Since The District, the new dining area, opened up at Chatswood Interchange, all people can talk about is the opening of the first Australia branch of Tim Ho Wan, the world’s cheapest Michelin-starred restaurant. With good reason too – the food is amazing. I should know, I’ve been there (review to come soon, I promise!). However, the immensely long queues for Tim Ho Wan may be off-putting for some.
Luckily, there’s plenty of other alternative dining options in The District that still offer delicious food at reasonable prices. I’ve already tried Cheers Cut, and another place that K and I have tried is Petaling St. Apparently there are other branches open around Sydney with much larger menus that I haven’t had the chance to try, so the smaller menu at Petaling St Chatswood is my first taste of what they have to offer.
I ordered the Ipoh Hor Fun ($10.80) – rice noodles that came with a side of delicious silky and tender Hainan-style steamed chicken. The broth was clear and refreshing and the Chinese broccoli was still crisp and fresh. I liked the fresh bean sprouts that the chicken was served on as well – they had soaked up some of the flavour of the chicken and were nice and crunchy still. Overall, a great simple homely dish, for a great price.
K ordered the Fried Koay Teow ($10.80), which unfortunately lacked that ‘wok hei’ that you hope to find with fried noodle dishes. It made up for it with an overabundance of tasty ingredients – slices of Chinese sausage (lup cheong), giant juicy prawns, fish cake, and more. Not the best koay teow we’ve had, but decent for the price.
By far the winning dish on the night was the Curry Chee Cheong Fun (top right – approx $7). Listed as an entree, it’s actually such a substantial meal in and of itself that K and I struggled to share it as an entree in addition to our mains. The rich curry sauce is amazingly creamy – with hints of shrimp and pork and just a touch of spice. It would make the perfect meal for someone on a budget – at only $7, the amount of steamed rice noodles in the extremely filling curry, plus the fish balls and fish cake (protein!) on top, makes for an awesome meal.
Petaling St is not a bad stop in The District if you want a quick and filling meal for a good price. I’m in Chatswood so often that I’ll probably be back to Petaling St soon…though not before I try the other restaurants that are now open in The District!
Have been to a couple of different Petaling St outlets but have never tried that curry chee cheong fun. Sounds like a great value option! We always get the fruit rojak – always so hard to find in Sydney.