When the Sydney outposts of the world’s cheapest Michelin-starred restaurant, Hong Kong’s Tim Ho Wan, departed last year, a void was left in the city’s dim sum offering.

That is, until now.

Come February, a new 68-seat Cantonese restaurant, Canton! Canton!, will open on the vacated George Street site, with Jacky Chan as executive chef.

Chef Chan spent the past 28 years perfecting his dim sum craft under the tutelage of Hong Kong master chefs before working as head dim sum chef at the Shangri-La in Singapore and eventually joining Tim Ho Wan in 2016.

Both the menu and the interiors will take their cue from the restaurant’s namesake city, the provincial capital of Guangdong.

Opening from 11am daily, the restaurant will begin service with a yum cha experience focused on dim sum before serving barbecue meats and larger dishes later in the day. The one dish you have to order? Chan recommends the baked barbecue pork buns with pork prepared by a second-generation roastmaster and encased in a crisp pastry shell.

Dinner, meanwhile, will see the focus shift to individual hero dishes with a specially designed wine list to match. The dessert offering includes a steamed Malay cake, which takes the kitchen three days to prepare.

“We wanted to offer diverse menus that catered to Sydney’s unique dining culture,” says owner David Howe of The Jewel Pantry dining group.

On the design front, Howe has joined forces with interior designer Dorian McCartney of Hydra Design and architect Raymond Teo to transform the space into a vintage Cantonese street market, with booths inspired by opium beds.

The group also plans to reopen the Pitt Street Mall venue as Mr Fatt later this year, a Singaporean-Malaysian takeaway restaurant with a few seats, with more venues on the horizon.

“In a couple of months, my roast chef will be coming in from Singapore to cook the best Hainan rice in Sydney,” says Howe.