Tim Ho Wan
Chatswood Interchange
75A and 76A/436 Victoria Ave
Chatswood, Sydney
Most people have probably by now heard of the Tim Ho Wan empire. What started out as a small hole in the wall dumpling shop, achieved fame by being the lowest priced Michelin Starred venue in the world, then grew into a global monolith. Their wings have now spread to Australia with several venues in Sydney and more being added all the time. This one, in Chatswood, is also going strong.
The menu is your placemat and you need to fill out an order form with your choices. It's very easy to do and you can order more later if you want.
We started with two different rolled choices. The first was beancurd skin rolls with shrimp. Pleasantly, they were full of prawns - they don't skimp here. The rolls were nicely crisp outside and we used the chilli sauce on the table to dip them in. Secondly, we had the vermicelli rolls with BBQ pork. These were clearly more silky than the beancurd rolls and again had plenty of filling. They were served with a soy sauce poured over them. So far so good - both our choices tasted great and had arrived quickly too.
We then moved on to a more traditional dumpling - spinach with shrimps - yes we do love our prawns! These were beautifully plump and packed tight with spinach and prawn filling. They reminded us of the many yum cha's we've had - but these probably had more filling than most we've had.
We rounded out our eating with a choice from the specials menu - Tom Yum Goong Prawn Dumplings. These were probably our favourite for the meal. They had a great blend of tang, spiciness and were visually very appealing as well. In fact, we almost ordered another serving of them!
Tim Ho Wan has an enviable reputation to live up to. We left impressed with the food and service. The surroundings are deliberately understated so don't expect fancy decor. It was pleasant though but the food is quite rightly the centre of attention. We're keen to try some of their other menu items at other venues now!