David Zhou unveils family favourites and street food flavours

Over 20 years, David’s has become a Prahran bastion of southern Chinese cuisine. Now a new menu has 30 new dishes, with some completely new and others subtle twists on long-time favourites.

These claypot roasted prawns infused with housemade fermented chill are set to become new favourites at David’s.

David Zhou greets every day in his eponymous restaurant with the same excitement he felt at the start of his first service there 20 years ago.

“It’s true. I have that same feeling. Is it a good thing? I’m not sure. Maybe I need to ask a counsellor” he said.

The master of contemporary Shanghainese cuisine recently unveiled a new menu and refit at Davids in Prahran.

He’s added about 30 dishes; some gentle reinventions of old favourites, others new interpretations of the street food Zhou ate as a boy visiting Zhouzhuang with his mother.

There’s a hawker-style lamb cooked slowly with onion and tomato and served with “Chinese flat bread” that is light and slightly chewy; claypot roasted prawns infused with housemade fermented chilli and topped with finger lime and a Zhou family favourite featuring Bannockburn chicken slow-cooked for three hours with shallots, chestnuts and soy bean paste.

Don’t panic! The sticky pork belly is still on the menu.

His classic sticky pork belly is there too with subtle changes even the regulars might not notice.

“It’s more about confidence than dramatic differences. You gain that confidence after cooking the same dish over and over,” Zhou said

“It’s like polishing a metal bar. You polish and polish and polish and eventually it becomes a needle.

“While you are polishing you aren’t thinking about it being a needle. You are thinking it is heavy, rough, thick. But the needle is always there.”

Pleasing the regulars was paramount, he said.

“We pay a lot of attention to the regulars. There are some people who have been coming every week for years and years, even sitting at the same table.

“The restaurant is like our home and these people are family.

“Making them happy is everything.”

David Zhou has unveiled a menu with 30 new dishes.

Those regulars will notice the restaurant looks a “little softer” the next time they visit.

“Again the changes are subtle. The colours are quieter and the chairs more comfortable. It is better for our maturing clientele,” Zhou said.

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“And I’m not talking about age. We have a lot of young professionals eating here. It’s more about their tastes and what they expect.”

The venue favours large groups with dishes made for sharing and three banquets on offer including Zhou’s Family Banquet, the Celebration Banquet and the Suckling Pig Banquet.

David’s is at 4 Cecil Place, Prahran.

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