Breath of the wok: Where to find Perth’s top 10 Chinese restaurants

Dec 07, 2023

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Chinese restaurants are the most ubiquitous hospitality ventures in Australia. From small-town joints in rural Australia banging out sweet lemon chicken and beef and black bean, to scores of new Sino-Australian Chinese restaurants with innovative cooking and good service.

For decades Chinese cuisine meant Cantonese cuisine, but in recent times specific regional restaurants have popped up showcasing Hunan cuisine – our favourite, by the way – and Xinjiang, where the Muslim minorities have eschewed China's favourite protein, pork, in favour of lamb.

Chefs, off-shift hospo folks and informed foodies are flocking to Joy Kitchen. Credit: Rob Broadfield

So, what attributes are we looking for in WAtoday's best of the best Chinese? The food has to be expertly cooked, no cheap and nasty, no sweet and sour plum sauce on indifferent pork ribs. No sickly, gloopy lemon chicken. No greasy fried rice. We don't have a fatwah on MSG – there's patently nothing wrong with it – but, by the same token, we don't want glutamates taking over a dish.

It is 2023, so we expect a good wine list. And most importantly, we expect something that Chinese restaurant owners have never been particularly good at: engaging table service. Typically, the food arrives and a grim-faced waiter slaps it on the table and bolts. It's fast, fast, fast, often at the expense of personality. No eye contact, no "Anything else I can get you?" and no quality check, that is, "Are you enjoying the food?" It's a cultural thing. When you dine in China it's all about food delivery, not charming badinage between server and customers.

Our Top 10 Chinese list 2023 celebrates all that's good about Chinese cooking and covers a range of regional cuisines and differing service standards, from knock-about fun to old-school white glove.

Chilli Panda: No frills. Max flavour. Credit: Rob Broadfield

Chilli Panda is probably not on your radar or must-go list, but it should be. Hunanese cuisine is a spicy, exciting relief from the ubiquitous Cantonese we are served in Perth. Mapo tofu is the best we’ve eaten in Perth and our all-time favourite Chinese dish in the city. Hunan spicy dry beef is just $10. We’d pay $20. They love chilli in Hunan in all its various flavours and heat profiles and the chefs at Chilli Panda aren't afraid to use it. There are hundreds of dishes on the menu. We recommend mapo tofu, marinated chicken wings, a cold salad of cucumber with vinegar and crushed garlic, shredded chicken with pickled chilli and stir-fried sweet potato noodle with cabbage and pork mince. And you can BYO at lunchtime. Just saying.

8 On the Point has a vast array of dumplings made in house.Credit: Rob Broadfield

Back to Cantonese food and its much-loved export, dim sum. There are so many good dim sum houses in Perth. This is one of the best. Insider tip: get to know manager Tim Lung. This affable restaurateur is the guy who can get you a table when the queues are out the door. You can choose from a vast array of dumplings made in house as the trolleys rattle past your table and you can order from the larger dim sum menu for those items only cooked to order. They don't stray too far from the traditional favourites like steamed prawn and chives dumplings, pork and prawn siu mai and fried radish cake with XO sauce, possibly the finest radish cake in town. If you’re a fan of offal and chicken feet, you’ll be happy. The dish that silences the table and gets you swooning is the pan-fried rice flour roll with dried shrimp.

Miss Chow's has a point of difference.Credit: Rob Broadfield

The three Miss Chow's restaurants in Perth are only a small part of the industrious Jacquie Chan's Perth restaurant empire which includes the new Lucy Luu in Mount Hawthorn and Pantry by Miss Chow's at Bicton and City Beach. Venues sport modern decor and hip young things belting back bao buns and colourful cocktails. Chan tells us Miss Chow's is all about Asian fusion. "It's the sort of dumplings you’d have with a cocktail … it's different from dim sum," she says. "They serve Chinese tea, we serve Bollinger." The go-to dishes emphatically make the case for Miss Chow's off-piste culinary philosophy: crispy jade prawn dumpling, steamed and then flash-fried to give a crisp bottom; Rottnest crayfish egg noodle with ginger and scallion broth; the mega-smart wagyu and black truffle Shanghai dumplings.

Good Fortune: a Perth institution. Credit: Rob Broadfield

Is there anyone in Perth who hasn't made tracks for the Good Fortune and said the immortal words, "Half a roast duck and extra sauce please"? As the bloke with the cleaver expertly chops your dark golden-skinned duck with its legendary layer of soft, emollient, super-tasty fat, you can get your fix of noodle soups, roast meats, san choy bow (sic), dumplings and fried rice. Like every Chinese restaurant ever, the menu is massive, but you’re here for the duck, the glorious, five-spice-scented, moist and fatty roast duck of your dreams. And that intoxicating sauce on the side. They have a shop in Victoria Park too.

