Tim Ho Wan, Chatswood

Tim Ho Wan is a import from its main restaurant in Mong Kok, Hong Kong. It's main branch is renowned for being the most affordable Michelin star restaurant in the world. In recent years, Tim Ho Wan has been opening branches across Asia. Its new branch in Chatswood has been a much awaited opening in Australia.

We visited Tim Ho Wan (Chatswood) on a Sunday around 12 noon. The restaurant was filled to capacity with a sizable queue. We were pleasantly surprised that the line was fairly fast moving and the queue control was excellent. We were able to view the menu and fill in the order form while waiting in line. Within 40 minutes we were shown to our tables.

Menu

Menu (Click to Enlarge)

The menu at Tim Ho Wan is a very traditional Hong Kong dim sum menu. My family from Hong Kong wouldn't find the menu a problem at all. However that said, I would almost say that the menu has not been geared towards an Australian crowd, lacking the typical roast meats and varieties of deep fried dim sum. However, with what it lacks it makes up in a mixture of traditional goodness and innovation. Also, probably the menu also is catering for the 1st generation Chinese migrant crowd, which Sydney does not lack. It nearly brings a sense of nostalgia of proper dim sum back home.

Food

Tea 

Chinese tea is a stock standard at most Chinese Restaurants. In most yum cha restaurants you will be able to chose your tea. However, 'standard' tea is served here and ordered per person. The only difference is that 'standard' tea here is a relatively good Pu'er (普洱) tea - Dark and richly fermented. Contrary to other remarks on Urbanspoon, tea is refillable without charge.

Other drink options include homemade barley and soda.

Clockwise from Top Left: Pork Rib with Black Bean Sauce, Pork Dumpling with Shrimp, Pu'er Tea, Baked Bun with BBQ Pork

Dim Sum

Baked Bun with BBQ Pork (酥皮烤叉烧包) - The best way to describe this is a 'Pineapple' crust BBQ Pork bun (菠萝叉烧餐包). This is the restaurant's specialty. Indeed, this is a new iteration of a BBQ bun. The normal sweetness of the pineapple crust (which is really a cookie) mix with the savoury BBQ pork and a fluffy bun. It was an interesting and tasty combination.

Pork Rib with Black Bean Sauce (豉汁蒸肉排) - Very tender pork ribs which is not overpowered by a subtle Black Bean Sauce.

Pork Dumpling with Shrimp (鲜虾烧卖皇) - If you are expecting prawn paste you will be pleasantly surprised. There's a whole prawn in this one. Juicy!

Clockwise from Top Left: Wasabi Salad Prawn Dumpling, Rice with Beef and Fried Egg, Pan-Fried Turnip Cake, Mango Pomelo Sago, Glutinous Rice in Lotus Leaf (unwrapped and wrapped).

Wasabi Salad Prawn Dumpling (青芥末明虾角) - This is a deep fried prawn dumpling with a wasabi mayonnaise dressing. This would be the let down dish of the whole meal. The dumpling was fried till it was pretty hard and crunchy instead of light and crispy.

Pan-Fried Turnip Cake (香煎萝卜糕) - This is another traditional delight. Steamed white radish cake, lightly pan-fried to finish. This radish cake is of the perfect texture with the right balance of flour and radish. Not doughy but filled with mouthfuls of radish, yet it holds together so well that it doesn't crumble when you pick it up. There's plenty of dried shrimp and Chinese sausage to give a rich savoury flavor.

Glutinous Rice in Lotus Leaf (古法糯米鸡) - Normally you will find this dim sum wrapped in small lotus leaf parcels, but not this one. This is one huge parcel of gooey goodness waiting to be opened. Inside is 2 layers of sticky flavored glutinous rice, with a layer of savoury delicious filling sandwiched in between. You will find pieces of chicken and mushrooms coated with a soy based sauce as your 'sandwich' filling.

Rice with Beef and Fried Egg (煎蛋牛肉饭) - We've read other Urbanspoon remarks of how this is a bunch of leftover crap. We laughed when we tasted it. The folly to think this as leftovers. This is not your usual fluffy medium grain rice but instead long grain Thai Jasmine rice which tends to be dryer (probably why they thought it was leftovers). On top of the rice is a yummy layer of minced beef in a spy based sauce and topped off with  sunny side fried egg.

Dessert

Mango Pomelo Sago (杨枝甘露) - The stand out of this dessert is the thickness of its creamy consistency combined with bursts of pomelo pulp and delicate sago rolling over you tongue. Very satisfying.

Service

The service at Tim Ho Wan is excellent. Starting from the queue management. There was ample seating in the queue and the opportunity to decide what to order while waiting. Staff were also consistently taking out people who needed smaller tables in the queue to cater for them quickly. Once inside, wait staff were literally swarming all over the restaurant. Water and tea was topped up promptly. Empty dishes were cleared within 1 min of finishing the food off it, which helped to keep the table less cluttered. Good came very promptly and staff were quick to rectify any issues.

Cost

Overall cost is slighty more expensive than you typical yum cha at around $30 per person.

Price List (Click to Enlarge)

Overall

The biggest question would probably be if the whole experience be worth the queue and the price? We would say, why not. This isn't your everyday Yum Cha restaurant, it's a trip to Traditional Hong Kong yum cha without the trouble of flying over. If you are not after that kind of experience, we guess you can settle for any other Yum Cha restaurant in Sydney.

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