Niubi is an ambitious Asian fusion newbie in Melbourne's Chinatown

THEME: CHINATOWN

This time last year, bushfires were raging and the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission had just reported a mysterious pneumonia cluster. It wasn't long before Melbourne's Chinese hubs emptied and bushfire smoke wreathed hushed streets. Within a few weeks, Lunar New Year celebrations had been cancelled, Australia's border closed to China and ... well ... the year lurched on.

Australia's Asian – and particularly Chinese – community was hit first by COVID-19. The financial burden has been heavy; racism also reared its ugly head. Given all this, it's been heartening to see Chinese neighbourhoods come back to life and especially to see optimism expressed in new openings.

Niubi is one of those, an ambitious Asian fusion restaurant in a historic Chinatown building, with young owners who schooled up at nearby Crystal Jade. Co-owner Carr Lam says "integrity" and "humble" are their watchwords.

The menu plucks from Cantonese, Malaysian and Thai, as well as offering cheese-covered macaroni-studded mash-ups with anything-goes exuberance.

Hotpots and gloves-on crab dishes make this a great feast-with-friends place though there are "solo" noodle and rice dishes, too.

Stand-outs include prawn toast layered with salted duck egg custard in a kind of funky Malay-Aussie-yum-cha collision.

Curried fish head is a signature, fins on and fried hard, then added to big share bowls with greens, or served laksa-style with tofu puffs, braised eggplant, okra and noodles.

Black pork is also a specialty, roasted, chopped and tumbled in a dark soy glaze.

The name is Mandarin slang, most commonly translated as "f----ing awesome" but with show-off connotations. Driving a gold Rolls Royce? Niubi.

There's outdoor laneway dining, a ground floor kitchen bordered by gleaming roast ducks, and seating on two levels above.

The four-storey warehouse was the Wing Ching cafe from 1892, then it became Chung Wah in the 1920s, said to have been Melbourne's first Chinese restaurant frequented by white Australians. In 2010, it was Wing Loong when the building was gutted by fire.

Now it's a welcoming pan-Asian playhouse. As important as all that? Niubi is an emblem of our 2021 revitalisation.

Niubi

Address 11 Heffernan Lane, Melbourne, 03 8590 3003, niubi.com.au

Open Daily 11am-3pm, 5pm-late

Prices Snacks: $9.80-$15.80; Greens: $20.80-$28.80; Shared dishes: $20.80-$42.80

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