Seven words. It’s all you need to remember before even looking at the menu at the legendary Golden Century. ‘Pippies in XO sauce with crispy noodles’. It’s a sentence you won’t regret, and one of the best Cantonese dishes on the planet – and few, if anyone does it better Down Under than Golden Century. Of course, locking in one dish is easy, while perusing the menu of some 30-odd pages can take some time, but really, you can’t go wrong. Open from lunch until 4am daily, it’s the hangout of the cities chefs after hours, the fuel of the CBD by day, and the dinner of all and sundry by night. It’s brightly lit, there’s a wall of tanks filled with live seafood, and the service is fast and furious, but the good times and cracking food roll on well into the wee hours. 

Cold cut cucumber with garlic sauce gets things started, then a hot and sour soup – where prawns and bean curd shine, while for the adventurous there are marinated duck chins and tongues – try them, they’re wonderful. Braised lobster with ginger and shallots is a treat, and so too whole abalone with oyster sauce. For those on more of a realistic budget, there are prawns with a real kick, sautéed Sichuan style, or you might want to share a whole coral Trout, steamed with ginger and soy. It’s one of the best fish you can eat. There’s roast duck, mapu tofu, crispy skin chicken and more. So grab a group – get a round table with a lazy Susan and fill it to the brim – and let the good times roll.

Must eat dish: Pippies in XO with crispy noodles