Review | Chin Chin

My sister was in town recently, and to catch up, we decided to take Friday afternoon off from work, and have lunch at Chin Chin. Being a foodie fan, this was super exciting - since Chin Chin has been number one on Urbanspoon for a long time now!

I got there first, went inside, and was told that a table for 4 would be about a 45 minute wait - which we were very happy to do. The waitress told me that I would receive a text message to let me know when my table was ready, so we just decided to go for a stroll around the area. I got my message from Chin Chin probably about 30 minutes later, so we were pretty happy!

My sister ordered a Thai Basil cocktail - which looked so pretty, and tasted like... Thai Basil!

For our lunch, we ordered a few meals from each section of the menu to share. For entrée we ordered the Chin Chin Pork "Roll Ups", and the Grilled Roti 'Madtarbak Filled'.

The pork Roll Ups came out first, and looked awesome! The pancakes were so fine and delicate, and the pork was really well cooked and had a fairly strong (tasty) flavour. The accompanying salad was unbelievably zingy and fresh - with a combination of asian herbs, chilli and bean shoots. The sauce was amazing. It was so yummy and sweet and complemented the flavours of the pork and salad perfectly.

 

The Grilled Roti was also tasty. It was filled with an Indian flavoured beef curry and served with a cucumber relish. These were quite nice - the curry had a great flavour, but the dish was not as exciting as the pork roll ups.

For the mains, we had ordered a Pad Seuw of Braised Wagyu and Gai Laan, the famous Crispy Barramundi and Green Apple Salad with Caramelised Pork, a Yellow Curry of Roast Pumpkin, Tofu and Beans, and a serve of the Caramelised Sticky Pork.

The Pad Seuw was probably my favourite out of the main dishes. It was just so delicious. The rice noodles were so tender and had soaked up the delicious, sweet flavours of the sauce. The Wagyu was so perfect with this dish. The flavours were so so fresh, and the coriander (my favourite herb) was so green - bringing amazing colour to the whole dish. Gai Laan is a kind of Chinese broccoli which I have never had before, but it was very nice. Most of the other dishes we had ordered had a real chilli zing to them so the flavours of the Pad Seuw were a good break as well. I would definitely recommend this dish!

The Crispy Barramundi and Caramelised Pork dish was very interesting. The waiter had instructed us to taste both the fish and pork in a mouthful together - the flavours were a surprisingly delicious match! The salad that was served with this dish was amazing. The apple was so crisp and sweet. You could tell that they had really explored when choosing flavours for this dish.

The Yellow Curry was very mild and creamy. The Roast Pumpkin was really well cooked, and the dish was a really vibrant and impressive tumeric-yellow colour. We were trying to figure out what a particular vegetable was in the curry - I'm pretty sure it was from the Eggplant family since the taste was similar, but none of us could figure it out.

The Caramelised Sticky Pork was served with a sour herb salad and a zingy chilli vinegar. The pork had an amazing layer of crisp, sweet crackling - which we all dived onto first! The meat of the pork could have been a bit more tender and melt-in-your mouth, but even so, this dish was great. The caramelised sticky taste of the pork was really delicious, and the salad was to die for - I kept going back for more salad, and we cleaned the plate in minutes.

Overall the flavours at Chin Chin were extremely fresh, with lots and lots of delicious herbs and sweet flavours in the dishes we tried. I will most definitely try to return, if I can get a table!



**Read about my second visit to Chin Chin here!