RFK Cuisine · Chinese · Sydney
Best Chinese Restaurants in Sydney 2026
Cantonese, regional & yum cha · Sydney · 8 rooms ranked · Updated June 2026
Compiled by the Restaurants for Kings editorial team · Published June 27, 2026 · Updated June 27, 2026
Sydney has eaten Cantonese food since the goldfields of the 1850s, and Chinatown in Haymarket is now one of the densest Chinese dining quarters in the Southern Hemisphere — yet the city's best Chinese cooking in 2026 is split across three registers that rarely share a table. There is the glossy modern Cantonese of Merivale's basement rooms; the live-tank seafood theatre the Wong family carried from old Sussex Street into Crown; and the regional heat of Sichuan, Hunan and Chongqing kitchens that have arrived in the past decade. These are the eight Sydney Chinese rooms worth the spend in 2026 — ranked on the cooking, the room and what the bill buys, with the dish to order and how to book at each.
1.Mr Wong
Sydney's benchmark modern Cantonese, 240 seats in a CBD basement; book Mr Wong for the char siu toothfish and the Peking duck.
Mr Wong, down a lane off Bridge Street in the CBD, is the room that reset Sydney's expectations of Cantonese dining when Merivale opened it in 2012, and a decade on it still fills its candle-lit basement nightly. Executive chef Dan Hong runs a kitchen that cooks dim sum at lunch and a long Cantonese carte at night; the char siu-marinated toothfish, roasted like barbecue pork until it lacquers, and the Peking duck carved to pancakes are the orders that define the place. The room is dark, loud and theatrical rather than quiet, which is the point — this is a Cantonese restaurant built for an occasion. Plan on roughly AUD 90 to AUD 130 a head with duck and a bottle. Book through Merivale several days ahead, and order the duck when you do.
Reserve via Merivale; the char siu toothfish, half a Peking duck, the prawn and chive dumplings.
2.Spice Temple
Neil Perry's basement of Sichuan, Hunan and Yunnan fire; book Spice Temple when you want chilli over Cantonese polish.
Spice Temple, in a windowless basement at 10 Bligh Street, is the room Neil Perry opened in 2009 to cook the regional Chinese food the city's Cantonese restaurants did not — Sichuan, Hunan, Yunnan, Guangxi and Jiangsu, ordered by region on a menu that rewards heat. The crisp golden lamb-and-cumin pancake and the white-cut chicken in a "strange flavour" sesame-and-chilli dressing are the dishes regulars return for, and the dark, red-lit room is one of the better-looking dining spaces in the CBD. It is grown-up, spicy and built for a group that wants to share widely. Expect around AUD 80 to AUD 110 a head. Book through Hunter St Hospitality a few days ahead and tell them how much chilli the table can take.
Reserve via Hunter St Hospitality; the lamb-and-cumin pancake, the strange-flavour chicken, the dan dan noodles.
3.Golden Century
The reborn Sussex Street live-tank legend, now on Level 3 of Crown; book Golden Century for the XO pippies and mud crab.
Golden Century built its name over three decades on Sussex Street as the place Sydney's chefs went after service for live-tank seafood at one in the morning; it closed in 2021, and the Wong family reopened it on Level 3 of Crown Sydney in Barangaroo on 20 January 2025 with a ten-metre tank running the length of the room. The XO pippies — clams stir-fried in the kitchen's own XO sauce — remain the signature, alongside mud crab, abalone steamboat and a weekend yum cha of more than eighty dishes. Banquets start around AUD 450 for a table of four and climb with the live seafood, weighed by the kilo. For seafood theatre with thirty years of pedigree behind it, this is the room. Book through the Crown Sydney site and order the crab when you reserve.
Reserve via Crown Sydney; the XO pippies, a live mud crab two ways, the abalone steamboat.
4.XOPP by Golden Century
The Wong family's casual live-seafood spin-off in Darling Square; book XOPP for the pippies at a fairer price than Crown.
XOPP by Golden Century, in Darling Square on the Haymarket edge of the city, is the more relaxed sibling the Wong family built around the same live-seafood cooking that made the original famous — the name itself comes from the XO pippies. The tanks are here too, the menu runs the Cantonese seafood classics plus a strong run of steamed dumpling baskets, and the bill lands well below Crown for the same family's hand on the wok. It is the version to choose for a weekday dinner or a Chinatown lunch rather than a banquet occasion. Plan on roughly AUD 60 to AUD 90 a head. Book direct or walk in midweek, and start with the pippies and a plate of salt-and-pepper squid.
