CHACHU'S - HAWKER LANE IN WESTFIELD CHATSWOOD, SYDNEY

Chachu's
Westfield Chatswood (Hawker Lane),
1 Anderson Street, Chatswood, Sydney

Chachu's is another of the great options that forms Hawker Lane in Westfield Chatswood.

They basically serve fast Indian street food. There's some big flavours and a decent range of choices available, including vegetarian ones too.

The Kathi rolls were delicious - a lot like a wrap but the outer layer was more like a flaky roti but it didn't fall apart. Great flavours here too! The spicy chips were a tasty side and well worth grabbing.

Sir and Mlady visited Hawker Lane as guests of Westfield Chatswood. Special thanks to Julia Murray of Sibling Agency for this invitation.

 

AQUA S - HAWKER LANE IN WESTFIELD CHATSWOOD, SYDNEY

Aqua S
Westfield Chatswood (Hawker Lane),
1 Anderson Street, Chatswood, Sydney

Aqua S is a hugely popular dessert venue in the CBD.

Here in Chatswood their new outlet has opened just around the corner from Hawker Lane - so make sure that you don't miss it for a sweet finale to your meal.












Mlady had the refreshing Lemon tea flavour which was an inviting lemon colour. Sir had the Sea Salt which was an appetisingly vibrant blue colour. Both ice-creams were eagerly devoured and complimented our wonderfully Hawker styled meals.

Sir and Mlady visited Hawker Lane as guests of Westfield Chatswood. Special thanks to Julia Murray of Sibling Agency for this invitation.

 

LAMB AND CUMIN - HAWKER LANE IN WESTFIELD CHATSWOOD, SYDNEY

Lamb and Cumin
Westfield Chatswood (Hawker Lane),
1 Anderson Street, Chatswood, Sydney

To put it simply, Lamb and Cumin specialise in BBQ'd meat on sticks. It's all cooked freshly on their premises right in front of you so you can watch it all happening and savour those great BBQ smells. They come in different quantities and in different meats - just choose at the counter and wait for your sticks!

We tried their signature Lamb and Cumin skewers as well as their teriyaki wagyu beef skewers.

Both varieties were very tasty. The meat had been nicely cooked over coals giving it a great mildly smoky taste that you expect from a BBQ.

It was very tender too, which sometimes doesn't happen with skewers.

Lamb and Cumin have three outlets across Sydney all selling these tasty sticks with meat. It's a quick, tasty and easy meal to have or a great starter.

Sir and Mlady visited Hawker Lane as guests of Westfield Chatswood. Special thanks to Julia Murray of Sibling Agency for this invitation.

JIMS MALAYSIA - HAWKER LANE IN WESTFIELD CHATSWOOD, SYDNEY

Jim's Malaysia
Westfield Chatswood (Hawker Lane),
1 Anderson Street,
Chatswood, Sydney

Being frequent eaters of Malaysian food it was great to see this tasty cuisine here at Hawker Lane.

Jim's Malaysia offers hawker (or street) food so it's quite appropriate to find it here.

For a small place they actually offer quite a big range of food here and we were fortunate to be able to sample quite a few of them.

We of course sampled their laksa. It's hard to resist laksa when eating Malaysian. However it's usually so filling that you rarely have room for anything else once you order this rich coconut curry noodle soup. This one had great flavours and lived up to expectations. It was popular too - with plenty of people at their counter ordering just this dish alone. We also tried their tasty curry puffs and chicken wings as well as a couple of their sweets too.












Sir and Mlady visited Hawker Lane as guests of Westfield Chatswood. Special thanks to Julia Murray of Sibling Agency for this invitation.

MADAME NHU - HAWKER LANE IN WESTFIELD CHATSWOOD, SYDNEY

Madame Nhu
Shop FM8, Hawker Lane,
Westfield Chatswood, 1 Anderson Street, Chatswood, Sydney

Madame Nhu has been serving Vietnamese food to the people of Sydney since 2007.

Now boasting five locations, their latest is part of the foodie enclave of Hawker Lane in Westfield Chatswood.

Madame Nhu highlights that they were the first to bring vietnamese summer rolls to Sydney back in 2007.

We tried them on our visit and they were delicious. The fresh crisp flavours shone through and the dipping sauce added some extra intensity.

It's so easy to see why these are so popular, but they have plenty of other choices there as well including a wide range of pho.

We were impressed with
the freshness and flavours of the rolls at Madame Nhu. It certainly makes us want to try their other options too and with plenty of other restaurants across Sydney it's not hard to find them.

Sir and Mlady visited Madame Nhu as guests of Westfield Chatswood. Special thanks to Julia Murray of Sibling Agency for this invitation.

