MuLan Restaurant

On Elizabeth Street, in the thick of North Hobart's eating strip, a two-storey Chinese kitchen makes its case as something other than the usual suburban stalwart. The focus is Shanghai and Sichuan, cooked with a modern hand and plated in a more Western register, and the real interest lies in how thoroughly Tasmanian produce is folded in. Pan-fried dumplings are filled with local lamb and sharpened with aged black vinegar; pink ling turns up done Shanghai-style; the island's scallops appear where you might expect something imported. Alongside them sit the dishes that reward a return visit, a slow, sticky Chairman Mao pork belly and a Taiwan-style three-cup chicken, and a daytime yum cha running to dumplings, pork buns and a rotation of less familiar things. Spread across two floors with room for around seventy-five, the upstairs given over to larger tables and gatherings, it is set up for both a quiet dinner and a proper group occasion. The tone is warm and unhurried rather than white-tablecloth formal. What lifts it above the strip is that grounding in place: familiar regional Chinese cooking rerouted through a Tasmanian larder, so the menu tastes distinctly of where it is.