Yan, Wolli Creek

Yan is an Asian smokehouse restaurant with branches in Sydney and Melbourne. The Sydney branch is located on Arncliffe Road in Wolli Creek and has indoor and outdoor eating. There's a regular a la carte menu as well as a tasting menu and a vegan tasting menu for $68 a person. Find out what it's like and what is a must order at Yan!

Monica, Marco, Mr NQN and I were separately exhausted from a very busy Wednesday so we're happy to catch up at Yan in Wolli Creek. Yan has been open for 8 years now and it has taken me that long to visit (there was another attempt that had to be cancelled many years ago because friends were sick). We are greeted at the door by the owner Narada Kudinar and because Monica has eaten here before he greets her like a familiar friend. Narada started Yan with Chef Raymond Lim but Raymond left the business in 2018 and returned to China. Their Head Chef is Ewa Goralewski who has been with Yan since 2019. Before joining Yan she was at Dinner by Heston for 10 years with 5 years in London as pastry sous chef and 5 years in Melbourne as the head pastry chef. A couple of months ago Monica had won a competition on their Instagram naming a type of chilli and the prize was a dish of chilli prawns.

The smoking is all done in their combi oven, "We hot smoke everything. Essentially we use our combi oven as a smoke box. We put charcoal inside and feed it wood chips. The temperature hovers around 65-70°C/149-158°F inside while smoking. We use a combination of Apple, Cherry and Mesquite woods (lighter - heavier) depending on what we are smoking," explains Narada.

To drink I order a fresh coconut water while Monica has a house made honeydew soda which tastes just like fresh honeydew. Marco has a beer while Mr NQN has a house made yuzu ginger beer that has a nice amount of spicy ginger and isn't overly sweet.

We decide to go with a la carte dishes and start with the scallion pancake based on the Cong You Bing. Here it is served as a single small pancake that they've cut in half for us to share. It's super crispy and topped with battered enoki mushrooms, cucumber and peanut chilli sauce and it's an absolutely delicious start to our meal. My only regret is that we didn't get one (or two) whole pancakes per person because it's that good (and it's also vegan!).

And then out comes the dish that Monica won. Narada tells us that scorpion chillies are so spicy that they use just 2 grams of the chilli in 2 litres/4.2 pints of chilli sauce. The prawns are perfectly cooked and succulent and the chilli sauce has a nice hint of spice but isn't ever overly hot, you just get a nice dance of chilli on the tongue. The prawns come with the perfect accompaniment: house made fried bao that are so light and fluffy and perfect for mopping up the sauce. You can also order these baos steamed or fried which I recommend because there are some excellent sauces.

The smoke levels on each dish are varied with some having a light smoke while others a stronger smoke. This wintermelon is braised in a teriyaki based butter sauce and then finished on the grill and served on smoked almond cream with chilli oil is perhaps the smokiest item of the night. We end up dipping this in the stronger chilli sauce.

If Marco sees squid on the menu he has to order it and the fried squid ends up being one of my favourite dishes. I absolutely love black pepper sauce and they pair this wonderful sauce with the tenderest squid, cucumber ribbons and curry leaf. I could have eaten this whole dish by myself with some rice.

As soon as Monica and I saw smoked chicken katsu on the menu we had to order it. The chicken is smoked for 2 hours and then fried and the smoking on this is quite light but it's a nice twist. The chicken is crisp and golden on the outside but tender on the inside. It is paired with a spicy pepper mayonnaise and a sweet Chinese bbq sauce with chilli and spices and it's still juicy even with double cooking.

Narada explains, "The Lamb Ribs are inspired by fried cumin lamb ribs you find in a Xian/northern style Chinese restaurant. We make a dry rub from cumin and coriander and smoke the ribs using the mesquite wood." I love the soft, luscious and quite frankly fatty texture of lamb ribs and these sit on a bed of soft, sweet soy braised eggplant pieces and are topped with an Asian chimichurri. Most of the chimichurri falls off when you eat it but the lamb ribs are so good by themselves that it doesn't matter. The Asian chimichurri swaps out coriander for parsley, sesame oil instead of olive oil and ponzu instead of lemon juice.

Make sure to leave room for sides because not all of the main meat dishes come with vegetables but also because the sides are divine. The fried Brussels sprouts are a classic side dish done well with onion dressing and crispy fried onions on top. Not a scrap goes back to the kitchen.

Honestly I'm not a huge tofu skin or celery lover but I'm here to tell you that this is the unexpected favourite side of the night. This dish pairs tofu skin, compressed and brined celery, walnuts, plumped goji berries and a dressing made with sesame and Korean sweet chilli sauce. Not only are the vegetables crunchy and full of flavour but it's also light and a great counterpoint for smoked meat with the sweet sauce.

This olive rice has a delicious texture from chopped black olive vegetables and pickled mustard leaves. And although I haven't eaten this combination before somehow it feels instantly comforting and nostalgic.

Apparently everyone gets the coconut ice cream and we see a lot of these going out to each table. It's a hollowed out young coconut filled with coconut jelly and topped with a tower, and I mean a tower of coconut ice cream and toasted coconut flakes. The coconut ice cream is perfectly sweet and tastes of sweetened coconut cream and once you get through the ice cream you hit the coconut jelly below. The jelly isn't sweetened very much and goes well with the ice cream. I'd recommend sharing this among 4 people as it is huge and getting a separate bowl to lift the ice cream in to to access the jelly. Even with Mr NQN and Marco being massive sweet tooths we can't finish it.

Monica and I love the sound of the donut having grown up eating condensed milk out of a tube in the fridge. Narada tells us that he calls this a "Mixed race" dessert because as a kid he loved Donut King donuts and condensed milk but would ask for the donuts fresh out of the fryer. This one's a beauty. Dusted with cinnamon sugar and filled with a squirt of thick, glossy condensed milk custard we cut this into four and enjoy a mouthful of this hot, fresh donut.

So tell me Dear Reader, did you ever eat condensed milk out of the tube? And what do you think of the food here?

This meal was independently paid for.

Yan

G03/19 Arncliffe St, Wolli Creek NSW 2205

Wednesday to Saturday 5:30–10 pm

Sunday 12–3:30 pm, 5:30–10 pm

Monday & Tuesday closed

Phone: (02) 9599 8712

https://www.yanrestaurant.com.au/