What’s the flavour of Chinatown in Australia in 2019? Chinese, yes, but more than that. Fast-casual Japanese simmers along Russell Street in Melbourne, while the intersection of Campbell and Pitt in Sydney is the heart of Thai Town. And the definition of Chinese has become richer and more nuanced; when these centres were established, they were largely Cantonese, catering initially to men who had migrated from southern China to seek their fortunes in the goldfields of Ballarat and Bathurst. Today Mandarin is spoken as much as Cantonese and you’ll catch accents from Sichuan province, Hunan, Yunnan, Xinjiang and Shaanxi in streets lined with Hong Kong-style bakeries, Shanghai bun shops and Taiwanese fried-chicken stalls.

In both Melbourne and Sydney these days it’s probably more realistic to speak of Chinatowns plural, too, what with the density of the Chinese populations (and the density of places to get good Chinese food) in suburbs such as Box Hill, Chatswood and Hurstville. And there is, of course, excellent Chinese food to be had outside these centres, just as there’s very good non-Chinese food to be had in the Chinatowns themselves. But for practical purposes, when we speak of Chinatown in Melbourne we’re essentially talking about the blocks radiating out from Lonsdale, Little Bourke, Russell and Exhibition streets, and in Sydney it means Haymarket – the blocks around Hay, Campbell, Goulburn, Harbour, Sussex, Dixon and George streets. These are parts of the cities rich in great food; they’re home to some of our longest-serving and best-loved dining institutions, and they’re still so dynamic that new flavours are always on the up. Here’s a lazy-Susan banquet of a few of our favourites.

With its perfectly unreconstructed décor, and a cohort of staff as polished as the lustrous timber-work, the Drum could be mistaken for something frozen in time. But don’t be fooled. You can set your watch by the quality of its Cantonese classics – superb crisp-skinned chicken, Peking duck served with care, outstanding crab – yet the restaurant wears its 40-plus years lightly, its wine list sparkling and the menu still able to surprise, whether it’s with a snack of wild barramundi crackling tossed with spiced salt, or double-boiled soup with goji berries and ginger given an Aussie twist with Flinders Island wallaby tail. 17 Market Lane, Melbourne.

On first glance, not much about this hole in the wall screams ‘smash hit’, whether it’s the setting (in an unremarkable arcade), the cuisine (from Shandong, a region not otherwise well represented in Australian restaurants), or the capital letters in the middle of the name (the ’90s are a long way behind us, people). Chalk it up to the power of mackerel dumplings. There are other good things on the menu, but the mackerel is where it’s at, whipped to a mousse, shot through with coriander, ginger and chives, and offered simply boiled or potstickerstyle, crisped up on the bottom Mid City, 7/200 Bourke St, Melbourne.

Did somebody say wontons? These slippery bundles of pork swaddled in pale-yellow wrappers, made fiery with chilli oil, are entirely worth the collateral damage they can inflict on your blouse or shirtfront. HuTong’s work in this department knows few rivals in Melbourne. If you prefer things a little easier to convey from bowl to mouth, the northern-style spinach dumplings and the airy crystal dumplings packed with prawn meat are more than worthy. 14-16 Market Lane, Melbourne.

Let’s spice things up a bit. It’s no secret that Dainty Sichuan does the best Sichuan food in the southern hemisphere, and while many fans prefer to visit the South Yarra mothership, Chinatown is now home to a range of Dainty options. There are venues specialising in hotpot, skewers and noodles among them, but the branch at 149 Lonsdale Street, decorated with vigour in gold, timber and red, is perhaps the best bet for the full Dainty 360. If the hotpots aren’t your bag, go the benchmark ma po tofu, which marries melting beancurd with minced pork and a nicely balanced hit of red chilli and numbing Sichuan pepper. 149 Lonsdale St, Melbourne.