Reserve direct; the pippies in XO sauce, salt-and-pepper squid, a basket of prawn dumplings.
5.Queen Chow Enmore
Merivale's Inner West Cantonese above the Queens Hotel; book Queen Chow Enmore for roast meats and a long Saturday lunch.
Queen Chow, upstairs at the Queens Hotel on Enmore Road, is Merivale's Cantonese room for the Inner West, and since the Manly outpost closed it is the one that carries the name. The kitchen, under the same Merivale Chinese hand as Mr Wong, leans on Cantonese roast meats, a tidy yum cha and wok classics that suit the buzzy pub-room setting better than a hushed dining hall. It is the neighbourhood pick rather than the special-occasion one — good cooking in a room you can get to on the Enmore Road bar strip. Expect around AUD 55 to AUD 85 a head. Book through Merivale for a weekend table, especially for the roast-meat platters that sell through.
Reserve via Merivale; the Cantonese roast duck, the crispy pork belly, a plate of greens in oyster sauce.
6.Emperor's Garden
The 1979 Chinatown stalwart for old-school yum cha; go to Emperor's Garden for trolley dim sum and a bag of custard puffs.
Emperor's Garden has anchored the Hay Street strip of Chinatown since 1979, a two-storey Cantonese banquet hall that does the unreconstructed version of yum cha — trolleys, not order sheets — for a room that fills with Chinese families on a weekend. The pork ribs with pickles and bitter melon in a clay pot are the dish to order beyond the dim sum, and the custard Emperor's Puffs sold from the bakery window next door, a Chinatown icon at a few cents each, are the thing to eat walking back to the station. It is loud, cheap and genuine. Plan on AUD 35 to AUD 55 a head for yum cha. Walk in midweek or book a weekend table of six, and chase the trolleys early before the best baskets go.
Walk in or book direct; the trolley har gow and siu mai, the pork-rib clay pot, the Emperor's Puffs to go.
7.The Eight
The 600-seat Market City yum cha hall above Paddy's Markets; book The Eight for trolley dim sum with a big group.
The Eight, on the third floor of Market City above Paddy's Markets in Haymarket, is the big-room option — a vast banquet and yum cha hall that sends trolleys of har gow, siu mai, barbecue pork buns and egg tarts through a crowd of several hundred at weekend lunch. It is built for scale rather than refinement: large round tables, a live-seafood tank, and a Cantonese banquet menu for the evenings. For a family celebration or a group that wants the full trolley experience, it does the job better than a small room could. Expect around AUD 35 to AUD 55 a head at yum cha. Book a weekend table for a group, arrive before 12.30, and flag the trolleys down as they pass.
Reserve direct; the har gow, the barbecue pork buns, the egg tarts, a steamer of rice-noodle rolls.
8.Dainty Sichuan
The CBD outpost of Australia's best-known Sichuan name; go to Dainty Sichuan for Chongqing noodles and a numbing-chilli fix.
Dainty Sichuan, in the World Square complex in the CBD, brings the chilli-and-Sichuan-peppercorn cooking that the Melbourne-born group made its name on to the Sydney lunch crowd. The Chongqing spicy noodles — thick wheat strands under a dark, aromatic chilli oil with a numbing peppercorn hit — are the dish to test it by, alongside the boiled-fish-in-chilli and the mapo tofu. It is a fluorescent, fast-turning room rather than a destination dining hall, and that is the right setting for the food. A bowl of noodles is under AUD 25 and a full table of mains lands around AUD 40 to AUD 60 a head. Walk in for lunch, and order more rice than you think you need.
Walk in; the Chongqing spicy noodles, the boiled fish in chilli oil, the mapo tofu, plenty of rice.
How Sydney eats Chinese
Sydney's Chinese food clusters in three places. Haymarket's Chinatown, the historic centre, holds the yum cha halls — The Eight, Emperor's Garden, Golden Century's old turf — and the Darling Square edge where XOPP sits. The CBD proper keeps the modern rooms: Mr Wong in its laneway, Spice Temple under Bligh Street, and now Golden Century reborn inside Crown at Barangaroo. The Inner West, around Enmore and Ashfield, is where the regional and home-style cooking lives, from Queen Chow's Cantonese to the Shanghai and Sichuan kitchens of Ashfield. The thread is that the best rooms still cook to a Chinese clientele rather than a tourist one — which is why the food has held its standard.
