Star HouseChinese Restaurant

On Gouger Street, Adelaide's long-standing Chinatown strip, a Cantonese kitchen has kept the trolleys rolling since 2007. Yum cha runs daily, drawing from a roster well past ninety dim sum — har gow, siu mai, cheung fun and the rest arriving in the steady procession that marks a proper yum cha house — and the room has a reputation among locals for doing it a notch above its neighbours. A live-seafood tank anchors the dinner trade, mud crab, lobster and reef fish pulled and cooked to order in the Cantonese manner: ginger and shallot, salt and pepper, or steamed clean to let the freshness speak. Beyond that there is the full breadth of the tradition — roast and barbecue meats, clay-pot and hot-pot dishes, fish maw, soups and greens — served across a big, busy dining room with private spaces for banquets and functions. It opens seven days, lunch through late, the kind of dependable, family-friendly Cantonese address a city keeps returning to for weekend yum cha and celebration dinners alike. Come with numbers and order broadly; this is cooking built for a full table and a lazy Susan turning.