Late night dining is so right at Mr Wong
Sydney CBD’s late night dining options have improved markedly in recent years. Rewind to the dark post-Covid year or two and the pickings were slim for those hankering for a meal after 9pm. It was Maccas, KFC or a faint hope of finding something open in Chinatown.
What a difference a few years makes. Sure, Sydney’s not Barcelona or Lisbon, Singapore or Hong Kong but we’re getting there and it’s a couple of the city’s established big guns that are leading a late-night dining renaissance that goes beyond a quick bowl of pasta or a trumped-up bar snack.
Among these institutions is Mr Wong which is a Lunch Magazine favourite and on a recent visit rolled out a splendid Cantonese-style meal after 10pm.
The beauty of Mr Wong is it’s so quintessentially Sydney in it magically mixes the vacuousness of preening D-list influencers with actual celebrities, business leaders and prominent Sydney underworld figures.
One reason for its sheer Sydneyness, is it’s part of Justin Hemmes sprawling Merivale empire which seems to have a venue catering for everyone ranging from private school kiddies with fake IDs to gamblers, clubbers and fine diners to those recently returned from Turkey with a new hairline.
Interestingly, my dining companion shared her interest in heading to Turkey for a nose job and as I’m rather folliculary challenged I suggested we might be able to negotiate some sort of cut price cosmetic surgery double deal on the Bosphorus. We’re no longer together.
Be that as it may, our visit to Mr Wong was indeed a happy one. Hidden away on Bridge Lane in the city, it’s an incongruously large space spread over two levels where the service is attentive and everyone pretty much keeps to themselves although the aforementioned influencers want you to look at them.
My former love interest and I arrived relatively hot with a voracious hunger at around 9.50pm on a Sunday night after an afternoon and evening of cocktails and wine.
To start, a flavour bomb of salt and pepper calamari followed immediately by half a Peking Duck with the requisite pancakes which we slathered with hoisin sauce and greedily woofed down.
It put a halt to our hunger. The pancakes filled with delicious duck, tangy sauce and shallots offered a sweet, unctuous mouth-filling flavour treat of pure pleasure all washed down with a rich 2022 Curly Flat Chardonnay from Victoria’s Macedon Ranges.
Pleasantly sated from a couple of courses we moved on to the Steamed Glacier 51 Ginger toothfish which was a late-night revelation. Almost palate-cleansing in its delicacy, it’s a gorgeous dish gently flavoured in a light ginger consommé.
To finish, Queensland stir-fried King Prawns done in an XO sauce with a glass of 2021 Mac Forbes ‘Woori Yallock Ferguson’ Pinot Noir to wash it down. A near perfect end to a late Summer Sydney weekend.
