The dan-dan soup is back at TBC by Grape Garden Beijing Cuisine

For a long time, Grape Garden's dan-dan soup was my favourite noodle dish. A bowl, bigger than a heavyweight boxer's head, full of fat and chewy noodles, a rubble of minced pork, and brain-tingling, rust-red broth. It was a soup you could get properly lost in and it was my lunch once a week when I worked near Chatswood's Lemon Grove Shopping Centre.

For almost 25 years, Beijing expats Gao Lun and Jie Zhang cooked some of Sydney's best northern Chinese food in their tiny food-court kitchen. Gao would thwack hand-pulled ropes of noodles on his ferociously clean counter, while Jie rolled flaky shallot pancakes to be fried in duck fat. They didn't renew their lease in 2020 and retirement seemed to be beckoning for a couple who opened their first restaurant in Marrickville in 1989.

So when the news came that Grape Garden had resurfaced in Kings Cross, I raided the home cellar for our best rosé and headed to Bayswater Road immediately. The dan-dan was back.

The new eatery, a modest hole-in-the-wall, opened in September just off Darlinghurst Road. There are a few tables indoors, but you'll likely be eating under bright lights outside with a view of the Holiday Inn; Mr Wong it ain't, but the people-watching is fantastic. (I should also note that the only loos are in the New Hampton Hotel across the road.)

Gao and Jie's son, Ecca, manages the floor, and the "TBC" prefix was his idea. There's no official meaning behind the initials, but he says it was partly inspired by friends always asking if Grape Garden would ever reopen: "To be confirmed" was the stock response. (Customers have also suggested "True Beijing Cuisine".)

Ecca is a charming and highly efficient host, happy to pop the bottle caps on beers while guiding other guests through the menu, which can be attacked in multiple ways.

Dumplings are a major focus, poached or pan-fried, with lacy bottoms and stuffed with punchy, one-two combinations, such as pork and chives, beef and celery, and lamb and zucchini. They're a cut above some of the greasy, get-'em-out-quick jiaozi you may have encountered at other Sydney noodle houses, being lighter, almost delicate. 

San xian dumplings (six for $17) – a combination of pork, prawn and chives – are the highlight, deeply savoury and addictively seasoned.

Poached xian dumplings (six for $17) are the silkiest of the lot, though, combining the magic of lamb and ling, the fish scraped and pounded so it dissolves on impact with your tongue, and Jie's skilled hands. We pay an extra dollar to have our jiaozi served in a neon chilli oil of high-octane flavour. Bring your own riesling: ice buckets are provided.

A table of students orders dumplings only and knocks back Cloudy Bay with intent. Good on 'em. Next to us, two locals sit on Carlton Draught longnecks and prawn fried rice ($26). Meanwhile, I'm inhaling the dan-dan soup ($19.80). It's still a hit – simultaneously a hug and a slap in the face – boldly spiced with chilli paste and slightly numbing from Sichuan pepper. Memories of Chatswood come flooding back.

You could share the soup and hand-pulled noodles with Sichuan-spiced shredded pork and velvety wood-ear mushrooms ($23.80) and leave feeling pretty sated, maybe with a cold dish from the starter menu in tow: refreshing and super-garlicky smashed cucumber ($13), say; pickled savoy cabbage ($13); a salad of yuba (bean curd skin) and almost shockingly green celery ($13); or shredded chicken in cooling, nutty sesame sauce ($13).

Or you could order a duck. It's $110 for a full bird, $60 for half, with steamed pancakes, slivered shallots and a shiny pool of house-made tianmian sauce, which is like hoisin but thicker and richer. It's a fine roast duck, certainly worth opening a decent pinot for, with crisp, bronzed skin and pinkish meat that's soft and self-assured. Put your order in the day before or expect a 45-minute wait while it's prepared.

I've been to the great Grape Garden comeback three times, and while the menu is short compared to other Chinese restaurants, on each visit I feel I'm only scratching the surface. 

Zha jiang mian ($19.80) – Beijing's signature noodle dish and a distant cousin of spaghetti bolognese – demands attention, as does a viscous pork-bone gravy noodle soup ($19.80), which is set to be the feel-good hit of winter; northern Chinese food is engineered to keep you warm, after all. 

TBC? How about "To Be Continued"? 

Vibe: No-frills dining for dumplings and noodles with walloping flavour

Go-to dish: San xian dumplings in Sichuan chilli oil

Drinks: BYO only (corkage $10 per wine bottle, $3 per beer)

Cost: About $60 for two

This review was originally published in Good Weekend magazine