First China Diner, now China Doll, headed for Double Bay

Double Bay has become the unlikely epicentre in Sydney's Chinese restaurant revolution. With a Chinese restaurant revival in full swing citywide, the co-owner of China Doll is poised to follow his former business partners into the sparkling harbourside suburb.

Restaurateur Steve Anastasiou concedes he was "surprised" by Kingsley and Natasha Smith's bold play, which will see them launch a Double Bay branch of Bondi's China Diner in July.

Anastasiou, who has opened a string of on-trend venues – including China Doll, China Diner and China Lane – sold his stake in China Diner last year. While he stresses the China Diner name is "theirs to use" Anastasiou has his own long-held ambitions to get into the Double Bay market.

"A lot of our customers feel a bit intimidated bringing their kids to [China Doll] at the Wharf. The new restaurant will be a lot more casual and family orientated… I'm not going to call it China Doll, it'll be China something," he says. "We've been sworn to secrecy on the site, but there's another one in Rose Bay as well. So it'll be one or the other."

Either way, the odds will be short on China Bay as its moniker.

As we reported last week, Bondi's China Diner will open a satellite restaurant in Double Bay midyear, its impending expansion another boost for the once ailing, now booming harbourside food hub and the latest in a citywide Chinese restaurant revival. Restaurateur Kingsley Smith, who owns China Diner with wife Natasha, confirmed rumours they have snapped up an existing Double Bay restaurant.

He refused to reveal the site until the deal settles next month but it's believed to be on the Woolworths end of New South Head Road.

The China Diner move follows hot on the heels of last week's news that operators Eddie Levy and Adam Abrams are teaming up with Orazio D'Elia (Da Orazio in Bondi) on a new restaurant heading into the vacant Limoncello site on Bay Street. Smith argues China Diner's expansion follows a wider revival in fortune for Chinese food.

With Neil Perry announcing plans to open a Cantonese restaurant on Bridge Street in the city, and Merivale's Queen Chow rocking the inner-west, it is hard to argue. "Chinese used to be part of the Australia psyche. I think it fell out of favour because it was seen as unhealthy, but the new generation, like us, offer things like really dumplings full of greens. We've noticed home delivery really take in the past six months, and Double Bay is a hub for the eastern suburbs."