CHEERS CUT - HAWKER LANE IN WESTFIELD CHATSWOOD, SYDNEY

Cheers Cut
Westfield Chatswood
1 Anderson St
Chatswood, Sydney

Fried chicken anyone? Who doesn't like a good fried chicken. We love the stuff.Cheers Cut are the Taiwanese kings of this treat with over 30 stores in their home country alone. The good thing is they're here in Oz with their Taiwanese fried chicken and other goodies and spreading fast.

So, what's their fried chicken like? The first thing you notice is how massive it is - really enormous. It comes in a single piece bigger than a hand.

The crumbs are great - nicely crisp with great flavours and revealing tender moist chicken inside. It's good stuff.

They also have some great fried squid as well.  We had a tub of it and couldn't stop picking at it until it was all gone.


Sir and Mlady visited Cheers Cut as guests of Westfield Chatswood. Special thanks to Julia Murray of Sibling Agency for this invitation.

 

HAWKER LANE - CHATSWOOD, SYDNEY

Hawker Lane
Westfield Chatswood
Chatswood, Sydney

Hawker Lane is an amazing oasis of restaurants underneath the massive Westfield in Chatswood. You feel like your really in another world here as you pause from your shopping and enter this den of tastes and sounds and delicious smells from the great range of restaurants that are spread across this sprawling area.

The biggest challenge here is what to choose. Our suggestion is to grab a table first - there are plenty of them but they go fast., If you miss out don't fret, they turn over quickly so it won't be long. Then do a lap of honour - to check out whats there. Even if you know what you want, it may well change once you see the great variety here. Of course you can get food from multiple places which works exceptionally well. Maybe a starter or three from some places, a few mains elsewhere and then of course desserts! We were there to try their goodies as part of a media event. Being greeted at the door with beautiful coconuts from Kayter and Co was a delicious start - they certainly knew how to keep foodies happy! With our coconuts piled high with cake, marshmallow, chocolate and biscuits it looked amazing - and so many people kept coming up to us wanting to know where to get them. Hands off - their ours!

Then where to start. We looked around and sampled food from so many places. It was a dance from fried chicken, to skewers, dumplings, Malaysian, ramen burgers, sushi, drinks, sweets, roti wraps etc etc etc. Here's just a few of the names you'll find here - but wait - there's more!

We'll be posting a number of write ups over the next fortnight of different places we visited there and the food we had - so stay tuned.

Of course you can visit and try for yourself - and we highly recommend this.

This is one place worth a long slow visit - or several in fact - to get across the massive range here!

Sir and Mlady visited Hawker Lane as guests of Westfield Chatswood. Special thanks to Julia Murray of Sibling Agency for this invitation.

PASSION TREE - CHATSWOOD, SYDNEY

Passion Tree
T67 The Interchange
436 Victoria Ave
Chatswood, Sydney

Light and bright, pink and white…..Passion Tree looks as sweet as its menu. With an industrial theme of concrete floors and exposed ceiling ducting, the décor is modern with lots of bright lights and coloured cushions. As you walk through the arched doorway the counter full of colourful cakes and macarons looks tempting and delicious.


An array of scattered white chairs hanging upside down from the ceiling were a fun, effective and very quirky touch.

 Jerry, behind the counter, explained the menu and the specials on offer. We started with a latte and a passionfruit soda. The coffee was good and the soda, which comes in different flavour choices, had a nice tang.

We decided to go for the chocolate fondue. Molten milk and dark chocolate bowls arrived surrounded by goodies to dip – strawberries, banana, cake, waffle pieces, macarons and marshmallows! It was a really good combination and we both loved it.

Dame D was keen to try the strawberry tower, so we ordered it together with the watermelon bingsoo. Both impressive to look at, there is even a competition for the best photo which is open until Christmas Day.

The strawberry tower was a thing of beauty – berry sorbet embellished with sliced fruit and whipped cream. It was a shame to destroy it but it was well worth it! A really refreshing dish. The watermelon bingsoo was as good as the picture too. Melon balls covering watermelon sorbet with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. Yum! We noticed people passing by actually stopping to point at this treat and call others over for a look! As an indulgence it was a healthy one so we proudly gave it the thumbs up.

  

The final dish we just HAD to try was the waffles with caramel popcorn and cream. Wow.

It arrived in all it’s glory and the waffles were crispy and drizzled with syrup.

We barely had any room left for this but somehow it was too good to stop eating.

There are lots of interesting items on the menu here and lots of specials. You can also order cakes to take home which look amazing.

If you are in the mood for a sweet treat or you haven’t tried a bingsoo, Passion Tree certainly is worth a visit.

The station is close by so its easy to get to and a great place for a meeting point. We had a fun experience and felt quite spoilt after our sugar hit!



