Yong Jing’s Kitchen Enlightenment

The menu cheerfully cherry-picks Chinese cuisine for dishes big on flavour yet complex and nuanced. In a pleasant room of glass-topped tables and bum-numbing tub stools, a hotpot of softly melting eggplant batons scattered with pork mince is piquant with fish sauce yet remarkably unfishy. Slivers of fat belly pork subtly enhance vegies decorating a spicy whole flounder Beijing-style. Salt-and-pepper tofu is textbook; simple cabbage in vinegar adds a tang. ‘Next time no menu, just the specials,’ counsels the helpful host, who is responsible for the terrific homemade XO sauce. Add the phenomenal good value factor and, yep, it’s enlightening.