3 Reasons to Head Northside – Dining in Chatswood

As Sydney grows and grows, so the spread of great food grows too. Chatswood in Sydney’s north is becoming a hub of amazing cuisine, and the Asian food secrets you can find here are the best of all.

Mr and Mrs Romance - Papparich satay

Living south of the Bridge, we don’t head north for lunch or dinner that often. We do have friends living that way though. And we’ve learnt to rely on their food recommendations in their neighbourhood with complete confidence.

Wanting to extend our repertoire north, we looked into filling 3 essential categories we have in Asian food:

Malay food – especially Hainanese chicken rice and roti
Thai food – especially choo chee curry and pork ribs
Chinese food – especially dumplings

I think we’ve hit the jackpot!

PappaRich Malaysian Delights

PappaRich2

We like PappaRich for several reasons. Of course there’s the food. The roti here is excellent, the chicken rice is great too. They also do some great laksas and there’s a fried chicken skin dish that’s better than pork crackling… and I never thought I’d ever say that about anything.

Another reason we love PappaRich is it’s authentic. Its restaurants started popping up in Kuala Lumpur 2005 but now there are outlets all over the place. But they still make the food the same as when they first started.

The final (and best) reason to love this place is PappaRich’s new ambassador Poh Ling Yeow from the first series of Australian Masterchef and SBS show Poh’s Kitchen. What a sweetheart she is!

Mr and Mrs Romance - Papparich Chatswood

Koa Plah Thai

Mr and Mrs Romance - Khao pla

Literally meaning ‘rice and fish’ this place is much more than just that. Recommended by a Thai friend, this place rocks. The food’s delicious and – though we’ve only had the takeaway from here – the recent renovations make us want to pay Chatswood another visit.

Picks from the menu are indeed the pork ribs, the crispy tofu and the grilled fish mousse wrapped in banana leaf.

Kao Plah Thai ribs

Shanghai Stories 1938

Mr and Mrs Romance - Shanghai Stories

Recommended by Sam from TheAnnoyedThyroid.com – this place does superb dumplings. Sam is a real dumpling nut and goes all over Sydney looking for the best. I do wonder how these guys will stand up to the newly opened Chatswood branch of the very popular Din Tai Fung… perhaps it’s time for a ‘dumpling off’!

The xiao long bao, which are soup-filled steamed pork dumplings, and the fried pork buns are stand-out. In fact, just writing this makes me want dumplings right now!

Shanghai Story 1938 dumplings

Where are these places?

PappaRich Chatswood

Open: 11:00-21:00 Mon – Wed, 11:00-22:00 Thurs – Fri, 10:00-22:00 Sat & Sun

1/63A Archer Street,
Chatswood 2067 NSW
PappaRich.net.au
PappaRich on Facebook

Khao Plah Thai

Open: 11:00-22:00 Mon – Sun

7/370-374 Victoria Avenue
Chatswood 2067 NSW
Khao Plah on Facebook

Shanghai Stories 1938

Open: 11:00-22:00 Mon – Sun

Shop 4 & 6 The Concourse, 409 Victoria Ave
Chatswood 2067 NSW
Shanghai Stories 1938
Shanghai Stories 1938 on Facebook

What food finds do you travel for? Tell us in the comments!

Images by Mrs Romance and courtesy of PappaRich’s, Taste of Shanghai’s and Khao Plah’s Facebook galleries, and @TheAnnoyedThyroid on Instagram.
Mr & Mrs Romance dined as guests of PappaRich.

3 Comments

  • Reply August 28, 2014

    Nick Deane

    I am so hungry after reading this post! PappaRich will be on the top of my list of restaurants to visit. Sharing this post.

    • Reply September 3, 2014

      Mr Romance

      Do it, Nick! They’re great places and there are a few around Sydney now. But I think the Chatswood one is the best.
      Let me know what you think.
      J

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