Duk Inn is a Cantonese Chinese restaurant in Newtown that is a real find along busy King Street. It is the first restaurant from owners Johnathan Wu and his partner Tracey Rhodes. He comes from a family who have owned Chinese restaurants for decades across Sydney and Hong Kong. Duk Inn is also a family business with his mum in the kitchen and his cousins on the floor. And Dear Reader, there's a secret menu that you just have to know about before you go!
Knowing that I have a delicious Chinese dinner coming up got me through a busy week and I was so looking forward to it. Sophia and I meet Janice at Duk Inn. The restaurant is lit up with neon lights with one wall as shrine to cats and maneki-neko while the other wall features pictures of Hong Kong. It has a casual very Newtown bar vibe with stools to sit on and a downstairs and upstairs section.
Owners Johnathan and his partner Tracey opened Duk Inn 7 months ago in January 2024. While it looks like a bar, the food menu is exactly what my Hong Kong born father would love. Johnathan's family originally comes from Guangzhou which is the birthplace of Cantonese cuisine. Johnathan's mum Shao Qiong Sun was 1 of 6 daughters and she started cooking at the age of 14. Johnathan explains, "My mother’s side were street side merchants that sold food prepped at home and then went around the surrounding areas on foot/pushbike to sell the cooked meats."
When the family migrated to Australia in the early 90s, his grandparents opened up a small all in one restaurant, convenience store and tobacconist in Carlton with a Chinese menu with 200 different items. In 2004 his parents opened up their first Chinese restaurant in Burwood and after the couple split, his mother opened up a takeaway shop in Hurstville that was focused on Cantonese BBQ meats and from 2009 to 2014 she and Johnathan's uncle Ben opened various Chinese restaurants offering family style Chinese food in Riverwood and Kingsford. Johnathan's mother Shao Qiong Sun turns 62 this year and she is the barbecue chef here who works alongside their wok chef Chef Kuang. Johnathan learned how to cook barbecue from her after he learned his trade as a mechanic but decided that the world of mechanics was not for him.
As the name suggests, Duk Inn offers Peking duck but also a range of Cantonese classics like mud crab, fish balls as well as Zhang Shan Sui Mei roast meats like char siu and crispy skin Siu Yuk roast pork belly. The roast meats are what Johnathan's family have been making in their restaurants for decades.
To start Janice has a VLT ice lemon tea while Sophia and I opt for two mystery mocktails made to order. Sophia chooses "sweet" while I choose "sour" and mine comes out and it's actually perfect for me. Sophia's cocktail reminds her of lollies.
All of the mud crab needs to be ordered 24 hours in advance. While there are four types of sauces on the menu (Typhoon Shelter, Garlic Butter, Singaporean Sweet and Sour and Ginger Shallot) there is also one secret menu sauce: Singaporean black pepper. I'm here to tell you that it's brilliant and I would definitely order this again. I've had black pepper steak overseas and for some reason black pepper hasn't really taken off here as a sauce but it's so full of flavour and gets into all of the crevices. The crab itself is a superb specimen with super meaty claws with sweet, delicious crab meat. Even the roe under the carapace is delicious as they've fried it until crisp. The secret menu items came about when they decided to do "F&( Around Fridays" or Si Fut Hun.* Johnathan explains that this is Cantonese slang for itchy buttocks where people can't sit still so they try something new.
Whatever you do, you also have to try the typhoon shelter chicken wings. The name Typhoon Shelter comes from a dish that was invented by people living in the Hong Kong transport boats docked in Hong Kong Harbour. They were forced to cook with what they had on hand because they were stuck in these Typhoon shelters. These crispy, meaty and very juicy wings are seasoned liberally with lots of garlic, ginger and a bit of chilli and they hit like nothing else. These are some of the best and most well seasoned wings I've had lately and I love the combination of flavours on top.
Johnathan explains that they based the Hong Kong style fishballs and siu mai are based on the fish balls at the 7 Eleven there. These are nice but the curry sauce is very mild and creamy and I prefer a sauce that is a bit more gutsy and punchy.
