Chin Chin
Every week the kitchen picks about seven thousand bunches of coriander, Thai basil and Vietnamese mint by hand, because a machine bruises them.
Why go
Chin Chin opened on Flinders Lane in mid-2011 and had queues on day one (Broadsheet). Executive chef Benjamin Cooper trained under David Thompson, which shows in the sour-salt-bitter balance rather than in any ceremony. The room was one of the first in the city built deliberately dark and loud, with the sound system treated as equipment. Downstairs is Go Go Bar, which exists so the wait has somewhere to go. The restaurant ended its famous no-bookings rule in March 2020 and now takes reservations online while still seating walk-ins (Broadsheet). Owner Chris Lucas has since built the Lucas Collective out to eight brands, with further Chin Chins in Sydney and at a Geelong football stadium, so read this room as the original rather than as a chef's single bet.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the charred green cabbage with peanut and coriander relish and a slosh of sweet soy. Duck larb with ground roasted rice through it. The chargrilled pork chop, which comes out just pink and rested. Six or more of you and the Feed Me menu is compulsory, so lean into it.
- Avoid: expecting the chilli level Cooper was once known for. Dubecki's own complaint was that the heat had gone quiet. Also avoid Sunday if the bill matters, since a 10 percent surcharge applies.
What locals & experts say
- Larissa Dubecki, Time Out Melbourne, four stars (November 2016), on the post-renovation menu:
the 14-odd new dishes on the menu are mostly zesty, exciting and complex, with the cabal of sour, salty and bitter things keeping that attention-seeking sweetness in check.
1 - The same review, filing the complaint:
Surprisingly, it's the heat element that's missing in some dishes (a Cooper trademark that has led some in the past to mutter darkly about his sadistic proclivities).
She also declares that the cabbage she raved about was sent out gratis, which is why the caveat is worth reading next to the praise.1 - Broadsheet, on why the queue outlived the hype: Cooper
knows his way around Thai cuisine as well as any Australian chef. Except maybe David Thompson, who he trained under.
2 - Melbourne's own chefs, asked directly: nobody. Broadsheet's Where Chefs Eat series has produced 74 picks from 44 working Melbourne chefs and writers, and Chin Chin appears in none of them. Checked 1 August 2026 across the whole corpus and the 64 unmined editions of the series index.6
Good to know
- Where: 125 Flinders Lane, in the CBD, a short tram ride from South Wharf.
- Timing: daily from 11am until late. Peak Friday and Saturday evenings still queue.
- Booking: reservations online since March 2020, and walk-ins are always welcome. Groups of six or more must take the Feed Me menu; twenty-one or more goes through the events team.
- Sites: this page is the Flinders Lane original. Chin Chin also trades in Sydney and in Geelong, and no evidence from those premises is used here.
- Cost: Time Out prices it 2 of 4. A 10 percent surcharge applies on Sunday.
- Diet: the venue publishes no allergen or dietary statement, so nothing is flagged. Absence of a flag means unknown.
- Hygiene: Victoria publishes no venue ratings, only Safe Food Victoria's register of convictions under s.53D of the Food Act 1984, and this venue is not on it.7
Verdict
could-visit — The kitchen picks about 7000 bunches of coriander, Thai basil and Vietnamese mint by hand every week rather than run them through a machine, and Benjamin Cooper learned his Thai cooking under David Thompson. That is a real kitchen inside what is now a brand. The trouble is the date on the evidence. Larissa Dubecki gave it four stars in November 2016 and nobody we can reach has assessed the cooking since, while the operator has grown to eight brands and put a Chin Chin in a Geelong football stadium. Forty-four Melbourne chefs made 74 picks in Broadsheet's industry series and not one of them named this room. It is loud, it is fun, it feeds a group well, and it is still the best-known Thai address in the city. No cook sends a visitor here first. The class stays Hearth because it defined a decade of Melbourne dining and no source shows a decline; the rung is could-visit because nothing current shows it still leads.