Enmore can now add late night dumplings, deep-fried crab and whole roast ducks to its dining dance card.
It's been a long time coming, but finally the old Queen Victoria Hotel, a pub of little note, is open as the Queen's Hotel and bringing high end Chinese food to Enmore.
It's the latest addition to the Merivale monopoly board that has seen them reinvent pubs in Coogee, Newport and Paddington. Plus there's another on the way in Alexandria next year.
But the exciting part isn't the slick new fit out with an old zinc bar top, or even the cocktail bar upstairs decked out like 1930's Hong Kong. It's the new dining room called Queen Chow where Patrick Friesen and Christopher Hogarth from Papi Chulo and Eric Koh of Mr Wong will be cooking Chinese classics. It's not supposed to be overly fancy - you'll recognise most things on the menu - but they are prioritising quality produce. You can expect South Australian pippies cooked with black bean, chilli and Tsingtao beer; salt and pepper cuttlefish; silken tofu with prawns and chilli bean mayo; whole roast duck with plum sauce; and deep-fried crab with garlic, chilli, black bean and pulp from soy beans.
There will also be a dedicated dim sum menu care of Koh, so you can get hangover dumplings until the wee small hours from their late night supper menu.
Things are about to change in this little pocket of the Inner West, and we suspect parking is going to get even harder, but we'll take the hit in exchange for dumplings and duck.
Queen's Hotel, 167 Enmore Rd, Enmore 2042.
Photograph: supplied