They hand-make their own dumplings, not all of them, just the best ones, like their boiled dumplings in soup. You get 12 dumplings in a fragrant soup. Massive value. Most of their dumplings are made daily, so they never see the inside of a freezer, which is why the flavour ratchets up to an 11 out of 10. Xiao Long Bao crab and pork dumplings drip with moistness, dumpling noodle soups are the best of both worlds with noodles and their fabulous dumplings in the one bowl. There's a solid roster of Chinese favourites, but they pride themselves on the dumpling game, so you’d be a mug not to, right?

Double Rainbow: just nonsense. Until you put it in your mouth.Credit: Rob Broadfield

If you see the word authentic on a restaurant's home page, you are almost guaranteed it's not. Double Rainbow makes no claims to authenticity – how could it – but its mash-up of flavours and textures and bold, brash vinegars, ferments and chilli pastes make it more Chinese than many Chinese restaurants. But with a Korean twist. And Japanese. And North African. And Australian too? Confused? Read on. Prawn wonton with miso harissa, kewpie and chives makes your head spin. But my God, it works. How about a duck sausage McMuffin with peanut hoisin and onion? Wood-fired roasted octopus with yuzu shitake XO sauce and Kipfler potatoes is just nonsense. Until you put it in your mouth. You’ll get concussion from the sheer power of the flavours. Go for the hard core Korean-ish dishes like kimchi dumplings with pumpkin ssamjang and crunchy chilli vinegar or KFC (Korean Fried Chicken). The flavour really hits you.

Dragon Palace's dim sum game is superb.Credit: Rob Broadfield

Sometimes you just want old school and the posh(ish) Dragon Palace restaurants fit the bill. There's a certain 1980s-advertising-executive-long-lunch grandeur to it. Feel like Singapore chilli crab that costs the GDP of a small African nation, or braised abalone for $150 a serve? They’ve got you covered. Dragon Palace is all about Cantonese dishes and their roast duck is a favourite among its legion of fans. You’ll often see them over lunch quaffing a swanky bottle of pinot noir as the waiter forensically carves the delicate duck tableside. They always have live seafood, ready to go. Their dim sum game is superb, as is the level of service and the whole white-glove feel on their venues. The Northbridge restaurant is the OG with offshoots at Cockburn and Mandurah.

Wanting to get a deal across the line over dinner? Try Silks.Credit: Rob Broadfield

Speaking of posh Cantonese, don't go past Silks, amid the lights and glittering attractions of Crown Perth. Its uber-posh interior design is looking a little tired these days, which is comforting in a curious way. Not too Casino, if you get our meaning. But there's no mistaking the effort from a bevy of Hong Kong chefs pushing out polished dishes behind the pass. There's always a Chinese business party or two in the dining room, local businesspeople hosting Chinese visitors and the usual mix of hotel guests, posh first-daters and those who love a good Peking chicken. Silks’ service is, well, silky. Its dumplings and other dim sum dishes are all made in house and the wine list is well and truly above expectations for a Perth Chinese restaurant. Dim sum is served only at lunchtime and the main menu is available for lunch and dinner. Kung Pao chicken with dried chilli and cashew nuts is a stunner and, if you’re wanting to get a deal across the line over dinner, go large with the $288 stir-fried abalone.

Joy Kitchen is something special. Credit: Rob Broadfield

Joy Kitchen is something of a sleeper in terms of well-known Chinese restaurants, but with so many chefs, off-shift hospo folks and informed foodies flocking to this place, you know it's got something going for it. Joy Kitchen's dishes lean into more traditional cooking, but there's a vivacity and cleanness of flavours which make this Chinese restaurant a little special. You’ll find no roast duck or jellyfish on this menu, but you’ll discover good dumplings (all made in house), their fabulous "prawns on toast", honey roast pork ribs, sizzling Mongolian lamb and Szechuan beef with cashew nuts. The wine list is modest but contains good wines from household-name producers.

Canton Bay. Credit: Rob Broadfield

There's a flavour component in many Cantonese wok dishes called wok hei (pronounced hay). It translates as breath of the wok, and it's that slightly charred, almost smoky flavour a thin steel wok gives to the food while cooking fast and furious at 800C or more. Canton Bay celebrates the hei in most of its dishes. How about king prawns tossed in the wok with salted egg yolks? They go off the beaten track with their steamed scallops with snow peas and macadamia nuts, but return to the high-octane embrace of Cantonese flavours with steamed scallops and spicy XO sauce. Their crispy-skinned chicken is a rare dish on Australian Chinese menus, but at Canton Bay it is one of the best dishes on the large card. Pork belly with fermented, preserved vegetables and fluffy Chinese buns is another specialty worth driving for.

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