816 Cuisine is a Chinese restaurant serving Sichuan dishes and classic Cantonese banquet hall dishes. 

With white table cloths and a looping soundtrack of elegant tunes, it's a classy affair, with the majority of mains priced upwards of $20. 

The restaurant, which is helmed by Yang Gang, an award-winning chef from Sichuan, has a flair for presentation, with a couple signature dishes that definitely warrant some oohs and aahs. 

If you're coming with a group, I highly recommend an order of the wooden barrel crab, from the 'sauna seafood' section of the menu. 

Charged at market price, this dish involves an entire tableside presentation that involves a custom wooden barrel (made from fragrant cedar that you can actually smell) filled with scorching hot stones from the Sichuan river. 

Known to be full of minerals, the stones keep the dish's soup, which is poured three separate times, piping hot.

The coolest part is that every new pour warrants three different synchronized chants from the cooks, which go along the lines of wishing good fortune and blessings, but in Chinese. 

It's an exhilarating performance full of sizzles and smoke, and the best part is that the soup is deliciously flavourful. Warming and healthy, the crab head's meat dissolves into the soup, adding flavour and a bit of oil to the veggies while cooking the whole crab meat. 

Another photogenic dish: 816 Cuisine's ever-popular order of six housemade, panda-shaped mochi. ($18.99). 

One of Gang's specialities, these sticky rice balls are stuffed with a mix of minced mango and egg custard, and decorated with chocolate chips.

The mochi is so chewy and tender, I could almost do without the almost overly sweet flavour of the chocolate. 

A crystal prawn salad ($26.99) has its crustacean coated in deep fried yam, presented with a cocktail umbrella.

The coating is delicious, hampered slightly by a colourful if not unnecessary topping of colourful dessert sprinkles. 

Cumin BBQ lamb ($38.99) brings a strong northwestern Chinese flare, with fragrant, crispy lamb ribs coated in a tasty spread of spices. 

While there are a few apps and snacks on the menu for around $10 or under, the majority of dishes here are definitely more expensive than your average Chinese restaurant, but 816 Cuisine is definitely a go-to for special occasions and some performative service.