Confessions of a Shopaholic who either lives near or in Chatswood...welcome home! Look no further,…read morethis is the shopping centre of choice in Chaddy...let alone the entire North Shore :) Great food downstairs as you enter from Victoria Avenue. On the other hand, Chatswood Chase has forged a reputation for itself as the "fashion retail" capital of the area. Who could not agree more. There are an abundance of fashion styling and shopping night events on in this locale from time to time. A few new stores have recently opened here too. Even my favourite Lululemon. Chaddy Chase also has a pretty cool Apple store, and a mini kids playground in their kid-friendly area. If you're in the mood for shopping, a coffee break and lunch intertwined...then this is your place to "play."

I cannot sing enough praise about Chatswood Chase. Having worked at the David Jones Department…read morestore within the building, I have sampled food from almost every eatery and have shopped at almost every store. The food court is very clean, with plenty of variety on offer from Indian to fast food. The sushi is super fresh and extra tasty. There is less of a crowd compared to Chatswood Westfield, which provides relief for those who dislike crowds (which I am sure is most of us). With less traffic, it is easier to shop and navigate your way around the centre. Chatswood Chase houses a number of high street and haute couture stores from Alannah Hill and Zimmermann to Lisa Ho and Veronika Maine. If you're looking for evening wear, Chatswood Chase is the place to go. Having forgotten where I parked my car, I asked the valet attendant to help me locate my car. He was very friendly and gave me ample instructions and directions. Overall, the thumbs up for Chatswood Chase.

As the name suggests it has a variety of stores from the East with the exception of Trade Secret…read more This small shopping centre has lots to keep you entertained. It has Strike Bowling, Hoyts, Daiso, Trade Secret, Miracle Market, Food court and so on. Parking is free is you purchase something in the centre and you will receive a receipt to redeem the free parking. If you need other stores you can always cross the road into Westfield Chatswood.

If The Twilight Zone was Asian-themed and located somewhere on the lower north shore, it would be…read morethe Mandarin Centre. In fact, I'm not convinced it actually isn't. There's always been a strange and oddly wonderful array of stores that in no way make sense, and many of the storefronts are empty and stores come and go without rhyme or reason and in a way it's kind of charming because there's no other place like it. Come early and have an explore and buy some weird shit, or hit the (just okay but hella cheap) food court for some vittles before seeing a flick at the Mandarin Centre Hoyts AKA The Land That Time Forgot.

Food here was pretty good. Service is reasonable. Price is ok. Gets a little busy at times but…read morenever as busy as the other big DimSum restaurant in Westfield. Cash is encouraged and they make it obvious! Hmmm... But if you insist that you do not have any, they will accommodate credit card. I heard the cashier mumble under her skin that it was a bad day as they started off with 12 credit card payments that morning! ----------- Addendum 10 months later the food quality has deteriorated together with service. Obviously this is a personal opinion. The restaurant is now not busy. Cash is now insisted on. Try to use a credit card and the cashier says they have to add $2/- a head extra cover charge! That is way more than the 3% often quoted for using AMEX. The is just another surcharge!

Sometimes when you take a gamble it pays off, and this was one of those occasions. With this…read morerestaurant offering "20% off Yum Cha lunch" during weekdays one cannot help but wonder what they have to offer. To add to the risk factor I decided to take my partner. Though the place was alive and busy with the chatter of patrons, we where seated instantly and offered free hot tea (something of a novelty now as I understand it). The place was clean and food was made available to us pretty much instantly. The range of food was enough for us to enjoy a good selection without being too overwhelmed. The food was always hot, tasted relatively fresh, and traditional from a Westerns standpoint. The staff was abundant and willing to help. We got a little lost in translation a couple of times, but seriously what do you expect? We enjoyed ourselves and filled up on all that we could, then went over to the counter to pay with our stamped form in hand. After the 20% discount the grand total was only $26.60... for two people! I was in shock by how cheap it was. A word of advice, take cash to avoid any high credit card fees, lucky for us we had cash. Our only disappointment was not receiving a glass of water that we requested, but we never followed it up as the tea was just fine. (Another note, if you plan on parking in the Mandarin Centre's parking lot be sure to have your parking ticket validated when paying so you receive the free 3 hours parking.) Update: Unfortunately now that the restaurant has established itself, the 20% off lunch no longer applies. However we still go as we love the food.

Being from the US, with two of us on T-Mobile with included (but very slow) data, we decided to get…read moreone of our phones set up with a SIM card so she could call her local relatives during our vacation. My local friend suggested we head off to Chatswood where there would be many malls and that we should be able to locate something there, even on a Sunday when many smaller stores were closed. In the Westfield Chatswood mall, we located a Vodafone on Level 4 by the food court. There was a bonus deal going on, so we scored 25 gb for $25 AUD for 35 days, which was plenty for our (shorter) time in the country. Ironically, however, we later found another Vodafone at the Greenwich Plaza which was a short walk away from our hotel.

This place is huge. In fact it is so big that you could literally get yourself lost in it. Well,…read moreI've sort of come to expect that from places in Sydney, particularly the shopping centres. Sure, the ones in Melbourne are pretty big as well, but the Sydney ones can have you wandering around them for ages, as is the case here. Not surprisingly, this place has all of the bells and whistles that you would expect from a shopping centre this size.

