Chin Chin

With high-profile chef Ben Cooper at the helm, serious food with intense flavours and a pop art-inspired dining room, it's no wonder Chin Chin is one of Melbourne's hottest restaurants. And no surprise you'll wait for a table. Luckily, Go Go Bar downstairs is a destination in itself, with cocktails and well-designed drinking food - typified by pulled pork and slaw sliders punched up with sriracha sauce. Upstairs, the lively-and-loud dining space reflects the energy of Cooper's trademark big, brash flavour combinations. spice and sugar, heat and light. Kingfish sashimi, firm and fleshy, is a cool canvas for lashings of lime, chilli, Thai basil and coconut cream; crisp-skinned duck is taken to the edge with sesame salt, balanced by mandolined strips of pickled cucumber; even palm sugar ice-cream sundae is seasoned, here with salted honeycomb. The recurrent culinary special effects leave the senses reeling and deliver one hell of a thrill ride.