What to eat in Chatswood: 5 places to start
Japanese beef cutlets finished at the table, Thai crab curry, fresh pasta, soup-filled dumplings or Vietnamese pho: these 5 restaurants give you somewhere specific to start eating in Chatswood.
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The small hot stone beside your plate is part of the meal at Gyukatsu Kyoto Katsugyu. The kitchen briefly fries a breadcrumb-coated beef cutlet, then you finish the slices at the table, cooking each to your preferred doneness and trying the accompanying sauces and condiments as you go.
For a first visit, start with the sirloin gyukatsu set. Wagyu and other cuts give you alternatives if you want to explore the beef selection, while seafood and vegetable options accommodate diners looking for something else. The individual set-meal format makes this a straightforward choice when everyone wants to order their own main.
The Chatswood restaurant sits on Victor Street, opposite Westfield, and accepts walk-ins only.
Chat Thai
At Chat Thai in Chatswood Place, a useful way into the extensive menu is to build a meal around a curry, something grilled and a salad. Start with gaeng bpu: crab meat in a yellow curry scented with betel leaves, with rice vermicelli served separately. Add pork skewers or turmeric-and-lemongrass chicken, then choose a papaya salad to bring a different flavour to the table.
There is more than one version of that salad. Som dtum Thai includes peanuts and dried shrimp; som dtum bpu bpla ra adds fermented fish and pickled field crab for a more pronounced fermented flavour. The distinction is worth noticing before you order.
For an individual meal, padt si-ew brings together broad rice noodles, chicken, egg and Chinese kale with dark soy. You can explore the larger menu without committing to a tableful of dishes.
Fabbrica Pasta Bar
Fabbrica’s Chatswood Chase pasta bar suits a meal built around one bowl, with a snack or dessert if you want to stay longer. Spaghetti cacio e pepe is the pared-back starting point, centred on cheese and pepper. The current menu also moves into seafood: mafaldine with prawns and kombu butter, or tonnarelli with blue swimmer crab and chilli.
For something to eat before the pasta, the zucchini flower comes filled with mozzarella and ricotta, finished with hot honey. Pumpkin ravioli with sage and brown butter offers another direction, while chocolate tiramisu rounds out the dessert selection.
This is a walk-in pasta bar on the Lower Ground level, making it an option to work into a visit to Chatswood Chase without arranging a reservation.
New Shanghai
Start with 2 different dumpling styles at New Shanghai: steamed xiao long bao and pan-fried pork buns. Both hold broth inside, but the buns bring a browned base to the comparison. The restaurant’s visible dumpling-making area adds something to watch while you wait.
A first order could pair the dumplings with garlic cucumber and Shanghai stir-fried noodles. For a larger shared meal, look further into the Shanghainese dishes, including pork belly slowly braised with quail eggs in sweetened soy. There is enough beyond dumplings to build a full lunch or dinner without losing the focus of the meal.
With the soup-filled dumplings, let a little broth into your spoon before taking a bite. New Shanghai’s own menu recommends this approach—the filling can be hot.
Pho Thin
The beef goes into a hot pan before it reaches the soup at Pho Thin. Its signature phở tái lăn uses flash-fried beef, giving this northern Vietnamese noodle soup a different preparation from pho in which raw slices cook in the broth.
That is the bowl to start with at the restaurant’s Concourse location. If you want a combination of beef preparations, the Chatswood menu also offers brisket alongside the stir-fried beef. Chicken and tofu-and-vegetable pho provide alternatives, with spring rolls available if you want something alongside your noodles.
The focus on individual bowls makes Pho Thin a useful option for eating alone or when everyone wants their own meal.
If you are eating between shops, Fabbrica and New Shanghai are both in Chatswood Chase. For a late lunch, Pho Thin’s published 9am–9pm hours offer more flexibility: Chat Thai closes between lunch and dinner, and Gyukatsu Kyoto Katsugyu takes an afternoon break on weekdays.
