Over the years, Chef and I have eaten at many Michelin starred restaurants throughout the UK and in France. Chef has fond memories of running his own section in the kitchen of a Michelin starred restaurant in the Derbyshire countryside. I worked in the kitchen too… as a dishy! So, when I heard a Michelin starred standard restaurant was hitting Perth, I was very, very excited.
I was invited to Tim Ho Wan, which originated in Hong Kong, on their sneak peek launch night. The arrival of the Dim Sum spot at newly opened Raine Square has been causing a lot of buzz. It was a hole in the wall eatery that was hailed as the most affordable Michelin starred restaurant in the world. While we don’t have the Michelin bench mark here in Australia, this set my expectations very high.
Being the opening, we were treated to Chinese lion dancing, music and good luck traditions.
I’m not that familiar with most Chinese cuisine, so the pictured menu did come in handy. There’s a lot of choice of Dim Sum, or “bite sized offerings”. We were given a notepad, for writing up your own order.
Then I pressed the “doorbell” button on the table when we were ready to send the order to the kitchen.
Our Chinese tea and food came out of the bustling kitchen in record time. No sooner had our order been picked up from the table, plates and trays started arriving just minutes later. The food comes out as its ready and soon our entire table was brimming with food.
Being gluten intolerant I was limited to what I could order but there was enough to fill me up. I tried congee with pork, century egg and salted egg, a sort of savoury rice porridge. Rice with chicken, sausage and mushroom was also a GF winner.
I couldn’t get enough of the steamed beef balls with bean curd skin. The poached fresh seasonal vegetables were nicely coated in soy sauce. Other dishes people on my table enjoyed were pan-fried turnip cake, steamed prawn dumplings, spring roll with egg white and these pretty crisp, deep fried wasabi salad prawn dumplings.
I’ll put my hands up and admit I was far too chicken (!!) to try the braised chicken feet with abalone sauce. I’m pretty adventurous, but that was a bit too much, even for me.
By this time we were starting to struggle, but had just enough tummy space to fit in a sweet and creamy mango sago pomelo.
I did expect Tim Ho Wan to be a bit more “high end”. I didn’t realise we placed our orders on paper and used the bell – like at Pappa Rich. We both left feeling full. The menu wasn’t expensive and though it’s not my cup of tea, I’m sure it’s going to be a popular addition to William Street.
Find out more on Tim Ho Wan here.
I was invited to dine as a guest. All words, images and opinions are my own.