Chiu Chou Garden
Shop A7, 2-10 Central Ave
Thornleigh, Sydney
This humble Chinese restaurant sits in the Central Park cluster of eateries in Thornleigh in Sydney’s north. It’s not a flashy place and it’s been here a long while. This translates into something being done well. In this case, it’s the food.
We started with the almost clichéd Aussie Chinese dish of honey king prawns. While some may argue it’s a travesty, we do like it now and then and so we have it occasionally. This was one of those times and we’re glad we did. There were plenty of big plump prawns in a nice thin golden batter. They had a lovely sticky honey coating too. It all combined so well.
Another occasional dish for us is crispy beef. We love a bit of crunch and the crispy slivers were great. This was another really big serving with a tangy sauce drizzled on top with a hint of spiciness there too.
Our passion for duck kicked in again. We probably didn’t need this dish as the others were ample - but we wanted it! It was in the entree section so we thought it wouldn’t be too large. Wrong! It was another big serving and really tasty. The duck meat was nice and juicy and the skin nicely crisp and golden.
We ordered some boiled rice but in hindsight we didn’t really need it as none of our dishes really had a lot of sauce. We also grabbed some chilli sauce as well as some Chinese tea to sip on during our meal. It always goes well.
The menu here is quite long. It’s a book in fact. The decor is simple and the place seems to get a steady stream of business through its doors. Even though we didn’t use it, they also have a lunch menu here too.
Chiu Chou Garden is a place to go for good sized servings of tasty food. It’s not a flash place but don’t let that fool you as the food is really the drawcard here.