Xi Restaurant review: Lu Gan’s Chinese, Japanese, French eatery takes fusion cuisine to new heights

A $15 luxe oyster and foie gras and truffle dumplings— has Windsor’s new Chinese-French-Japanese eatery taken fusion too far?

The f-word is not such a dirty word, especially in restaurant circles. Fusion cuisine celebrates the coming together of cultures and flavours on the plate.

When done well, it’s f---ing fabulous. And when it flops? I’ll spare you the gory details.

Enter Xi Restaurant, the newest player to Windsor’s hip restaurant scene. Here executive chef Michael “Fudge” Armitage (South Yarra’s The Botanical, Portsea Hotel) takes a fine approach to Chinese, French and Japanese flavours.

The charcoal kissed oyster isn’t worth your time. Picture: Wayne Taylor.

Does he succeed? We’ll get to that.

Xi has many things going for it. The prime position off the good part of Chapel St near Hanoi Hannah, The Smith and Neptune is one. Hello cashed-up, cocktail- chugging kids on a Friday night.

Young entrepreneur Lu Gan calling the shots is another plus. At 25, she’s making her first major play in the restaurant game off the back of her Master Lanzhou noodle empire success.

Five years and 11 restaurants under her belt, Gan was not looking to open something more elevated, until the opportunity presented to take over the ground floor of an apartment complex.

She knocked down the walls of the three adjoining shopfronts to create an 80-seat dining room curving around a central circular bar. The sleek industrial space is dressed smart casual, with polished concrete floors, an exposed black ceiling, dark timber tables and leather bench seats.

Drinks by Zachary Harper are elevated, with contemporary Asian-leaning cocktails, French and Aussie wines and premium sake by Ray Gao.

Waiters take the service up a notch, at the ready with moist hand towels before Xi’s version of bread and butter rolls out – cloudlike baos puffy and warm from the steamer, swiped in funky salted white miso butter.

The duck and truffle potstickers. Picture: Wayne Taylor.

Chef Fudge strikes a balance between the daring and fan favourites. He fills out those potstickers with premium ingredients such as lion’s mane mushrooms, spanner crab and duck, truffle and foie gras; made weekly by dumpling chef Jin Jin.

The duck and truffle flavour is costly at $26 for four, but upon employing thin pastry with the right chew and well-seasoned filling they come to life dunked in a umami-rich, barrel-aged soy.

I’ll address the elephant in the room first up: things are expensive. So order wisely.

The charcoal oyster ($15 each) is not worth your time. An attempt on luxe kilpatrick is unbalanced, overloaded with too much dry-aged pork, pear and apple discs and decorative florals.

Lose the garnish, amp up the heat and the hand stretched noodles are a go. Picture: Wayne Taylor.

The taste of the sea ($32) was redeeming with ultra tender cured cubes of kingfish, tuna and scallops, creamy avocado and a bright smattering of caviar, salmon and trout roe that’s at once creamy and refreshing – shame this has been retired for winter.

Quality steps up with the bigger plates, though they are not designed for sharing and you will need a side to get by. Goodbye more money.

Those dry stretched noodles ($39) are made well, but can do better than a mirin and housemade chilli seasoning that’s mildly spicy at best. That sweet spanner crab is nice, but can we stop with the flower garnishes?

Save time and order the crispy duck breast and leg ($48) made dry-aged in-house for one to two weeks. The leg meat is braised in masterstock, pulled and pressed into a rectangular mound. It’s tender, rich in flavour and well seasoned and the best on the plate.

Make a beeline to the duck. Picture: Wayne Taylor.

That duck breast is a close second; served with a wafer thin layer of crisp skin and accompanying jus that’s layered with flavour and complexity you’ll glug the whole jug. The devilled egg on the side is odd and adds no value to the dish.

Desserts are also hit or miss.

Xi has its moments and while I’m happy to pay for quality, I can’t justify those prices.

But a few tweaks, fewer flowers and more va va voom, Xi won’t have you cursing fusion cuisine.

Xi’s dining room is a spectacle. Picture: Wayne Taylor.