Supernormal's XO king prawn with XO sauce is Melbourne's most-ordered restaurant dish of the past decade: a single fat prawn in a roasted dried seafood sauce that has been on every iteration of the menu since 2014.

Andrew McConnell opened Supernormal on Flinders Lane in 2014 as a pan-Asian counterpoint to his European Cumulus Inc. across the street, and the XO king prawn appeared on the opening menu. The XO sauce, named after the cognac classification because the original Hong Kong inventors thought of it as the most prestigious sauce, is a Hong Kong creation of the 1980s built around dried scallop, dried shrimp, Yunnan ham, chilli and shallot. The Supernormal version intensifies the dried-seafood reduction and balances it with sweet prawn, charred head, and rice to mop up the sauce. The dish was Eater Melbourne's number-one most-ordered restaurant dish of the late 2010s.

1 editor pick for XO King Prawn at Supernormal in Melbourne, ranked by editorial score. All Melbourne signature dishes · XO King Prawn at Supernormal across every city.

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