Lazy Susan'sEating House

Darwin is a long way from Guangzhou, which is part of what makes this Cavenagh Street room feel like a small act of devotion. The kitchen builds its reputation on Cantonese roast meats, all lacquered duck, char siu and crackling pork carved the old way, served alongside handmade dumplings and a yum cha selection that gives the Top End a taste rarely found this far north. It is billed, without much argument locally, as the city's favourite Chinese restaurant, and the format is generous and unfussy: share plates designed for a table of friends working through the menu with cold beer and lazy-Susan momentum. Dinner runs seven nights, evenings only, in a comfortable city-centre space that keeps a dedicated function and karaoke room for the birthdays and long celebrations that inevitably follow. There is nothing precious here. The appeal is consistency and craft, roast meats done properly, dumplings folded by hand, a warm welcome, in a town where a good Cantonese kitchen is worth holding onto. Come hungry, come in a group, and let the platters keep arriving until the table runs out of room.