Waited like over 30 minutes on a Sunday and they charge you a fee of I believe 10%, which I don't…read morequite understand the reasoning for this fee. I thought the wait and C raving about how good this place is meant it was good, well IMO....NOPE. Ordered the following items: Zha Jiang Noodles - eh, probably the worse I have tried. Stir Fried Clams with X.O sauce - wanted a better flavour Xiao Long Bao Pork - okay the skin is way thicker than DTF and not sure if there is DTF, why go to this place. However, I don't recommend DTF in Westfield Chatswood. Dipping sauce for this sucks too. Nothing to put your sauce in and no offer of fresh ginger. Steamed Lion's Head meatball with Crab - I've tried other versions of this and this is the only thing I didn't mind. It didn't wow me, but I appreciate the homey feel of this dish. Pork Belly Steamed Buns - OMG and this is not a good way. I can't with these buns here - disgusting. Pork Belly is super dry and it's supposed to be Pork Belly and the cucumber was cut too thick and too dry tasting as well. Worse buns ever too! I don't get this place nor the high reviews.

This review only applies to their mediocre xiao long baos. Skin is a bit thick, kind of bland and…read moresoup to meat ratio is off. The vinegar sucks as well. Where is the tartness?!? You know the satisfaction you get when you pop a super ripe pimple? That level of joy should be experienced when biting into a slightly cooled soup dumpling, but instead u get to bite into deflated balloons filled with bland pork. Blah. So effing blah.

Grape Garden is the definition of a hidden gem. Tucked away at the back of the food court on the…read moreground floor of Lemon Grove shopping centre, it's the kind of place you'd have to have a recommendation for to find out about. The menu is written entirely in Chinese, but the super friendly owner advised my friend and I what he thought would be best for us to order. For just $14 in total, we dined on handmade pork soup dumplings (13 of them in total, the owner kept reminding us) served in a giant bowl of broth, salty and scattered with spring onions. There was also a serving of shallot pancake, which was kind of like a savoury, thin-but-cakey, fried flat bread with a spicy chilli oil on the side. Old mate also threw in a little dish of shredded steamed chicken with cucumber ribbons in a rich sesame sauce. Plonking yourself down at a laminate table with a cafeteria tray for lunch isn't exactly glamorous, but it's hard to complain when the food is so good and so cheap.

This place is such a gem and now I'm just kicking myself for not going there sooner. I always knew…read moreit was there but just put it off thinking "next time... next time...", thinking somewhere else would be better, but there has not been anywhere better than this in Chatswood!! The fish dumplings were divine, and I could not praise them enough. Exactly how I like my dumplings and just sad that I could probably finish off two servings by myself and still crave more. Dumpling craving has been unleashed and cannot be satiated nooo! Not only were the dumplings amazing, you're not going to regret the noodles either. I think the noodles themselves have been salted so the broth doesn't have to do all the work, but honestly speaking the soup pulls its own weight and more. With vinegar in the mix, it's so refreshing and delicious, there'll be nothing left in the bowl once you're done with it. To top this all off, service is spot on! There's an awesome guy working there who not only has a great sense of humour but is also incredibly switched on. When I was ordering the vegetable noodles he made sure to ask if chicken stock was okay. And they do have another stock available for vegetarians. Also, we were spending a bit of time oohing and aahing over the sides but were short a couple of dollars. He picked up on it and asked which one we were looking at, and gave us a plate to try for free! Definitely going back!!

Solid Chinese food here located is the Eastwood area which is a suburb of Sydney. Eastwood is a…read morepopular Asian neighborhood with lots of Chinese foods and shops. It's a 45 min train ride from Sydney. Mr Stonepot has an extensive Chinese food menu and most of the dishes are solid. The prices are also very reasonable. We tried the lobster stir fry over noodles and enjoyed it. The pan fried Shanghai Dumplings had a generous portion of pork and soup. Also recommend the Taiwanese 3 cup chicken.

Always a line up in this small restaurant using the food court seats to accommodate everyone. You…read moreneed to write your name on the list and get a number. They specialize in clay pot dishes and every order that comes out looked good. We said, we'll order that next time. We ordered oxtail with special sauce and crab meat with mango slices placed on crispy cups. They're good! We're going back with friends tonight.

Very, very nice Indian food... Not the best I've had in Sydney... Not even the best Indian in a…read moreshopping mall food court in Sydney, but it's a pretty fair tie for the "Best Shopping Mall Food Court Indian in Sydney" title in my opinion! Generous portion size, large selection of curries in every variation, friendly staff, only issue was about a 5 minute wait on Cheese Naans.

A cheap eat that tastes oh so sweet! Delish butter chicken and cheese naan to dip. I was definitely…read moreimpressed by the food court Indian although my search for amazing Indian on the lower North Shore continues. Definitely a place to go back to but not a show stopper.

The Clay Pot Chicken with Lap Cheong (Chinese sausage) is excellent, as is the Soy Sauce chicken…read more The Won Tons are plump and tasty, great side dishes too. The cook makes his own sauce for vegetables which seems to be based on a light soy, but with some kind of magic ingredient added, possibly fish powder... He takes a bit of extra trouble, which quite different to the usual approach of simply pouring Hoisin on everything. Despite the Hong Kong dishes, there's a bit of a Malaysian influence here e.g. they refer to chili sauce as 'sambal', and serve some dishes such as Laksa as well.

It used to be my favourite place of wonton noodle soap, though expensive, $15, and quality is not…read moremaintaining at weekend. What makes me uncomfortable being the dark spots discovered on one of the five wontons today, and the explanation giving that they were the chemical reaction of alkaline soap on the pasta. I am not convinced yet, are you?