Does Hong Kong Cantonese food get any better or more fun than dim sum? Does yum cha in Chinatown get any more desirable than Secret Kitchen? Could the chefs possibly be playing for Instagram likes with the flair they put into the presentation, what with some buns tinted black with squid ink and others sculpted to resemble mushrooms, or happy pigs? No matter. They more than deliver for the palate as well as the eye. 222 Exhibition Street, Melbourne.

You want a no-fuss, no-muss restaurant where the beers are cold, the XO-sauce pipis are hot and the welcome is perfectly room-temperature? This latenight landmark is for you. The stalwarts of the menu for the Melbourne hospitality professionals who flock here after service are Hong Kong classics – seek out the likes of the pork-belly hotpots and the chicken and jellyfish salad and you’re sorted. 204 Little Bourke St, Melbourne.

Would you care to take a crash-course in the food of the Uyghurs, the Turkic people from Xinjiang province in China’s west? Dolan is a fine place to start (or continue) your education. Uyghur food is typically influenced by the meeting of European, South Asian and East Asian cultures, and is usually halal, so there’s typically lots of lamb, cumin and garlic, breads served with or instead of rice, as well as wheat noodles. All the classics are here at Dolan, from spicy lamb skewers, chilled cucumber and garlic, and soups with handmade noodles that make a fine feast for one or two to whole roast lamb fit for a party. 166 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne.

Golden Century’s pipis in XO sauce.

Xi’an is the capital city of Shaanxi province, the last stop on the Chinese end of the Silk Road. Biang biang are flat wheat noodles about an inch wide, pleasingly irregular in their texture. Teamed with a serve of the Chinese proto-pork burger called rou jia mou, and a can of Ice Peak, China’s answer to Fanta, they make up the Shaanxi equivalent of a Happy Meal, only with no toy and way more chilli oil. Get into it. Shop 39/1 Dixon St, Sydney.

There’s plenty of players in Sichuan Sydney right now – Dainty Sichuan’s newish Noodle Express branch at World Square notable among them. Spicy Joint definitely rivals Dainty in the memorable-name stakes. It’s part of a chain that draws huge crowds back in China (the queues are “legendary and well deserved”, as Time Out Shanghai puts it) and the substantial Sydney outpost is no exception. The prices are pretty decent, so feel free to order up big on chilled noodles in peanut sauce and poached chicken loaded with sesame, chilli and Sichuan pepper. 25-29 Dixon St, Sydney.

Can you picture a universe in which Greg Evans, riding high on the celebrity he found hosting Perfect Match, the great Australian ’80s dating game show, decides to leverage his fame by opening a string of Greg Evans-branded restaurants around the world? We can only wonder. But Meng Fei, the host of If You Are the One, the most-watched dating show in the world, has made a reality of his dream of bringing the flavours of his hometown, Chongqing, to the wider world. The Chongqing noodle soup is the hot signature, but there’s much to be said for the Meng take on dan dan noodles. 1909 Dining Precinct, level 3, Market City, 9-13 Hay St, Sydney.

There’s a lot going on in Yunnan. Sitting at the intersection of Burma, Laos, Vietnam, Tibet and Sichuan, this province is wildly diverse in landscape, climate, culture and, of course, food. That diversity is borne out in the flavours that meet on Spring’s cute, hand-illustrated menu – shreds of potato are fried to a crunchy pancake, peaches adorn the crisp pork loin, and smoked plum juice enlivens the drinks list. And all of this is complemented, for some reason, by a side of Buffalo wings. Dive in. 215a Thomas St

Home for many years to the mighty Kam Fook, the top floor of the Market City shopping centre is almost a sacred site for Sydney Chinese food fans. These days it’s called The Eight, and after a bit of time in the wilderness it has reclaimed its reputation as one of the top yum-cha palaces in the city, the list of dishes nearly as expansive as the sprawling and attractively lit dining room. You can no more tell another person how they ought to order dim sum than you can tell them how to drive their car, but there’s much to be said here at least for going big on the steamed things and the greens – dumplings bulging with prawns, scallops, chicken and pork, with a heap of Chinese broccoli in oyster sauce. Level 3, Market City, 9-13 Hay St, Sydney.