Taste of China

There's nothing more authentic than a Chinese meal you can get all through the late supper hours. The culture doesn't sleep there and it doesn't sleep here either, and long after the rest of Flinders Street has gone quiet the lights are on and the woks are still going.

The seafood mixes in with the best spice combinations of centuries of history, brought here to the heart of Melbourne and set down without being softened for anyone on the way.

The room is small and it fills fast and the pace assumes you're going somewhere afterwards, which most people are. But nobody hurries you, and somebody eating alone at nine gets the same welcome as a table of six.

Start with the century egg and pork congee. It's soft, it's seasoned properly, and it tastes like something that was made rather than assembled.

The pork and water chestnut dumplings come plump and juicy with a bit of crunch running through them, and the braised pork noodles are cooked down far enough to go tender while keeping their chew. The rice noodles take on more flavour than rice noodles usually manage.

Everything arrives fast and hot out of a kitchen you can hear from every table. Nothing sits and nothing gets reheated, and that speed is part of what you came for.

Ask for a plate of greens alongside whatever else you're having. They come out glossy and hot with enough garlic in them that you'll order a second before you've finished the first. It's bright and functional with nothing on the walls to look at, so the food ends up being the only thing happening, which suits it. You'll find it on Flinders Street near the station, which makes it the place you end up before a show or on the way home, and there's a particular comfort in knowing it'll still be going when everything else has closed.