Chin Chin | Surry Hills

Chin Chin lives by the philosophy that eating and drinking should be fun and relaxing much like our way of life. Chin Chin is regarded as one of the most popular restaurants in Australia and we have heard so many great things however, we were not impressed. Based on the dishes we ordered, there was little difference and in fact we would've preferred ordering from our local Thai restaurant instead (value for money). The music was extremely loud, so conversation was off the table and we also didn't have a pleasant dining experience (based on the people sitting next to us) so that might've played a factor in our judgement.

 

Pad Seuw

The Pad Seuw was served with braised wagyu beef, gai laan and shallots. There was something noticeably different with the rice noodles in this dish. If you order Pad Seuw anywhere else, you will have flat rice noodles. However, the one served at Chin Chin is rolled rice noodles. It's similar to the rice noodle roll dish you would typically order from yum cha. This introduces a bouncy texture and works well with the entire dish. The flavours were great however, the serving size was quite small, leaving only a few rolled rice noodles per person.

Massaman Curry
 The massaman curry had nice flavours but nothing different to what you would usually find in your local Thai restaurant. It's creamy, the beef was tender, falling apart with the spoon however, we weren't able to enjoy the curry - there was just way too many peanuts in the dish. Every spoonful had more peanuts than curry and it became very moreish after the second bite. We appreciate texture, but this was overkill.

We ordered drinks to start - drinks which sounded quite nice on the menu but tasted quite different on our tastebuds. It was definitely not easy to drink and quite cluggy. Unfortunately it wasn't the best experience for us. Hopefully it will be a better one should we decide to visit again.