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It’s a looker, all right, Neil Perry’s new Song Bird. Even the Maseratis slow to a crawl outside the heritage-listed Gaden House, with its multiple layers of dining rooms and kitchen of white-coated chefs framed by glass, as if on television.

This is the veteran chef’s fifth Asian-inspired restaurant in Sydney, in a career that spans nearly 40 years; from Wokpool (1996) and XO (2005), to Spice Temple (2009) and Jade Temple (2017). After the early modern Asian concepts, Spice Temple was the breakthrough, with its spicy, oily, smoky cooking pulled from Sichuan and Hunan provinces (and helmed by chef Andy Evans, who is just as much a force today, Perry having left the building).

But Perry has always revered the lighter, cleaner, classic Cantonese cuisine for its celebration of the fresh, natural taste of fish, seafood and vegetables. Jade Temple didn’t crack it in the CBD, but Song Bird might, with a newly invigorated Double Bay at its feet.

From the inside, it’s like being on a land-locked luxury liner. Designers ACME and Caon Design have contrasted the strong horizontal lines with cedar panelling, green marble and graceful songbird motifs. A goldfish bowl filled with light by day, it’s more intimate and celebratory at night; the three levels linked by the slow curve of a heritage staircase.

Head chef Mark Lee, who was born in Fiji to Chinese parents, rose through the ranks at Rockpool and then Margaret. He oversees a kitchen sectioned into dumplings, roast meats, live seafood, braises and stir-fries, noodles and rice.

Song Bird’s strengths are the duck, fish or seafood, including lobster and mud crab from the tank.

Start with pickles ($9) because they’re fresh, snappy and slightly sweet. Then add white-cut chicken salad ($28), for the soft, supple chicken (Sommerlad breed, via Sun Farm), and the gentle, refreshing nature of the cucumber, spring onion and shallot dressing.

Tables for two, beware. As at all grand Cantonese banquet houses, portions are big, and designed for the table to share. Lobster and scallop spring rolls ($26), for instance, come in sixes – but order them anyway because they’re small, tightly wrapped and sea-sweet.

Dumplings come in fours, and while you can taste the premium Spencer Gulf prawn in the har gau ($24), they’re not going to knock Mr. Wong off its perch just yet.

Peking duck ($62/$115) is a no-brainer order, with glazed skin like a French-polished veneer over tender, fatty, juicy meat. Wrap it in a steamer-load of Mandarin pancakes with sauce, cucumber, spring onions, white sugar and crisp golden breadcrumbs; the last two being fun additions designed to add crunch and absorb the fat.

An order of soft-serve ice-cream sandwich ($19) comes, rather crazily, as three big, crisp choux pastries encasing smooth, vanilla ice-cream. Three! Why? It makes no sense.

Service is deft and interactive and the mood is eastern-suburbs comfortable. The wine list shows off the long-term connections made by both Perry and wine director Richard Healy, from the 2023 Grosset Riesling ($19/$90) to a Premier Cru Chateau Latour ($2495). The latter would be terrific with the meaty, crunchy, pepper beef pancake ($26), which looks to me like a riff on Spice Temple’s famous lamb and cumin version.

And oh, the pleasure of diving into a big bowl of XO pipis in a deliciously dirty, fruity, chilli sauce, heavy on dried shrimp. Add on fresh or fried noodles ($10), if you need filling up, which you may not.

In the basement lies the plush Bobbie’s cocktail bar; all curved banquettes, tinkling ice, green olives and live jazz. A collaboration with New York bar tsar Linden Pride, it’s another upscale addition to the 𝄒hood.

Song Bird’s strengths are the duck, fish or seafood, including lobster and mud crab from the tank; and the commitment to elegant, sophisticated dining.

It’s the produce that defines the quality – Perry isn’t going to change his core values now – making it the perfect old-fashioned Chinese banquet restaurant for the 21st century.

Correction: An earlier version of this story referred to Jade Temple’s opening year as 2020. It’s been updated to say 2017.