Hawker Lane, Chatswood

Westfield Chatswood’s Hawker Lane food court recently opened, and upon visiting on the first trading weekend, it was already filling up at 11am. The décor takes you right into Asia with cultural architecture and bamboo seatings.

You will not miss the bright Hawker Lane neon light ‘from the fresh food market inside Westfield. But could also be easily accessed through Charlotte Lane, off Anderson Street.

Kayter Co's coconut

Upon entering, I was welcomed with Kayter’s Co’s coconuts, with coconut chocolate toppings would be the only sensible thing to recreate these fresh coconuts to freak coconuts! A sip and we are definitely reminded that summer is here, thirst-quenching water helped refresh our palates for each dish we devoured.

If you spend over $20 at on a meal, make the most of it and claim your free Kayter coconut from the reception desk at the fresh food market!

The food adventure starts at One Tea Grill Express, and get a buzzer as there is about a 25-minute wait. No time wasted, and a quick pop over to Lamb & Cumin for some skewers. The wagyu skewers were tender, seasoned to perfection but such a great soft bite.

The lamb seasoned with cumin was tasty, and was not overpowering. However the tenderness of the wagyu definitely was a winner.

It actually wasn’t long before our buzzer from One Tea went off, and we were welcomed with 3 sliders. I feel like I have been living under a rock, though knowing about ramen burgers, I have never actually had one. I know, what is this blasphemy!?

The pan-fried ramen had a great crunch, the beef was juicy but what I loved most was the kick in the sauce. A little messy and definitely one that is hard to tackle when fresh with the burning heat from the ramen.

The chicken burger had a nice and soft mantou bun, the chicken could have been a little crispier, but there was that same spicy kick in it and had allowed me to forget the loss of crisp in the chicken.

If you order the matcha mantou burger with your meal you may need to tackle your burgers quick smart as you wouldn’t want your ice cream to melt too much. We nomed our burgers as quick, the mantou bun is deep fried to a tee, giving enough of a crunchy bite before getting into the soft insides. What is matcha without it’s partner in crime, red bean – a small circle of red bean paste sits on top of the ice cream.

Laksa from Jim’s Malaysian gave a great kick, but I totally love how tofu puffs soaks up the soup. I love the way the soup bursts once you take that first bite.

Curry puff, also from Jim’s Malaysian, reminded me of Albee’s curry puff, only a smaller version. The barbecue pork pastry had a generous amount of meat inside and held all sweet flavours with every bite into the flakey pastry.

Despite the dishes being only sample sizes, my stomach was telling me that it had enough food already. But there was so much more I wanted to try! We can not pass fried chicken when we see it, so an 8-inch fried chicken with thai sweet sauce was ordered from Cheers Cut. While the chicken is not as juicy as Hot Star, the sweet sauces were a great compliment to the fried goodness.

A nice refreshing drink from Gong Cha helped me feel like I could conquer a tiny bit more food…

Pork rice paper rolls from Madame Nhu were tasty; the pork was soft and had enough flavour. However it would have given a great hit if they had offered some sauce.

And because we can, we dropped by Aqua S for their Royal Milk tea, which tastes just like bubble tea, only without the pearls. Not seen underneath was the lemon tea, while it was not as smooth in texture; it was definitely bringing the citrus tea. It’s a battle of the teas.

It seems Chatswood is the place to be with their new food district in Interchange and now Westfield’s new Hawker Lane. Would you be visiting Chatswood soon?

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JFW attended as a guest to sample Hawker Lane’s restaurant. However, all comments are based on JFW’s own opinion.

Thanks to Julia from Sibling Agency and Westfield Chatswood for the invite.

Hello Kitty Diner; Chatswood

It’s a childhood dream come true, Hello Kitty coming to life! Although, Hello Kitty restaurants are found in numerous Asian countries, that’s beside the point as it is now accessible in SYDNEY!

It’s still the first week since they officially opened their doors, and expecting the queue to be rather long, Miss CC and I planned to arrive there early but ended up getting there at 11am, as the doors opened. The queue really was not as bad as we had expected, we got in about 11.30am and it's mainly because people didn't know what they wanted so they took a long time ordering. But I heard the wait can be an hour long any later.

No missed opportunity while queuing for a photo with HK!

You either order your sweets with your mains at the counter, or you go to the end of the queue and do it all again if you want to enjoy your savory and sweets separately.

Cinnamon waffles, apple ice cream, salted caramel $8

So what arrived first? The cinnamon waffles; the waffles has a great amount of cinnamon and were fluffy with a slight crispy exterior. The salted caramel drizzled on top was a nice touch but could have done with a tad more sauce and the ice cream though lacking that apple kick, just completed the dish.

The maple $13

Next that arrived on the table was Miss CC’s maple burger. She notes that she failed to taste the pink lady apple slaw, a little bit of a downer for her.

