"Smoked tea duck" and Chinese fried rice at Tasty Bites, Chatswood

Today’s food review takes us to a small shop located near to the Chatswood Train Station. It is called Tasty Bites (Chinese Cuisine) and its address is at 455 Victoria Avenue, Chatswood. Since we didn’t have much time to spare, we ordered two dishes from the menu. One is the Chinese style fried rice with shrimp and egg and the second one is the Chef’s Special which is the “smoked tea duck”.

Chinese style fried rice with shrimps and egg

The Chinese style fried rice with shrimp and egg was pretty good. It has the “wok hei” taste which means the rice was fried with a strong flame. Even though it was a simple dish but it was tasty with a nice flavour. We would rate this dish 8/10. This plate of fried rice is sufficient for two people.

The Chef's Special - "Smoked tea duck"

The next dish was the Chef’s Special (as stated in their Menu) which is the “smoked tea duck”. As many of us know that when it comes to preparing a duck dish, the challenge is to get rid of the “gamey smell”. We were not sure whether this particular duck dish would have that “gamey smell’. When the “smoked tea duck” was brought to our table, there was a hint of “gamey smell” coming from the dish. We also noticed that the “smoked tea duck” was deep fried and not “smoked” as we first thought. Due to the fact that the “smoked tea duck” was deep fried, we could see that the plate was quite greasy and oily. Now, that was only what we could see from the dish, we had not taken a bite of the dish yet. When we took our first bite of the “smoked tea duck”, we were pleasantly surprised that there wasn’t any “gamey smell” from the meat. The skin and bones were crispy because they were deeply fried, the meat was succulent and had the “tea” and “smokey” flavour to it. We believe that the “tea” or a similar seasoning must have “cured” the meat and removed the “gamey smell”. Given the fact that the “smoked tea duck” had the “gamey smell” when it was first brought to the table but the flavour was good and tasty. We couldn't taste any “ gamey smell” when we took a bite. Therefore, we would give it a rating of 7/10.

In conclusion and based on our dining experience, we would rate the service at Tasty Bite a 7/10. Keeping in mind that the restaurant is rather small and they only had one server, the service was prompt and polite. As for the ambient, we would give a 5/10 due to its size and  layout.