Karaoke restaurant Yum Sing House is coming to Melbourne's CBD

Come on, admit it. You've always wanted to eat Cantonese dishes and sing karaoke in a venue inspired by 1960s Hong Kong. Well, prepare to have your prayers answered.

Stage one of Yum Sing House from TANG Australia (the team behind nightclubs Ms Collins and Bond Melbourne) opens in Melbourne's Sutherland Place mid-June. Five karaoke rooms will follow a month later.

Yum Sing – the name is both a play on words and how to say "cheers" in Cantonese – is a bright green building between two skyscrapers. It used to be home to the somewhat liberal Hugs&Kisses Club, and far-less-liberal headquarters of the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes.

The project has been in the works since March 2018. Zwei interior architects have removed the mounted stags' heads and installed a 90-seat restaurant in primary colours. Geometric LED strip lighting and movie posters are suspended over green tables (a nod to mahjong boards), while a switchboard above the kitchen can be programmed to flick between specials and personalised messages.

Publican Iain Ling (The Lincoln) has come on board as a consultant.

Head chef Aiven Lee (ex Longrain, Mamasita and Becco) will re-imagine traditional Cantonese dishes, preparing snacks such as crab xiao long bao and prawn toast fancied up with caviar, and mains like typhoon shelter king prawns. Expect milk and lemon tea-based cocktails, as well as a bottle locker at the karaoke-level bar.

The five karaoke rooms are themed after Hong Kong neighbourhoods. The largest is Happy Valley, suitable for 25 people with an 85-inch TV. Songs will be available for instant download, while nibbles and drinks will be ordered via an app.

Yum Sing House will open for dinner Monday to Saturday from mid-June.

22 Sutherland Street, Melbourne, yumsinghouse.com