Dainty Sichuan – Dani Valent

Level 2, 206 Bourke Street, Melbourne, 9650 2188

My score: 4/5

Dainty Sichuan, a South Yarra Chinese restaurant with a cult following, has just opened a very welcome second branch in Chinatown. The Szechuan food at Dainty, as it’s affectionately known, isn’t just chilli hot, it’s also spicy-spiky due to the fierce, floral Szechuan pepper that’s a key ingredient in this cuisine. But there’s an almost transcendental aspect to the food too. Eating it makes me elated, dazed and wobbly: climbing the Chongqing chilli chicken mountain is a bit like summiting Everest. During a recent session at the new Dainty I whispered to my friend that I thought my bones were separating inside my body. Weird. But great. And addictive.

The restaurant is upstairs in the shiny food haven that is 206 Bourke. Dainty Sichuan is part of the Rainbow complex, which also includes a pool hall and amazing karaoke bar with themed private rooms (there are teddy bears!). The large restaurant area is separated into many zones with timber screens; tables are inlaid with electric hot plates to enable DIY hotpot dining. The menu is pictorial and dishes are marked with a chilli rating: one for ‘fairly mild’, three for ‘you are crazy’. There’s crossover with the South Yarra restaurant menu but not all dishes have made it to the CBD.

The Chongqing chilli chicken is here and it’s loud and proud. A massive pile of spiced deep-fried chicken knuckles (the knees, really) is tossed with dried red chillies and Sichuan pepper. You’re not expected to eat the chillies but even so the dish is a tongue-numbing dance of pleasure and pain. Two cold dishes push my summer buttons. A salad of charred dried cucumber is tossed with green chillies and fresh coriander and has a sharp, throaty vinegar hit. The mixed skewers are fabulous: deboned chicken feet, tripe, tofu and black fungus are impaled on bamboo and dunked into a black, oily, spicy stock that’s brought to the table in a ceramic pot. It’s my kind of firewater and the dish is a textural masterpiece. By contrast, a ham and cauliflower wokked dish is a gentle, salty stir-fry.

Beer is available but I reckon the lychee ice does a pretty neat job of briefly subduing the chilli sweats. Service is swift and friendly and overall the restaurant is less bustling than the South Yarra venue – so far, anyway. I love them both with feverish passion though dainty they certainly aint.

More Chinese:

David’s, 4 Cecil Place, Prahran, 9529 5199
Recently relaunched, David’s serves homestyle Shanghainese food. There are two all-you-can-eat yum cha sittings on weekends.

Tao Tao House, 815 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn, 9818 0968
Every day is yum cha day at this classy restaurant though trolleys only come around at weekends.

Hills BBQ Noodle Shop, 586 Station Street, Box Hill, 9899 3382
The barbecued duck and pork hanging in the window are a clear signpost to the specialties at this cheap, busy, high turnover Cantonese diner.

First published in The Age, January 20, 2013

2018-05-03T16:18:11+10:00

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