‘People haven’t seen Chinese cuisine in such a way’: Mott 32 is coming to Melbourne

Is Melbourne ready for Peking duck aged for 42 days and smoked over applewood? That’s the signature dish at Hong Kong-born restaurant Mott 32, which will open its first Australian outlet at Crown Melbourne in March 2027 as part of the casino business’s $200 million shake-up of the riverside megaplex.

Known for serving upscale Chinese food in swank settings, Mott 32 will slot into the site previously occupied by Silks, which closed in March.

Named after the address of the first Chinese grocery in New York (32 Mott Street), the brand launched in 2014 in a bank tower in Hong Kong’s Central neighbourhood. There are now nine around the world, including Vancouver, Dubai and Las Vegas, with a pipeline of nine more locations including other Australian cities.

Mott 32’s parent company Maximal Concepts was co-founded by entrepreneur, filmmaker and extreme sports adventurer Malcolm Wood.

“Melbourne’s a great city,” he says in the first interview he’s done about the push into Australia. “You’ve got a lot of tourism coming through, you’re multicultural, there’s a large Asian community, and you’re very well-educated about food – let’s call it culinary intelligence.”

Even so, he believes Mott 32 will be something new for the city. “People haven’t seen Chinese cuisine presented in such a way, with a beautiful design that competes against all the other restaurants in the city.”

Excellent cocktails, glamorous clubby design and theatrical flourishes are Mott 32 signatures, as are modern and technically challenging versions of Chinese classics. Siu mai dumplings are made with truffled Iberico pork and soft-boiled quail egg. That smoked, roasted duck (used across several dishes) is known for its glossy, crunchy skin and tableside carving.

Born in Taiwan to a Chinese mother and English father, Wood is keen to differentiate Mott 32 from other international luxury brands such as Nobu (a Crown tenant since 2007) and Zuma, with more than 30 locations worldwide. Both serve Asian cuisine but were founded in New York and London, respectively.

“We pride ourselves in being from Asia,” says Wood. “And we are one of the few international restaurants in our segment that you’ll find Asian consumers wanting to go to.”

Wood’s films focus on environmental challenges. The Last Glacier is about climate change, A Plastic Ocean investigates waste. How does he parlay that into a global hospitality business? “We teach ourselves about a problem, we drive awareness through a film, and then we try to change our business off the back of it,” he says.

He points to an egg initiative in Hong Kong, whereby the business set up its own cage-free organic egg farm that runs off solar to avoid having to import such eggs from Europe. “[Now] we’re one of the largest suppliers of eggs in Hong Kong.”

At the same time, he admits hospitality has a long way to go.

“A lot of people don’t try [to change] because they’re scared of criticism,” he says. “Like, ‘you didn’t give us a plastic bag and a plastic straw, but what about all the waste in the back-of-house?’ I think if you admit your business isn’t sustainable but it’s a work in progress, that’s the first step to changing things.”

Mott 32 opens at Crown in March 2027.