Perry’s Spice Temple has swapped their lunch offering to a yum cha service, seven days a week.

This though, this is new wave Yum Cha.

Sure, it has all the hallmarks of your traditional Chinese menu – small plates, excellent prices, chicken feet – but with a high-end twist.

Gone are the clanky trolleys rolling around, presumably so the kitchen has full control over when you get your dishes. Dishes do come fast and furious, however, and you can order as you go.

Each dish, Perry tells us at lunch on Friday, has been very carefully crafted so that it has it’s own distinct, delicate flavour.

The workmanship is evident – the kitchen has been working hard to get the texture of the rice rolls just so. There are house made sauces – the vibrant orange chilli sauce is chock-full of jalapenos and chipotles, clean and crisp and a perfect accompaniment to many of the tastes.

The produce is top notch you can be assured the poultry is organic and the seafood sustainable. If there was ever a yum cha joint in which to try the steamed tripe with black bean, it has to be here.

There are tasty dishes galore: the Tea smoked duck ($7.50) and the drunken chicken ($7) spring to mind. The steamed pork rib with black olives on rice rolls ($6) are tender and perfect for getting hands messy.

But while we would expect nothing less of all of the above from Spice Temple, the most telling dishes of all are the classics. When you bite into a soft, sticky BBQ pork bun or the creamy egg tart, you realise how truly far from Chinatown you really are.

Where: Crown Complex | 8 Whiteman St, Southbank
Bookings: 03 8679 1888
When: Yum Cha daily from 12noon-3pm, Monday to Sunday
Details: spicetemplemelbourne.com

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