders are also expanding. “When I moved here from United States in 2001, Chinatown more or less stopped at Goulburn Street,” Mr Yam said. “Now it has pushed all the way up to Liverpool [Street].”
Marking the western border is Darling Square’s new Steam Mill Lane, sandwiched between the Convention Centre and Paddy's Markets. The precinct features Millennial-targeting fried chicken and burger restaurants interspersed with Vietnamese pork roll, sushi and noodle shops.
New venues at Market City and Steam Mill Lane have been hand-picked to complement each other in terms of cuisine and price point. The pan-Asian offerings echo larger food trends in Chinatown.
“Chinatown obviously is a reflection of society and immigration,” says chief Herald food critic Terry Durack. “In the last 20 years it has gone from being a Cantonese Chinatown to a more general pan-Chinatown with northern and western regional influences. Now, it’s a broader, border-crossing Asiatown, with Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese, Thai and Cambodian influences.
“We’ve sadly lost a lot of the great fresh food shops and grocers and said farewell to many of the vast, old-school yum cha palaces. But, in the great cycle of life, Chinatown is witnessing the growth of small, interesting, independent restaurants such as the Malaysian Ho Jiak and the south-western Chinese Spring Yunnan. Now it’s next-gen Asian moving in with noodle shops, start-ups, fusion food bars and coffee shops. With any luck, it will keep evolving and introducing us to new flavours and cultures that become absorbed into the Australian psyche.”
FANCY A FANCY NIP?
Chinatown’s $2500 whisky nip – Hibiki 35 Year Old Arita
With Bancho’s price for one pour of this whisky far exceeding the cost of return flight to Tokyo, this is not spirit designed for shooting. With notes of vanilla and spice, Hibiki’s rare blend of grain whiskies (some of which are the oldest left in Japan) was released in a handmade ceramic decanter to celebrate 400 years of Japanese porcelain in 2017. Only 150 were made and a few bottles are still available at $54,000. Shop around on the secondary market, however, and you might be able to snare one for a cheeky $30k instead.
FIVE NEW VENUES TO TRY
Bancho, 10 Thomas Lane
There’s more to Chinatown’s first laneway small bar than cocktails an high-roller whisky. Bar snacks include kushikatsu (panko-crumbed skewers of meat and vegetables) and there’s a smart offering of natural wine and Japanese craft beer if you’re not fussed on pushing the boat out with spirits.
Bang Bang Izakaya Bar, 14 Steam Mill Lane
An izakaya is pretty much the Japanese version of a knees-up pub where beer is knocked back with gusto and there’s no shortage of kitschy design. Steam Mill’s izakaya is loud with colour and noise, and slings top notch sashimi, sushi and robata-grilled chook.
Myeong Rang Hot Dog, 1 Dixon Street
This hole-in-the-wall next door to fried chicken temple Arisun is a branch of a Korean franchise with more than 800 outposts worldwide. This the first “M.R. Hotdog” in Sydney although a better local name might be M.R. Pluto Pup as it trades solely in sausages threaded on sticks and deep fried in glutinous rice batter.
The Dolar Shop, 1909 Dining Precinct Market City, 9-13 Hay Street
There’s at least 15 hotpot restaurants in Chinatown waiting for you to dip raw ingredients into hot broth, but none of them have the sleek glamour of this 200-seater with its gold trim and gourmet menu. Founded in Shanghai in 2014 and boasting 54 international venues, if you’re jonesing for Penfolds Grange with abalone, The Dolar can deliver.
Yomie's Rice X Yogurt, Citymark Building, 683 George Street
Creating queues up to 50 metres long since it opened in September, you can find Yomie’s near the gold eucalyptus trunk at the symbolic entrance to Chinatown. Creamy drinks made from yoghurt, oats and Korean purple rice are the order of the day and toppings include avocado and pistachio. Like drinking tangy rice pudding with a straw.
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