Those Dames, who review for Sir and Mlady Dine Out, dined as guests of Passion Tree. Big thanks to Jerry for all his help. Special thanks to Gaby Mavridis of Sydney Public Relations for the invitation.

 

SHANGHAI DUMPLING - CHATSWOOD, SYDNEY

Shanghai Dumpling
Victoria Ave
Chatswood, Sydney

Sitting on the main street that runs through Chatswood - Victoria Avenue - is the second venue for Shanghai Dumpling (their first being over in Ashfield). Their Ashfield restaurant opened 10 years ago while Chatswood has only been open a year.

This isn't a fancy place - they don't go overboard on frills. It is comfortable though and they do serve some really good dumplings here. Their dumplings are made fresh on the premises each day and when they run out they run out - there aren't frozen ones thawed to use here. They also don't serve hundreds of varieties of dumplings, but there's always plenty of variety on offer every day.

We sipped on a Chinese tea while we studied the menu trying to decide what to start with.

A dish made up of thinly sliced cucumber isn't something Sir would normally devour - but here he did.

The cucumber chunks were thinly sliced almost through and served in a bowl with a generous pouring of vinegar. The sharpness of the vinegar went beautifully with the fresh crispness of the cucumber.

The first dumplings to arrive were fried and had chive and pork and also Chinese cabbage and chicken fillings.

Pleasingly these were clearly quickly and lightly fried and so they weren't oily at all.

The light pastry went well with fillings that also tasted great.



Next were some lovely steamed dumplings filled with a great mix of salted duck egg and pork inside them.

These were simply presented but tasted great.

The filling was delicate and divine and the pastry again didn't overpower the flavours or textures at all.



The chilli dumplings that arrived next were certainly stronger in their hit and more colourful in appearance too!

These were shown on the front page of their menu and had caught our eyes immediately.

The bite of the chilli was so lovely as was the tang of the whole dish.

The spinach dumplings arrived next swimming in a very light and delicate broth.

This not only kept them warm it added great flavour to each mouthful.

We couldn't help eating - well in reality drinking - all the broth after eating all these dumplings.




The most unusual dish of the night arrived as our final "main course".

This dish had dumplings in a savoury soy milk broth.

It looked like milk too but had a great almost nutty taste with no sweetness at all - yet not bitter either.

We loved this and would eagerly have it again.

The finale to our meal was a lovely serving each of sago with mango ice cream.

Shanghai Dumpling was a delight. This simple place hand makes delicious dumplings fresh every day. They also sell them to heat at home and occasionally freeze some for take away too. It's well worth visiting.

Sir and Mlady dined as guests of Shanghai Dumpling. Special thanks to Carlton for arranging our visit.  

 

BEN & JERRY'S - CHATSWOOD, SYDNEY

Ben & Jerry's
Shop 9 The Concourse
409 Victoria Ave
Chatswood, Sydney

The Ben & Jerry's chain of ice cream and dessert shops is well known across Sydney.

They offer rich, indulgent treats packed with chunks of all sorts of things - think chocolate, caramel, toffee, fudge, cookie dough etc etc etc.

They're generally in high traffic areas where plenty of people drift past after eating dinner elsewhere.

Think Manly, Bondi Beach, Ultimo, Penrith, Blacktown and of course here at Chatswood where we happened to be strolling by after eating a tasty dinner nearby.

This evening we were after a dessert in Chatswood and we were simply wandering the streets - Victoria Ave to be precise. The options are a bit limited but we eventually found Ben & Jerry's. We both had two varieties of ice cream in a cone. Sir had chocolate chip cookie dough and English toffee crunch. Mlady had vanilla and chocolate fudge brownie. We both really enjoyed them. Ben and Jerry's do pack plenty of chunks and bits into their ice creams - in fact more than most places. It's almost a meal in a cone!

 

BURNT ORANGE - CHATSWOOD

Burnt Orange
345 Victoria Ave
Chatswood, Sydney

In the middle of Chatswood Chase shopping centre you will find this leafy little café oasis.

Although there wasn’t much passing traffic it was quite busy for a Tuesday lunch.

The decor was bright and fresh and there was an al fresco feel to it.

Feeling like a cleansing drink, as she often does, Dame M spied the juices and ordered an apple, carrot and orange juice. 

This was  cold, refreshing, and just the right balance of flavours.

We chose some starters from the menu – a bowl of mixed olives and the homemade brown bread with butter.

Inspired by the pretty, leafy surrounds and her love of chicken salads, Dame D ordered the Green Goddess chicken salad with avocado, bacon, roasted corn, cherry tomato and Persian feta. Sliced, pan fried breast of chicken topped this colourful, appealing looking dish. The chicken was moist and tender with a hint of garlic, the cos lettuce was fresh and crispy as were the cherry tomatoes.

