Golden Century at Crown Sydney reveals its massive menu

Sydney’s beloved Golden Century has been resurrected with a new venue at Crown Sydney.
The Chinese restaurant opens in early February.
Prices have hiked while there’s also a bigger space with three floors.
READ MORE: These are all the new openings coming to Sydney in 2025.

Would you pay $17 for three pieces of scallop and shrimp siu mai? How about prawns stir fry with salted egg yolk—a dish that’d cost you around $28 in Burwood—for the punchy price of $60?

When Golden Century announced that Sydney’s most emblematic Chinese restaurant would open at Crown Sydney, years after the chef’s favourite was sadly forced to vacate Chinatown, plenty of fists hit the air. Now the grand reveal is only weeks away, with the ribbon-cutting set for February 6.

The Wong family’s standard-setting kitchen is synonymous with eating well after midnight so the hype over its return is largely driven by nostalgia. Just about every discerning Sydneysider has fond memories of shuffling through a plate of XO pippies at 2am while the rest of Chinatown sleeps.

But super late night feeds may no longer be on the cards as Eric and Linda Wong, and their son Billy, move Golden Century into Barangaroo’s heaving casino resort. The restaurant will close at 11pm each night.

As reported by Broadsheet, the new Golden Century at Crown Sydney ditches its rustic Sussex Street aesthetic for an elaborate three-level space, framed by dramatic floor-to-ceiling windows to pull in those luscious harbour views. With eight private dining rooms, it’s a beastly space that more than doubles the capacity for Golden Century’s kitchens.

More options than ever before

There’s a yum cha menu with no less than 80 options and now everything is made to order. And yes, that means the rolling trolleys, which have become synonymous with yum cha (in western countries, at least), have been nixed. Not only does that completely change the yum cha experience, but it should present a calmer, more relaxed a la carte offering compared to some of Sydney’s other yum cha restaurants.

Ditching the trolleys may come as a surprise to yum cha regulars, but it’s not too shocking to see a price hike as Golden Century moves into one of Sydney’s most luxurious dining precincts. After all, the Wong family now join a lineup that also includes Oncore by Clare Smyth and a’Mare.

An expected price hike

But it’s still quite expensive. For a dish like prawns with scrambled egg, you can expect to pay $55. It’s $60 if you want something as lush as king prawns and vermicelli with diced pork hot pot. That said, the yum cha menu is still fairly reasonable considering expected inflation. Although most options have dropped from four pieces to three pieces, with something like pork and shrimp siu mai milking you for $13.

Prices aside, just about every fan-favourite from Golden Century is still on the menu. That means the experience is best served by taking a scattershot approach. Order up plates of silky steamed rice cakes and baskets of fluffy pork buns before working your way up to all the dumplings, live seafood (the tanks will be installed in time for the grand opening), meats and vegetables that can fit on the lazy susan.

And yes, the iconic Pippies with XO Sauce on Fried Vermicelli is still on the menu, offered at market price. Everyone from David Chang (who named this the “best dish in the world) to Dan Hong have sang plenty of praise for this Cantonese staple, doing perfectly by the Golden Century kitchen. No one from Sydney Travel Guide has been through to eat there yet, but we’re hoping the chef’s favourite is still just as good.

If you want to know what to expect, here is the old Golden Century menu from 2023 so you can compare.

*The original Golden Century yum cha menu from 2023 (photo: Golden Century).*

And you can find the current menu on the official Golden Century website. It’s quite extensive.

There were just 47 options on the original Golden Century yum cha menu. With almost double the amount of options now, we can imagine the price stacks up pretty high. But then again, you’re also rewarded with many more options than a traditional yum cha restaurant in Sydney.