It’s time to throw out every preconception you had about Chinese cuisine. Yes, please wipe honey chicken and prawn toast from your memory, because DUK has spun Chinese food on its head. The new eatery, located in Bay Lane (the rad little foodie strip behind the pub), offers simple and modern Chinese cuisine in an eclectic 40-seat canteen-style setting. When we say ‘simple’, we mean it. The intentionally concise DUK menu consists of five main dishes, two starters, four wines and two beers. The offering is succinct, the produce is very much local, and the flavours do the talking. DUK is the handiwork of Sarah Swan and Jeremy Burn, who run popular Byron Bay cafe and catering business 100 Mile Table, as well as the bistro at the Byron Bay Golf Club. Enlisting local architect Dominic Finlay-Jones, Sarah and Jeremy have created a relaxed space with touches of Chinese opulence, signified by a wall full of eye-catching Chinese lettering that reads, “tastiest duck in the bay.”

In the kitchen you’ll find chef Ryan Bussey, the former head chef at Three Blue Ducks at The Farm. Together the trio have created a tight offering of roast duck, soy chicken, roast pork, char siu and fried tofu. If you’re dining in a group, you can order the tender duck and mouth-watering chicken as a whole or half bird, with the pork, char siu and tofu (fried in fermented bean curd) offered in two or four-person servings. If you’re not into sharing, then the same mains are offered in a ‘bowl for one’ atop steamed greens and rice. Throw some twice-cooked eggs with chilli salt and some Chinese pickles on the side, and you’ll be set. To drink, choose from a Jilly wine, a local Stone & Wood brew or an authentic Chinese Tsingtao beer. You’ll need to call on your second stomach for the chocolate, salted peanut and five-spice cake as a finisher.

DUK is located at 9 Bay Lane and is open seven days from 5:00 pm. Get on it.

Image credit: Kate Holmes