She loved the texture contrast between the ripe avocado, soft and delicious Persian feta and the crunch of the lettuce and bacon. This was an ambrosial, filling dish.

Dame M chose the Alaskan King Crab Benedict on toasted Brioche. She hadn’t had this combination before and it sounded interesting. The eggs were beautifully cooked and the creamy hollandaise sauce was slathered on top. All the elements of this dish were balanced, so the delicate crab flavour was not overpowered. A lovely combination.

There was a small selection of “Afters”, Yuzu and Lemon Meringue Pie took Dame D’s fancy. This was a very pretty looking dish, an old favourite, with a twist. The traditional biscuit base was crumbed and sprinkled on top and the meringue and lemon curd was piped straight onto the bowl base. The meringue was soft and sweet and the lemon curd was smooth and extra tangy thanks to the Yuzu. Simply scrumptious!


Dame M chose the indulgent Banoffee Pie with maple-roasted pecans and Belgian chocolate ribbons.

It looked amazing.  The biscuit base had a filling of fresh banana and creamy toffee. Delicious.

We both loved the maple pecans and there was plenty of chocolate to top it off.



It was time for a good cup of coffee so we ordered a latte and a flat white. A lovely way to finish a lovely dining experience.

Burnt Orange has it’s original café in Mosman which is a very popular place.

The Chatswood outlet hasn’t been open for very long but we think it will do well too if they keep putting out such good dishes. They obviously know what they are doing.



Those Dames, who review for Sir and Mlady Dine Out, dined as guests of Burnt Orange. Big thanks also to Claire McPherson of CPM Online Marketing Solutions for arranging our visit.

 

IPOH CLUB - CHATSWOOD, SYDNEY

Ipoh Club
Chatswood RSL Level 1
446 Victoria Ave
Chatswood, Sydney

We were here with a group and this worked so well so that we could try more delicious dishes and even have dishes we had not eaten before.

Ipoh Club is situated in Chatswood within the RSL and is quite spacious and ideal for families, groups and couples. The ambiance is relaxed and comfortable.

The food is Malaysian Hawker style and it is very good. There is a huge variety and we certainly took advantage of this.

The servings too are generous.

Mini curry puffs are a popular Malaysian snack and also with us. We often order these and having them tonight was no exception. They are a simple yet tasty snack made up of deep fried pastry with curried pea and potato filling and these ones were certainly very tasty.

Another all time favourite and popular dish with us are the Chicken Satay's. They were described on the menu as -Tender marinated chicken skewers grilled to perfection and served with peanut sauce, cucumber and red onions. This really was a good dish and we both loved the peanut sauce.





















Next was the Cereal butter prawns. We had not tried this dish before so decided to give it a go as it sounded and looked interesting. The cereal butter prawns were aromatic deep fried king prawns cooked in a butter and cereal mixture. It was an unusual dish due to the cereal and was quite pleasant tasting.

For a stir fried noodle dish we choose the popular Ipoh Char Kway Teow.  Mlady is quite taken with this very flavoursome dish having recently enjoyed it immensely in Malaysia. It is definitely a favourite for her. She did have to share it tonight though!



















Probably our regular winner was next - Roti Canai. This crispy and flaky Malaysian flat bread was freshly made. This is always a favourite and not just with us so naturally we indulged - as we always do. We had the Roti Canai with the spicy and tender Beef Rendang - another all time favourite. The Beef Rendang here was good and lived up to its description. Mlady is a great fan of this dish.

The Salt and Pepper eggplant was lightly battered salt and pepper deep fried eggplant. This was a winning dish with everyone. We all loved this light and very flavoursome treat. We had never tried this before and were so happy that we did. When it arrived it looked like hot chips! This was also a crowd pleaser. It was such a "Moreish" dish that we all kept grazing.

We included Nasi Goreng in our array of tasty, spicy meals. This is generally popular - and we all really did enjoy this side/dish.





















The Hainanese Crispy Roasted Chicken consisted of chilli and ginger-shallot sauces. You could order either a whole or half chicken and considering all the other food we already had we ordered the half chicken. This dish had nice fresh flavours and was very nice.

We generally order steamed rice and tonight was again one of those occasions. As always, we used the rice to soak up our many tasty sauces.





















For Sir, his dish of the night was the Kam Heog squid. It was stir-fried squid served with an aromatic mix of dried shrimp, curry leaves and chilli paste. This dish was popular especially with both Sir and Mlady as we a huge fans of a good seafood dish.





















Ipoh Club is not your average club grub. The Malaysian theme inside a club is unusual, but it works well. The food is ideal for sharing and the place is already very popular, and for good reasons. We really enjoyed it all.

Sir and Mlady's visit to Ipoh Club was supported by the Malaysian Kitchen Programme.