Miss ebi $14

Miss Ebi then arrives, the bun is nice and soft, the prawns were a little on the salty side though there is that slight crisp when bitten into. I enjoyed the kick in the chipotle mayonnaise, though personally I did not find the slaw working too well with the prawns.

Chocolate brownie, peanut butter ice cream, banana foam $8

But we did indulge on the chocolate brownie sundae. The banana was one to not be missed with the subtle peanut butter ice cream, it all balanced so well with flavour.

Southern fried chicken, waffles, bourbon barrelled maple syrup $10

I would say that the fried chicken and waffles can actually be a miss, the waffle texture just didn’t work for us in anyway. It was a little disappointing, as the cinnamon waffles were fluffy, yet there was nothing fluffy about the waffles here. The spice ingredient in the chicken was over powering, as it was a little hard to taste maple syrup though it was clearly there.

Sweet potato fries with miso mayonnaise $10

We did order a lot, but thankfully the dishes were small. I was thinking if we needed the sweet potato fries, but Miss CC wanted them. They were tasty, but not crunchy. I am not sure if the intention is not to have any crunchy elements, because there is definitely no evidence of crunch. So if you are after crunchy and fluffy sweet potato fries, I suggest you give this a miss.

HELLO KITTY 😻 || Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of furr; hello kitty, sleepy kitty, pur pur pur || @hellokittydineraus // #hellokittydiner #hellokittydineraus #chatswood #northsydney #foodbloggerslife #foodblogger

A photo posted by FOOD & LIFESTYLE BLOGGER (@jfromwithin) on Nov 6, 2015 at 5:08pm PST

I understand it’s their first week into trading, but our drinks arrived a good while after we had finished our meal. And we had ordered a fair bit. So we’re excited about the hello kitty soda, and I ask the staff that is standing at the front of the queue.

“What’s the Hello Kitty soda?”

“It’s a hello kitty flavoured soda”

“… and what’s that flavour?”

“It’s fruity, like apple…”

Hello Kitty diner soda $5

Miss CC would call it a candy drink. We weren’t able to spot the fruity-ness, I would probably say it’s like the Japanese lemonade, only that it’s not as sweet.

Salted pretzel milkshake $8

The salted pretzel milkshake has little bits of pretzel inside which is nice when their small enough to go through the straw for a little texture and bite but could get annoying towards the end when the bigger pieces just constantly blocked you from drinking as it blocked your straw.

Overall, Hello Kitty Diner is cute, and a childhood dream come true. The sweets menu was much preferred, but it is their first week (I keep emphasising this, opps...?) of trading and I am sure they’re still in the process of getting things together and finding their system of it all.

Are you a fan of Hello Kitty? And what would be your childhood dream come true?

Hello Kitty Diner

The District, Chatswood Interchange

436 Victoria Ave,

Chatswood

ipot Chatswood

It’s that time of year where our bodies make us crave for something warm, hearty and filling! It’s hot pot season!

Not knowing what we should devour when in the Northern side of Sydney, I suddenly remembered Nessyeater posting about ipot opening in Chatswood, and so we made our way over there.

We were pretty much the last people to have walked in, and I’m pretty sure the wait staff were a little deflated seeing us walk in. But they were really accommodating.

So, I’m not sure if anyone is familiar with ipot, be it in Chinatown or Chatswood. But this is basically getting a little pot to yourself and you get to choose your own soup base.

A little sauce bay is available for you to choose, mix and create your own favourite dipping sauce for your food.

Spinach soup $8

On this lovely evening, I went with the spinach-based soup. It made me think of Wicked the musical with the ghastly green! It is more towards a bland like soup, but gives you that nice refreshing vegie soup feeling.

Prepare yourselves for massive food porn, as we love to order lots of food (read as over order).

Prime Queensland Rangelands Beef $10

What is hot pot without fatty beef! Look at the ribbons of fat! Like yum!!

Crisp Enoki Mushroom $6

I don’t know, I really don’t like mushrooms. But there is something different about enoki mushrooms that I have an exceptional love for. Perhaps it’s the texture and it really doesn’t have that mushroom taste.

Udon $5

Bean Curd Puff $5

I love puffy beancurd, because it soaks up the soups so well, and it just takes in all the flavours.

Pork & Prawn wontons $5

Pork & Prawn Dumplings $5

Wontons, dumplings! Bring them all on!

Chrysanthemum $5

Tasamanian Salmon $8

Hot pot is great, it really warms you up. Though I love the concept of ipot how everyone gets their own pot to cook in and their own preferred soup base. There is still something very warming about the fact that we do share a pot and eat together. Or maybe the banter when people start stealing one another’s food gives that whole feeling.

The feeling of love, family, and closeness.