Woonona's popular Duck in Heaven spreads its wings

Owner Jeni Sae-Yang was working out of the Secret Garden Cafe until December, when she moved her restaurant north along the Princes Highway to Butter Sugar Eggs.

The teashop closed down three weeks ago and, for the first time since opening, Jeni has a shop entirely to herself.

She now has her own signage, a large dining area, a walk-in cool room with enough space to hang and airdry 50 ducks for maximum crisp and a big, top-of-the-line oven for steam-roasting.

It's a space she'd be reluctant to trade for anything, even a lucrative offer to become the Gong's answer to a cult-favourite Sydney restaurant.

"There was a big developer that offered me $300,000 a few months ago to move into Wollongong because he really liked Mr Wong," Jeni said.

"But I've got two kids, I'm a single mum; I didn't want to have a massive restaurant in Wollongong.

"And I told him it was way too posh. I don't want to just to be all about money, money, money and have it so fancy that people can't afford it."

The 50-year-old restaurateur - who grew up in China, Thailand and Australia - describes her menu as Chinese classics but "updated, a lot more fresh and a lot more flavourful because of that Thai influence".

You won't find heavy dishes mixed with capsicum, onion and carrots at Duck in Heaven.

"I like my food really simple, but really, really good," she said.

"If you get pork here, you're getting that pork as the star and it's going to be the best pork you've ever had.

"It's all about taking really humble ingredients and elevating them.

"Like we do a Chinese cabbage that we poach in duck broth. You can really taste that ingredient at its best rather than food that's smothered with lots of vegies and sauces."

As someone who follows a gluten-free diet, Jeni has set out to accommodate everyone.

A flexible kitchen means a pescatarian can substitute the duck for a crispy piece of flathead in any of the meals and she's stuffed the menu with tasty gluten-free and vegetarian options.

"You know, I want to make sure that it's everything I would want to eat, it's everything that I would be pleased with and it's not just run-of-the-mill," she said.

Despite the notoriously tight margins in hospitality, Jeni says she's able to spend more on quality ingredients because the business isn't throwing out bucketloads of food every day.

"We have very, very little food waste because we run our restaurant on smart, top-of-the-range software," she said.

"And I think it helps that we've got really committed, long-term staff who understand our food and inventory.

"We just about run out of pork every Sunday; we order almost perfectly every week."

She also keeps costs down by using the same raw ingredients across multiple dishes, so nothing in the fridge is used just once, and cross-trains her staff to be able perform a variety of roles.

"The restaurant doesn't run like a robotic thing, it's very intuitive, everyone gets involved and everyone's willing to help out everywhere," Jeni said.

Before or after service, she'll sit down with the staff to share a meal and talk about their lives outside of the restaurant.

This communal aspect of Duck in Heaven is another reason Jeni turned down the eye-watering deal from the developer.

Her vision for a restaurant that doubles as a social hub didn't feel compatible with the Justin Hemmes-style establishment he'd pitched.

"Ever since I've had this restaurant, I've just met so many amazing people," she said.

"I've just made friends with all these locals who are absolute foodies and they'll come and talk about food for hours.

"It's become like a food hub and it's just been amazing because it isn't just about a restaurant selling food."

Jeni runs beginner and advanced dumpling-making classes of an afternoon, while calligraphy lessons and six-week courses on the fundamentals of Chinese tile game mahjong are in the works.

It's all part of her bid to escape the grind of cooking, serving, cleaning, repeat, and to bring more of the fun and artistic elements of her culture to Wollongong.

"I want people to understand there's more to it than just Chinese food," she said.

Duck in Heaven is located at 359 Princes Hwy, Woonona. Bookings here.

Peking duck: Our signature dish and the favourite thing people get. We stuff the belly with spices and juices and it steams from the inside while the skin gets crispy from the outside. People always say the meat is so succulent. It comes with homemade plum sauce, which we put orange marmalade in - it's got that citrusy kick to it.

Barbeque pork: The other dish we sell the most of every week is our barbecue pork and you know, almost everywhere else uses pork shoulder for this dish, which is a cheaper cut. We have always used the pork neck from a really good local farm down in Kiama and it just has better marbling. It's actually one of the best dishes here and people will get a whole box of it because of the kind of cut that we use.

San choy bao: We do this in a completely different way than any other restaurant. It's gluten-free and, because I have a Thai background, we use a lot of fresh herbs. So for example, it comes in a big lettuce cup but it has duck meat, and it's got tonnes of fresh mint and cucumber, toasted rice, spices, fresh lime juice ... And then it's topped with deep-fried mint and fresh coriander.

Degustation menu: So if you just want to come and try the most popular dishes, we have a $65 degustation. It's three courses, with all different versions of duck: duck san choy bao, followed by homemade duck gyoza, and then you get your Peking duck.

Lo mai gai: Our most popular vegetarian dish. It's so tasty. So you open up the lotus leaf and then you've got this tiny little parcel of soft, hot, sticky rice filled with a juicy mushroom filling.

Sauces: Pretty much everything you get here comes with a homemade sauce. Even your standard sweet chilli sauce is made from scratch. We don't use the store-bought one, which just doesn't have flavour and is over-sweet. There was a couple recently and the guy said, 'oh my missus here can eat it on its own.' And the girl said, 'look, I just eat the sauce with rice.'