According to the traditional Chinese calendar, this week marks the beginning of a new year: the Year of the Snake. Whether or not you officially celebrate Chinese New Year – a time for family, renewal and prosperity – you can count yourself lucky when it comes to Melbourne’s Chinese food, which today spans the country’s many regional cuisines.

Places serving Shanghai-style dumplings, north-eastern barbecue and seafood-centric Cantonese are among the 20-odd Chinese restaurants reviewed in The Age Good Food Guide 2025. The 10 below offer a strong list of options for the next fortnight of festivities.

Supreme J Kitchen

CANTONESE 15/20

The menu here is a vast tome, and phoning to pre-order pays off when it comes to dishes such as kong fu soup, its aromatic broth brimming with black chicken and abalone. Seafood is treated reverently in the Cantonese style, netted from on-site tanks before mingling with young ginger, snowpeas and carrots. Siu yuk lives up to its reputation as some of the best roast pork in town. Jovial waitstaff are as adept at dividing dishes tableside as they are at keeping kids happy.

For Chinese New Year: The venue is serving symbolic dishes such as whole chicken, eel to represent the Year of the Snake, and the signature barbecued pork. Available until February 4, get them a la carte or in one of three Lunar New Year banquets.

198 Whitehorse Road, Balwyn, supremejkitchen.com

Hao Zi Wei

SICHUANESE 14.5/20

As you enter, the citrusy profile of green Sichuan peppercorns invades your nostrils, eyes and pores. Take it in your stride. If staff sense you’re a beginner with the cuisine, they’ll steer you towards milder menu options and may even slide an extra box of tissues onto your table. Whole barramundi is butterflied then fried, served in a brothy hot tub with coriander and chilli. Candy-like battered eggplant is lathered in garlicky sweet-sour syrup, and boneless bullfrog pairs with crunchy lotus root. Avoid dining solo at all costs; a table of four or more helps unlock the menu’s potential.

653-655 Warrigal Road, Chadstone, 03 9078 3880 (no website)

Lee Ho Fook

CHINESE 16/20

Victor Liong’s two-level laneway eatery delivers a joyride of wit, powerful flavours and rigorous technique. Prawn toast, the Aussie-Chinese comeback kid, takes a luxe turn via sea urchin roe on an oblong of golden fried bread. The rich head and collar of kingfish, made vibrant with a dark terracotta sauce of black beans, chilli and subtle orange, is applause-worthy. The warehouse-like dining room and calm, polished service ensure the kitchen’s dexterity commands the spotlight.

For Chinese New Year: Celebrations at home get an instant lift with two ready-to-serve Lee Ho Fook dishes – yee sang lo hei (or prosperity toss salad) and Peking duck – available to order online. At the restaurant, yee sang lo hei is on the menu until mid-February, plus there are pairings of Hennessy’s Year of the Snake cognac with two desserts.

11-15 Duckboard Place, Melbourne, leehofook.com.au

Golden Dragon Palace

CANTONESE 14.5/20

Each trolley of dim sum here feels like a true gift: deep-fried taro puffs offer up wispy crunch, and translucent pork-and-peanut dumplings walk the sweet-salty flavour tightrope. Watched over by towering, ornately carved dragons, efficient staff lift steamer lids to unveil extra-large siu mai that resemble miniature dinosaur nests, complete with hard-boiled quail eggs. At night, order Cantonese and Aussie-Chinese staples done right.

For Chinese New Year: Steamed whole Murray cod, live lobster with ginger and noodles, and roast suckling pig are among the auspicious dishes on the 10-person banquet menu ($1468), available January 29.

363 Manningham Road, Templestowe, goldendragonpalace.com.au

Wang Wang BBQ

NORTHERN CHINESE, CRITICS’ PICK ✔

People have been gathering to eat barbecue for centuries in Qiqihar, a large city in north-east China. Today, in an attractive Victorian corner building in Melbourne, warmth emanates from Wang Wang’s domed tabletop barbecues. All the meat arrives raw: juicy wagyu, thick-cut tongue, pork belly, or Angus beef sliced thin and tumbled in chilli and herbs. Grill it yourself before dipping in a sauce of soy, chilli and garlic that’s a family recipe.

For Chinese New Year: A $49 banquet includes unlimited chargrilled meat in cuts ranging from wagyu tri-tip to karubi (or boneless short-rib), plus a Gong Hay Fat Choy cocktail, named after the New Year greeting.

267 Glenferrie Road, Malvern, wangwangbbq.com.au

Lagoon Dining

ASIAN 15/20

Defying its Little Italy location, Lagoon’s algorithm isn’t strictly bound by place but consistently pings on China, partly thanks to chef Keat Lee’s Malaysian Chinese upbringing. Witness the signature shredded potato, with its barely cooked stands and black vinegar backbeat. Or chewy rice drop noodles stir-fried with gutsy Xinjiang-spiced beef and chilli oil. The globe-trotting wine list rises to the challenge, matched by exemplary service.

For Chinese New Year: Lagoon’s Year of the Snake banquet was only available on New Year’s Eve (January 28) but the regular menu is dotted with plenty of dishes believed to bring good fortune, such as char siu pork, steamed fish and noodles.

263 Lygon Street, Carlton, lagoondining.com

Nihao Kitchen

CHINESE 15/20

From the first pour of tea to the carefully wrapped package of leftovers to take home, a visit to Nihao is a delight. Parrot fish, snow crab and more are fished from the tank, wok-tossed, served in soup or steamed with ginger and spring onion before arriving at the table with sauce-mopping sides. The voluminous menu necessitates tough decisions, some of which must be made in advance: call ahead to order pipa duck, the five-spiced butterflied bird with toffee-like skin.

For Chinese New Year: On January 29, the venue is combining a host of lucky ingredients – from king prawn to pork knuckle and abalone – in one generous claypot.

298-300 High Street, Kew, 03 9852 8333 (no website)

Hong’s Dumplings

SHANGHAINESE, CRITICS’ PICK ✔

This perpetually packed pitstop is known for the popular Shanghai breakfast food sheng jian bao. The pan-fried pork buns are made with a more substantial dough than the oft-compared xiao long bao but contain a similar piping-hot liquid inside. Both setting and service are no-frills – you’ll choose your own
table and order at the counter – but the draw is the promise of top-notch dumplings, on which Hong’s delivers across the board. Hong’s is only open Friday to Sunday, so plan ahead.

872 Canterbury Road, Box Hill South, 0430 991 206 (no website)

Flower Drum

CANTONESE 16.5/20

A half-century young, the Drum is all about subtle and statement-making moments. Menu mainstay Peking duck is as exacting in its portions as its
preparation, with supple flesh and skin that shatters like praline. Wisps of hand-picked mud crab are worked through a luxurious turmeric sauce and cooked in the hollow of the crustacean’s shell. The carpet is blood-red and the tables are set leagues apart, leaving room for every other dish to be tossed or carved tableside by a professional in a waistcoat and bow-tie.

17 Market Lane, Melbourne, flowerdrum.melbourne

Dainty on Toorak

SICHUANESE 15/20

There are about 20 Dainty outlets now, but South Yarra has long been home base. After a recent renovation and rebrand to Dainty on Toorak, the dining room now seems palatial rather than merely large. The re-jigged, leather-bound menu holds more than 100 items such as live seafood, dim sum and roast duck carved tableside. But for a tongue-tingling encounter synonymous with the Dainty brand, Chongqing chilli chicken is a culinary stun gun.

176 Toorak Road, South Yarra, instagram.com/daintysichuan