Cheap & tasty Chinese lunch in Thornleigh

This is my first food blog. Allow me to rant a bit. While Instagram has a lots of influencers showcasing lots of fantastic food in Sydney, but being an old fart with a family to support and bills to pay, I often wonder WOW do people really live like this in Sydney ? 

Haha let's be upfront. I am a value for money kind of guy. Don't expect anything too fancy from me.

Thornleigh is close to Mom's place. We used to go there a lot when we were young. Yes.. We are talking about decades ago here. As time past, we stopped visiting Thornleigh. It was only last year that we dropped by Thornleigh again. What a surprise it was !!! The two Chinese restaurants we used to frequent are still there. OK... Obviously, they changed hands but suspect kitchen remain the same. They taste the same as years ago. Importantly, prices were VERY good (especially relative to other Chinese restaurants these days).

There are two of them in this building. Central Park Chinese Restaurant (upstairs) (

大華海鮮)  and Chiu Chow Garden (downstairs).

The "special" bit about these two restaurants is they have congee on their menus. And they make good congees. 

Our typical order for 2 is congee (usually 艇仔粥) and a noodle dish. In both restaurants, congee would be around $12-14. Noodle dish would be $15-20 at Chiu Chow Garden and $18-19 at Central Park.

At the moment, my verdict is Central Park makes a better 艇仔粥. But Chiu Chow is better value overall... Our bill would be $2-3 less at Chiu Chow than Central Park because the noodle dish would be around $15 vs. $18-19 at Central Park. Importantly, the portion size of the noodle dish is larger at Chiu Chow as well.

Chiu Chow is our week day go to lunch place over Central Park at the moment. But taste wise, both are comparable.

One more tip is they both try to upsell 油炸鬼. I would skip it if you are a value for money person.

Also Central Park is closed on Tuesday. Chiu Chow Garden is closed on Wed. They get busy on Sunday (the Church crowd).

One more note is we have not been to their dinner recently so can't  vouch for their dinner menus these days. 

Worth checking them out if you are craving for good congees in Sydney.