Practically, yum cha is a weekend-lunch ritual best started before noon, when the trolleys are full; live seafood is sold by weight at the day's price, so agree the kilo cost before the mud crab leaves the tank. The Merivale and Hunter St rooms want a booking several days out and far more for a banquet; the Chinatown halls take walk-ins midweek but fill on weekends; and the Sichuan noodle houses are walk-in by nature. For the wider city, the full Sydney dining guide maps every neighbourhood, and our best dim sum in Sydney guide goes deeper on the yum cha halls.
Where not to look for it
Skip these for a real Sydney Chinese meal
The pan-Asian rooms that get filed under "Chinese." China Doll on the Finger Wharf and Cho Cho San in Potts Point are good restaurants, but they cook a pan-Asian carte — Japanese, Thai and Chinese flavours mixed — not the regional Chinese cooking this guide is about. Go to them for harbour views and small plates, not for Cantonese roast meats or a Sichuan banquet.
The food-court "Chinese" on the tourist strips. The laminated-menu shops around Circular Quay and the picture-menu counters on the Darling Harbour promenade cook to a generic, sweetened standard. For the real thing at a similar price, ride two stops to Haymarket and eat yum cha at Emperor's Garden or noodles at Dainty Sichuan instead.
Frequently asked
What is the best Chinese restaurant in Sydney?
For modern Cantonese with a dining room to match, Mr Wong on Bridge Lane is the city's benchmark — Dan Hong's char siu-marinated toothfish and Peking duck draw a nightly crowd to the 240-seat basement. For live-tank seafood the Wong family's Golden Century, reborn at Crown Sydney in January 2025, still cooks the XO pippies that made its name. For regional heat rather than Cantonese polish, Neil Perry's Spice Temple runs Sichuan, Hunan and Yunnan dishes in a CBD basement. Choose by mood: Cantonese gloss, seafood theatre or chilli.
Where is the best yum cha in Sydney?
Haymarket's Chinatown remains the centre of Sydney yum cha. The Eight inside Market City sends trolleys of har gow, siu mai and barbecue pork buns through a 600-seat room, and Golden Century at Crown does an 80-plus dish weekend service with live seafood. Emperor's Garden has fed Chinatown since 1979 and is the place for old-school dim sum and its custard Emperor's Puffs. Arrive before noon on a weekend — the best trolleys empty fast and the queues build by 12.30.
Did Golden Century in Sydney close?
The original Golden Century on Sussex Street closed in 2021 after roughly three decades as Sydney's late-night seafood institution. The Wong family reopened it on Level 3 of Crown Sydney in Barangaroo on 20 January 2025, with a ten-metre live tank and the original menu of XO pippies, mud crab and abalone steamboat. The group also runs XOPP by Golden Century in Darling Square, a more casual Cantonese spin-off built around the same live-seafood cooking.
How much does a Chinese meal cost in Sydney?
It splits sharply by room. Mr Wong, Spice Temple and Golden Century run to roughly AUD 80 to AUD 140 a head once live seafood, a banquet or a good bottle arrives, because mud crab and lobster are weighed at the market rate. Queen Chow and XOPP land around AUD 55 to AUD 90 with roast meats and a few shared plates. Chinatown yum cha at The Eight or Emperor's Garden is AUD 35 to AUD 55 a head, and a bowl of Chongqing noodles at Dainty Sichuan is under AUD 25. Live seafood is priced by weight, so confirm the kilo price before the kitchen sources it.
Do you need to book Chinese restaurants in Sydney?
Yes for the sit-down rooms. Mr Wong, Spice Temple, Golden Century and Queen Chow fill on weekends and through summer — book several days ahead through Merivale, Hunter St Hospitality or the Crown site, longer for a large banquet. Yum cha at The Eight and Emperor's Garden is walk-in friendly midweek but worth booking for a weekend table of six or more. Dainty Sichuan and the Chinatown noodle houses take walk-ins. For a banquet, order the seafood or duck when you reserve so the kitchen can set it aside.
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