Golden Century BBQ in Darling Square Exchange – with its window display of succulent roast ducks and chickens, and slabs of roast pork belly – transports patrons to streetside Hong Kong.

That was precisely the intention.

“For someone from Hong Kong, the smell of a Cantonese barbeque shop is unmistakeable,” Billy Wong of the Golden Century Group tells Broadsheet. “It’s so hard to describe. It’s the meats coming out of the oven, the ducks being roasted and chopped up in front of you. It’s the spices, the marinades.”

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Here you’ll find Cantonese barbeque classics: roast duck and soya chicken served half or whole, and signature barbeque pork or crisp roast pork belly, which come in standard or large sizes. Rice, dry egg noodle or soup noodles come on the side, plus there’s a selection of dim sum: pork siu mai, prawn har gow, barbeque pork buns and bright green gai lan with oyster sauce. The famous XO sauce is available as a side to mix through the noodles.

“After Covid, a lot of people wanted comfort food. People missed flavours from Hong Kong, and they wanted a Cantonese barbeque that was done really well,” says Billy, who is co-owner with his parents, Eric and Linda Wong. Billy oversees BBQ and its sister venue XOPP, an upmarket restaurant named for what might be the group’s most famous dish: pippies served in XO sauce.

Billy describes the eatery as fast and casual. There are 40 seats, or you can take your food to the lawn or the public seating in Darling Square.

The fit-out, with its deep green and rich tangerine accents, is striking and modern.

Back in August 2021, Sydney’s hospitality scene suffered a massive blow when the Wongs announced the beloved Golden Century Seafood Restaurant in Sussex Street had gone into voluntary administration and would be closing permanently after 32 years of trade. The Century at The Star and XOPP carry on the legacy, both serving the original full menu. With the opening of Golden Century BBQ, it seems the move from Sussex Street is finally complete.

The uncertainty and tumult of the first years of the 2020s caused some restaurateurs to give up for good, but the Wongs have come back. Billy says it’s not about courage, it’s resilience and the irresistible pull of the thing that defines them.

“For people in hospitality, serving food and serving people, that’s what we do. It’s our life.”

Golden Century BBQ
Darling Square Exchange, Ground Floor, 1 Little Pier Street, Haymarket

Hours:
Mon, Wed to Sun 11am–8pm

goldencentury.com.au