Ruyi

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16 Liverpool Street, Melbourne, 9090 7778

My score: 3.5/5

Sometimes one word overwhelms all others when seeking a description. In the case of year-old Chinese restaurant Ruyi, that word is ‘gracious’ and it applies to the decor, food and service. The dining room is elegant and calm with a refined sensibility that leaves little doubt this is a Chinese restaurant while making it quite clear we’re not in a Chinatown dumpling factory. The food is delicate, taking traditional dishes from regional cuisines and rethinking them with premium produce and contemporary presentation. Service is solicitous, and if there was an over- eager emphasis on Ruyi’s uniqueness, I’m happy to put it down to the fervor that can spring from pride.

Ruyi’s chefs combine nostalgia and a nimble modern sensibility, springing from their experience in kitchens that include an upscale Shanghai club and local flavour palace Chin Chin. I loved the silky, beguiling pot of soup with fresh, sweet rockling and broccoli, and the crunchy wok-fried vegetables gleaming with soy lime sauce. Many dishes are influenced by spice-saturated Sichuan but punches are pulled and flavours lean to the mellow: fried tofu is squiggled with tingly mayo, eggplant batons are finagled into sticky crisp-then-fluffy chips. The spice dial is turned up for the garlicky cumin-doused pork ribs: they push graciousness aside for fatty, fiery delight. There’s more emphasis on dessert than at many Chinese restaurants (sago pudding with pistachio icecream, for example), plus frisky cocktails and a sensitive wine list which balances food friendliness with vinous interest.

Ruyi is part of a wave of local eateries wrestling their way out of ethnic strictures to prompt new culinary paradigms. I’d rank it alongside places like Elyros (Cretan), The Last Jar (Irish), Northern Git (English), Tonka (Indian) and Lee Ho Fook (Chinese) that suggest Melbourne isn’t just a great place to eat, it’s a city where cuisine is the vanguard of living, thriving cultures.

See their website.

More Chinese:

Zhou Zhou Bar and Lounge, Upstairs, 455 Chapel Street, South Yarra, 9826 0169. Wed-Sun dinner
Along with 50-plus Asian beers and a great Sunday deal (four dumplings and a beer for $10), there’s an alluring range of dumplings and buns. Try the chilli wagyu dumplings flavoured with kaffir lime.

Roast Duck Inn, 29 Carrington Road, Box Hill, 9897 3788
The name says it all, really: crisp roasted duck, served in the piece or as peking duck pancakes. Also consider the roast pork and Cantonese vegetable dishes.

Bashuge, 74 Koornang Road, Carnegie, 9568 8687
If you like spicy food and you’re not afraid of nose-to-tail eating, grab a crowd and pile in for Sichuan hot pots.

First published in the age, January 18, 2014.