How Longtime restaurant is shaking up yum cha in Brisbane

A new Brisbane restaurant is transforming the traditional yum cha experience, delivering fantastic food and drinks with a twist.

It’s Sunday lunchtime and there’s a queue forming at the door of the new Longtime in Brisbane’s CBD. While its name may sound familiar, the eatery is not related to Fortitude Valley’s former Thai restaurant of the same moniker, which closed and morphed into Same Same at The Calile Hotel precinct.

Instead, this is a fresh, contemporary Chinese concept focusing on yum cha with a twist from experienced hospitality player Andrew Yu (Kamikaze Japanese eateries in Chermside, Broadbeach and Coomera) and partner Beverly Teo. Set above Gucci in the luxury QueensPlaza retail centre, there is not a dim sum cart in sight – this is yum cha as flashy as the designer stores that surround it.

Contemporary Chinese and yum cha restaurant Longtime in Brisbane’s CBD. Picture: Mark Cranitch.

The fit-out is modern, with a stunning moulded bar at the entry, leading to a dining room of grey banquettes, teal and rattan chairs, white-clothed tables and timber detailing. There are simply adorned private dining rooms too, but the prime seats are the curved booths under individual architectural arbours along the covered balcony facing Edward St.

We arrive without a booking and the only seats left are at the bar. We willingly accept and are warmly welcomed by the charismatic and charming bartenders, who specialise in cocktails and give this yum cha experience its edge. There are classics done with a spin, a signature list big with citrus and specials celebrating the Lunar New Year, for which the “Five spiced daisy” featuring Shanghai’s Peddlers Gin Co gin is a must-order.

Beers are a mix of local and Asian, draught and bottled, while the wine list treads a mostly traditional path of common varieties and well-known labels, with a few interesting deviations.

Salted egg lava custard buns. Picture: Mark Cranitch.

There are also plenty of non-alcoholic options, including cocktails, mocktails and beers.

Everything has been carefully chosen to pair with the food – a colossal line-up covering steamed dim sum, kitchen snacks, rice noodle rolls and sweets. There’s also a pimped-up version of a traditional Chinese a la carte menu offering everything from live seafood and Mongolian lamb rack to Cointreau duck and truffle fried rice. We’re here for dim sum and the bar staff happily provide suggestions based on their favourites and those of customers.

Glutinous rice dumplings ($10) are some of the best in town with the pleasantly chewy fried exterior enveloping a perfectly seasoned pork mince centre. They’re perhaps only upstaged by the barbecue pork crisps ($12). Like the Chinese version of a sausage roll, buttery short crust pastry wraps around a viscous puddle of sweet, sticky char sui pork that’s bloody delicious.

The fresh crunch of lettuce from the soy-stained chicken and mushroom san choi bao ($12) provides flavoursome light relief after a few heavy starters, as does the deftly made pork xiao long bao, which detonate in your mouth like soupy palate cleansers ($9).

Chicken and mushroom san choi bao. Picture: Mark Cranitch.

From the seven varieties of cheung fun, the king prawn and dried bean curd option ($15) is a solid choice – the wafers of bean curd providing crunch against the soft rice noodles and sweet prawns. But perhaps skip it in favour of the molten salted egg custard buns ($12). Served in little foil tins, and blooming like cupcakes straight from the oven, the fluffy golden buns hide a liquid centre of salty, sweet custard demanding to be nibbled gently to avoid wearing it all. Any potential mess is worth it.

Longtime is shaking up the yum cha game
in Brisbane and like the branded stores surrounding it, it’s a destination that
demands attention.

Longtime

Level 1, QueensPlaza, Brisbane City

3185 5525

longtimedining.com

Open Daily 11am-9pm

Verdict - Scores out of 5

Food 4

Service 4

Ambience 3.5

Value 4.5

Overall 4

For more reviews visit delicious.com.au/eatout