The dessert that sets this Chinese restaurant apart

Chinese restaurants are not normally known for their desserts, but the sweet creation at this Fortitude Valley eatery is set to change all that.

Little Valley in Fortitude Valley

CHINESE restaurants are not normally known for their desserts.

Sure, there’s the obligatory deep-fried ice cream, usually using cheap home brand ice cream frozen harder than a baseball and covered in a vibrant artificial topping with enough additives to ensure any small child bounces off the wall for the ensuing hours.

Or the classic custard tarts, which are often deemed “too eggy” by most Westerners.

But at Fortitude Valley’s neo-Chinese contemporary eatery Little Valley, our dessert may have just been the star.

Acclaimed Asian-trained chef Simon Hanmer has joined head chef Jake Pregnell in the kitchen of the popular restaurant and bar, with the pair having previously worked together at revered sister venue, Rick Shores in Burleigh Heads.

Fig, shiso yoghurt and sesame madeleine at Little Valley, Fortitude Valley

And the pair’s reunion has seen a new menu with fresh flavours and interesting twists on classic dishes, including our dessert of toffee-topped fresh fig accompanied by a sesame madeleine and frozen yoghurt infused with shiso — known as Chinese basil or Japanese mint ($13).

Simple, light, refreshing and herbaceous, it is the perfect palate-cleansing finish to our excessive lunch — and about all we can fit in.

The new menu continues to offer a mix of raw dishes, dim sum, and small and large plates, with favourites like the lobster and chive har gow ($17) remaining — though our dumplings seem to be missing the soupy sauce that makes them truly sing.

Their traditional steamed pork buns have also been given a makeover, now coming with a well-spiced blend of pepper beef tongue and cheek ($11) that you simply want more of against the almost meltingly soft dough.

The small plates offer plenty for spice lovers. Their fresh take on traditional mapo tofu ($26), dropping the pork mince in favour of spanner crab flesh and reinforcing the fishy flavour with strips of nori, deliver a fiery hit sure to clear even the most blocked of sinuses.

Milder, but still a little too hot for my dining companions is the “Chinese bolognese” ($18).

Pork cheek with mustard greens and sweet and sour apple sauce at Little Valley, Fortitude Valley

Featuring chewy, house-made noodles, made almost charry from the wok, they come topped with a bolognese sauce fired up with an XO sauce that uses the spicy spreadable salami nduja instead of the usual prosciutto or jamon. It’s a dish with a lot of promise, but just needs a little tweaking on balance and acid in the meat sauce and texture with those noodles.

Giving the dessert a run for its money in the favourites stakes, though, is the pork cheek ($45).

The uber fatty, butter-soft meat is crowned with some of the finest crackling you’ll find anywhere — bubbly, crisp, salty and damn delicious.

While the kitchen is clearly striving for innovation, it’s when it simply focuses on flavour and perfecting a classic that its skills truly shines through. Sometimes it’s important to remember that “deliciousness” will always trump even the most inventive dish.

One of Little Valley’s greatest strengths has always been its service, and it continues to be with personable and charming waitstaff not only highly knowledgeable, but warm and engaging.

Let them guide you on the smart and generous drinks list, which combines quality wines well-matched to the food with interesting Asian-influenced cocktails and mocktails, and both local and imported beers, and you will walk out a satisfied customer.

LITTLE VALLEY

Address: 6 Warner St, Fortitude Valley

Phone: [phone]

Web: little-valley.com.au

Open: Lunch and dinner Wed-Sun

VERDICT

Food: 7.5

Service: 9

Ambience: 8

Value: 8

OVERALL: 8