We all love the crunchy man tou buns that arrive piping hot. You dip these steamed and then deep fried buns into the sweetened condensed milk and it's crunchy, sweet and soft at the same time. Heaven.
It's always nice to have something refreshing and salad-y with a lot of fried food and the san choi bau hits the spot. It is made with char siu, duck mince, snow peas, vermicelli, carrot, wood ear mushroom with fresh, crunchy lettuce cups.
You can order either half or a whole Peking duck. It comes out on a wooden tray with the duck carved on parchment paper. Some pieces have skin and meat while others have just the skin (my preference). It also comes with a tray of condiments from sugar, hoi sin sauce, cucumber and shallot as well as a bowl of the Peking duck rice which is also really good with snow peas, carrots and cabbage.
The skin is so wonderfully crispy and while the skin is nice dipped in the sugar to balance the savoury, I love the classic hoi sin, cucumber and spring onion filled pancake (but I opt for just skin, the way I like it).
I usually prefer Char Siu over Siu Yuk because I sometimes don't like the pork flavour as Siu Yuk is simply seasoned with just salt but Duk Inn's Siu Yuk changes my opinion. The Siu Yuk skin is ridiculously crunchy and you can hear it when you bite into a piece. The pork flavour shines through and I keep going back for more.
Their version of char siu is actually made not with pork shoulder or neck but with pork belly which gives it that lusciousness and charring on the fat. The pork is marinated for 48 hours before being cooked and is served with a sticky, sweet sauce. The fatty pieces are so luscious and I especially enjoy the charred edges.
We are getting to the end of the mains and the Shantung chicken is a really tasty rendition. The chicken marylands are actually cooked twice so that stays moist. Johnathan explains, "Shantung chicken first starts off as a chicken Maryland that is marinated in our in house soy sauce, when it’s required to serve. Chef Kuang flash fries the skin to achieve the crispy skin texture, before serving up with the shantung sauce that he keeps the recipe to himself, unfortunately I don’t even know it as he won’t share. I believe it’s from his personal family as well."
The Vegemite beef is another off menu item and if you're a Vegemite fan then you definitely want to order this. The Scotch fillet beef is so tender and moreish. I've had Vegemite in Malaysian restaurants where it is more subtle and used as a salted caramel ingredient but this is resoundingly Vegemite in flavour. And even though none of us really eat Vegemite we can't stop but go back for more of this.
I love the taro duck "footballs" at yum cha and this taro roast duck is part of their winter menu and their version is done as a shareable slice with duck meat in the centre, taro and then a crispy coating on the outside. It's nice although I would have loved a bit more seasoning in the actual taro itself. There is a salt and pepper mixture on the side but the seasoning doesn't quite reach the taro centre. But the crispy coating on the outside and the soft filling on the inside has a nice contrast.
There are two desserts on the menu: a deep fried pandan ice cream and a tofu pudding. But even within the deep fried ice cream category there are a couple of secret menu flavours. There is also Vietnamese coffee and black sesame flavoured deep fried ice cream. We try all three but I love the original pandan because it's one of my favourite flavours but honestly they are all good depending on whether you like Vietnamese coffee or black sesame. They are deep fried with a coating of crushed up cornflakes and coconut for extra crunch. While some might see tofu pudding as a runner up prize compared to the heady delights of deep fried ice cream, I absolutely love this after a rich meal. The tofu is soft and silken and comes with a pitch perfect ginger syrup.
So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever tried Peking duck with sugar and if so what did you think of it? And what food do you really look forward to eating out? And have you ever tried Singapore black pepper crab?
NQN, Sophia and Janice dined as guests of Duk Inn but all opinions remain her own.
Duk Inn
194 King St, Newtown, 2024 NSW
Tuesday to Sunday: 5pm-10:30pm
Saturday and Sunday: Lunch 12pm-3pm
https://dukinn.com.au/
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