David’s has been around since I can remember and has become a Prahran institution for great Chinese food. This year they are celebrating their 20th anniversary which is exciting stuff. In Prahran, many restaurants have come and gone but at David’s with their traditional flavours, innovative dishes, exceptional tea and excellent service they may just stand the test of time. They have beautiful dumplings, flavourful dishes and extraordinary tea.
The venue has a warm atmosphere, I love the lantern-like lights around the room. Our waitress Christine told us all about David’s humble beginnings and how he started in that very same spot where the restaurant is now, but as just a little o’l teashop. She told us how David overcame lots of obstacles back then and through hard-work and determination he found a way. David’s story is a good demonstration of that quote 'where there’s a will, there’s a way' which is actually quite inspiring to say the least.
20 years on and the food is still delicious as ever. We had the Jasmine pearl tea which was delish. It’s like a subtle green tea, the pearl is the tip of the tea leaf so it’s very gentle and doesn’t have that strong bitter flavour like when green tea has been brewed for a long time.
The crab and asparagus appetiser was delicate and delicious. It was a tube of rice noodle filled with charred asparagus and shredded crab meat with a ginger soy broth poured over the top and some coriander and peanut pesto. The flavours were subtle but balanced well, a great start to the meal.
The Shanghai steamed pork dumplings were juicy and full of flavour. We dipped them in the ginger and black vinegar sauce. Yum yum.
It was raining outside so we had a bowl of Wonton soup. This one is not on the menu but they said you can always order it. The soup was delicate and the wontons had big chunks of juicy prawn with a bit of bok choy. Good for a winter evening.
The soft-shell crab had a thick fluffy batter with a good crunch and perfect with a squeeze of lemon. It was quite filling and dough heavy so a good one to just have one piece and share.
The QLD king prawns were big and tasty. They usually come with the shells on but you can ask them to serve it without the shells too (which is very accommodating). The prawns were cooked in a thick, sweet and sticky garlic and tomato sauce which was lick-your-plate kind of sauce. Luckily this dish came with a few mantou deep fried baos to soak up all of that wonderful sauce.
The Iron Buddha beef is one of the signature dishes and when you eat it you will see why. The crispy fried beef is tender and served on a gorgeous nest of aromatic Iron Buddha tea leaves. The oolong tea leaves are deep fried so they are nice and crispy (kind of like the texture of kale chips) and they have a subtle tea flavour. I love that tea is incorporated in the dish because that is the heart of where this restaurant began.
For dessert we had banana fritters which are a Chinese dessert classic. It’s banana, battered and deep fried, can’t go wrong with that. It was served with a bright green pandan ice-cream that was delish.
We ended on the molten white chocolate and cranberry dumplings with black sesame ice-cream. These were amazing. They had a glutenous dumpling outside and were filled with sweet, creamy white chocolate and a few cranberries with coconut over the top. Do yourself a favour and order these bad boys. The black sesame ice-cream was lovely and it looked pretty with the edible flowers. So yum.
If you’re a fan of yum cha (and I am) they have unlimited yum cha on weekends for $40-45 depending on which day, which is great value. Especially when those little white choc dumpling beauties are on the menu.
I heart David’s!
Olives x
David’s
Address: 4 Cecil Pl, Prahran VIC 3181
Website: http://davidsrestaurant.com.au
Phone: (03) 9529 5199
Trading: Mon-Tue: 6pm-10pm, Wed-Thu: 12pm-3pm, 6pm-10pm, Fri: 12pm-3pm, 6pm-11pm, Sun: 11.30am-3pm, 6pm-10pm
