XOPP by Golden Century review: a golden price tag

Listing a sublime 2016 Lethbridge pinot at $94 and then serving the 2017 without telling us it’s an extra 10 bucks is either naughty, stupid, or both.

XOPP restaurant. Picture: Melinda Hird

Flying into Sydney in late January feels like arriving in Hong Kong: a wave of moist heat triggers instant perspiration. “Very humid,” says my Uber driver. I ask “Jack” where he’s from. “Shanghai,” he laughs. “Things very bad over there.”

The small-talk tapers and soon I’m at XOPP, a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown. There are indeed quite a few Chinese people here. An offshoot of the old-school Cantonese institution Golden Century, XOPP is on the mezzanine of the striking Darling Exchange building designed by internationally renowned architect Kengo Kuma. It seems a pity to sit cheek-by-jowl with residential towers, the occupants of which have the benefit of admiring Kuma’s work. From inside, the view’s not so inspiring.

XOPP restaurant. Picture: Melinda Hird

XOPP occupies a curved site that overlooks a bustling food court atrium. This shared airspace leads to an aural cocktail of whatever’s playing downstairs and XOPP’s Chinese flute: not so harmonious.

Never mind; the staff, who wear name tags, find us a window table for dinner. The restaurant has a pleasant contemporary feel and a pretty good wine list; I could think of worse places to meet for a glass of something and a China-inspired liver parfait with donut. And the menu is blessedly brief, for a Chinese restaurant. Although largely Cantonese, there are some creative cold appetisers and tonight, as part of the New Year celebrations, a supplementary menu of auspicious specials, such as Xin Xiang Shi Cheng (“Wishes Come True”), which is braised sea-cucumber with prawn mousse. Several dishes carry the warning “market price” – that’s a worry because it’s already pricey.

From that New Year menu, for example, a version of the traditional facai yusheng (prosperity raw fish salad) is $78. For the small one.

It’s a salad of many different ingredients given the “prosperity toss” by all at the table with an oil and plum sauce dressing and the addition of all sorts of crunchy umami stuff like seaweed, nuts and other dried things. It’s fine: fresh, clean, tangy and with some richness, too. But another dish of raw Atlantic salmon is a non-event as “sashimi”.

Somewhere between a slightly starch-thickened soup and a wet dish, “Jin Yu Man Tang (House of Riches)” combines crab and prawn meat in a light truffle-speckled sauce with a bit of veg and golden discs of delicious fried egg tofu. I find it a little under-seasoned but my palate is definitely skewed towards bolder, saltier flavours.

Like the braised short rib of beef (pictured) that comes with a dark, sticky sauce made with

Lao Gan Ma, a brand of chilli sauce made in China (you’d recognise the grandma on the label). With shredded radish, coriander, fried garlic and red chilli salad, it is a nicely balanced, powerful (if slightly tepid) dish. But $68.20? This ain’t Flower Drum.

Similarly, a hot pot of almost-caramelised vermicelli with minced pork and scallop is aromatic and quite satisfying, but $50.60. Maybe I’ve been out of Sydney too long.

One thing I know for sure: listing a sublime 2016 Lethbridge pinot at $94 and then serving the 2017 without telling us it’s an extra 10 bucks is either naughty, stupid, or both.

I wanted to like XOPP; I like Chinese. But they lost me with a techno remix of Happy Birthday, and didn’t claw me back. The aircon, however, is excellent.

XOPP by Golden Century

Address: Mezzanine, Shop 31, 1 Little Pier St, Haymarket

Contact: [phone]; xopp.com.au

Hours: Lunch, dinner daily 

Typical prices: Small $16, larger $40, dessert $14

Summary: Golden price tag

Rating: ★★½