Previous SlideNext Slide

The hot jam doughnut may be a popular Melbourne delicacy, but I think the hot cinnamon version deserves just as much attention and veneration. When I was a kid, hot cinnamon doughnuts were available all over the place, often served from funny carts made specifically for the purpose of frying and coating the dough. These days, hot jam dominates, and hot cinnamon ones are harder to find.

Why am I banging on about hot doughnuts at the beginning of a review for a Sydney-transplanted modern Asian restaurant? Because it’s the cinnamon doughnut with condensed milk custard ($7 each) served for dessert that sits high on my list of reasons to return to Yan, which opened in late April in South Yarra in the space that formerly housed Yagiz.

I thought I was full and planned on taking just one bite, but gobbled up the whole thing.

Yan opened its Sydney outpost in 2017 with a formula of mostly Chinese-influenced dishes that had, in some way, been touched by smoke. Much of that restaurant’s menu has been transported to the new Melbourne location, where former Sydney head chef Ewa Goralewski has been promoted to the position of executive chef.

The restaurant’s decor has changed only minimally (there was less than a month between Yagiz’s closing and Yan’s opening). The room retains its long, central table and cinderblock walls, many of them artfully knocked away, as if by a delicate sledgehammer, to create archways or to frame the wall where the semi-open kitchen can be glimpsed. Spiky dragon trees fill one window, giving a kind of Dr. Seuss vibe that manages to be slick nonetheless. The lighting is low, the music is fun (Elvis, Motown) and the vibe is exactly right for this neighbourhood.

Cocktails are all fruity fun: a frothy passionfruit sour that’s actually sour ($26), for example, or a spicy margarita variation with hints of pineapple and lemongrass ($26). And the wine list is worth a deep dive, especially for its collection of rieslings from Australia and Germany.

Yan’s Sydney selling point, now replicated here, is the idea of bringing smoke-heavy cooking techniques to a cuisine that’s not generally known for them. This doesn’t always mean that the protein is where the smoke is deployed: raw snapper comes cubed and tossed with smoked pineapple ($27), while Pacific oysters ($6.50 each) are topped with smoked buttermilk. Smoked king prawns ($9 each) are served cold with a ginger shallot dip.

Wintermelon (a squash in the zucchini family) is braised in aromatics that give it a sweet, spice-heavy flavour and quince-like texture, then sliced and served with smoked almond cream and Sichuan chilli oil ($21). It’s a dish that showcases the best of this kitchen: its clever use of smoke and its elegant treatment of an interesting ingredient.

For mains, there’s a pork cutlet with sticky soy and a confit egg yolk ($39), chicken katsu with barbecue sauce ($32), and a couple of varieties of ribs. The beef short ribs ($48) are tender and rich, served over barely sauteed kale with garlic. Individually, these dishes are all quite tasty. But if you don’t order carefully, they do tend to meld into a certain sameness, one that’s dominated by soy and sweetness.

A beautifully steamed bass grouper ($44) over spring-onion relish veered too heavily into that saccharine territory, and I found a side dish of vinegary, sauteed iceberg lettuce with lup cheong ($14) a necessary foil for the similar sweetness of the short ribs.

But back to that doughnut. It’s big and plump and hot, and it has the requisite hole so that more of the surface area can absorb the crusty, sugary goodness. It also has just a smidge of condensed milk custard, enough to act as a decadent embellishment. I thought I was full and planned on taking just one bite, but gobbled up the whole thing.

Despite our extreme wealth when it comes to all kinds of modern and traditional Asian cooking in Melbourne, Yan offers something different – a twist on the theme that can be great fun at times.

Is it different enough to garner the attention of Melbourne’s notoriously discerning diners? I’m not sure. With this much space in such a prominent location, it will need to become a favourite rather than a newbie curiosity. And if not? They could always set up a doughnut shop.

This review was originally published in Good Weekend magazine