3 hours ago
3
A well-known restaurant from China has picked Melbourne for its first Australian location, and it’s already turning heads. With loyalty discounts and a polished feel, it’s good news for fans of Peking duck.
Melbourne’s Chinese dining landscape has been defined in the past decade by restaurants mastering distinct culinary lanes, from fiery Sichuan hot pots to cumin-scented north-eastern skewers. But a new arrival in Hawthorn East, Dayali, is revealing how modern metropolitan China actually eats today – and the local diaspora is already very much on board.
Founded in Beijing in 1997, Dayali is a corporate hospitality juggernaut with more than 70 branches across China and Canada. It quietly opened its first Australian outpost on Camberwell Road in April.
Translating literally to “Big Duck Pear”, the brand is famous in its homeland for its pan-regional approach to Chinese cuisine. Rather than specialising in a single province’s food, the menu is an aggregation of regional greatest hits.
The venue operates entirely outside Melbourne’s usual hospitality hype cycle. The management team is largely unfamiliar with local food publications, and the elusive owners are currently too busy managing service to sit down for an interview. Dinner reservations are booked out for the next month, and chances of a walk-in table are exceptionally slim.
Beyond the sheer demand, what’s more noteworthy is Dayali’s business model. It’s based on a membership system that operates much like Costco’s. Diners pay an upfront $50 annual fee to unlock a 10 to 20 per cent discount on every dish.
Restaurant reviews, news and the hottest openings served to your inbox.
“It is a loyalty system everyone in China understands,” venue manager Mr Yi says, speaking in Mandarin. “Having dinner here just once is enough to make up the membership fee.”
For diners chasing that cost-performance value, the dining experience and presentation definitely punch above the price tag.
The undisputed anchor of the menu is the traditional Beijing roast duck, prepared using the gualu method where the bird hangs over an open flame. This ensures heat circulates evenly, rendering the fat and achieving that glass-like skin. It is then sliced to order and served with cucumber, spring onion, pancakes and rose sugar.
“The pancakes come with parchment between each slice to avoid them drying out,” Yi adds.
However, he encourages diners to look beyond the signature bird. His recommendations include crisp dried shredded potato, which appears to stand upright on the plate; made-to-order steamed glutinous rice with pork ribs; and a bubbling fish head stew with a youtiao (crispy Chinese breadstick) the size of a sourdough loaf resting beside it. To finish, diners are steered toward house-made pastries shaped like miniature golden pears – a playful nod to the brand’s name.
The restaurant’s footprint matches the ambition of the menu. Within a red-brick building with sleek black trim next door to a Dan Murphy’s, the polished, modern space is split in two. To one side, soaring windows frame sculptural pendant lights in an open area for casual, smaller tables. To the other, timber slatted screens partition the dining room, providing intimate pockets for groups.
Dayali is a fascinating glimpse into the future of globalised Chinese dining. Those wanting to see it for themselves will need to be strategic: online dinner bookings are limited to larger groups and, while weekday lunches are usually available, your best bet is to walk in and make a booking in person.
“We don’t actually want publicity,” Yi says. “We want word of mouth, people who really like this to recommend us to their friends and so on.”
Open lunch and dinner daily
169 Camberwell Road, Hawthorn East, dayali.com.au
