Persian in Chatswood: finding food, shops and people
Looking for Persian food, shops or people in Chatswood, Sydney? How I would search, what to check before you go, and where Iranians in Sydney talk online.
If you searched "Persian Chatswood", you are probably looking for one of three things in Chatswood, on Sydney's North Shore: Persian food, a Persian shop (groceries, rugs, sweets), or other Iranians to talk to. I live in Los Angeles, not Sydney, so I will not pretend to know which kebab place on which street is good this month. Restaurants open and close, and a list from me would be stale or wrong. What I can do is tell you how I would find them quickly, what to check before you make the trip, and where Persian speakers in Sydney find each other online, including on Hashti, the app I built.
Why I am writing about a suburb I have never visited
I am Armenian-Iranian. In Los Angeles we are spoiled. There are whole stretches of the city where you can buy barbari bread, sangak, saffron and a Nowruz haft-sin set without speaking a word of English. Most of the diaspora does not live like that. They live in places where there might be one Persian restaurant, one grocery shelf of Iranian goods, and a handful of families who found each other by accident.
Chatswood is best known as a busy shopping and transport hub, with a large Chinese and Korean community and a lot of Asian food. That is exactly the kind of place where Persian food and Persian people exist but are harder to spot. So the question behind this search is a real one: where are my people here?
How to find Persian food in Chatswood today
Search the map, then read the newest reviews
Open Google Maps or Apple Maps and search "Persian restaurant Chatswood", then try "Iranian restaurant" and "kebab" too, because not every place calls itself Persian. Some list themselves as Middle Eastern or Afghan, and Afghan food shares a lot with Iranian cooking.
Then do three things before you trust a result:
1. Sort reviews by newest. A place with great reviews from three years ago might have changed owners or closed. 2. Look at the photos people posted recently. If you see tahdig, ghormeh sabzi, joojeh kabab or proper saffron rice, it is likely run by people who know the food. 3. Check today's opening hours, and call if it matters. Small family places often close on a quiet weekday or for holidays.
Widen the circle
If Chatswood itself comes up short, zoom out. Sydney's Iranian community is spread across many suburbs, and the best Persian food is often a short drive or train ride away rather than in the busiest shopping centre. Searching "Persian grocery Sydney" or "Iranian bakery Sydney" usually turns up more than searching one suburb.
Ask a real person
The fastest way to find good Persian food anywhere is to ask an Iranian who lives there. Every diaspora has a group chat that knows which place makes real kabab koobideh and which one just puts Persian on the sign. That brings me to the bigger question.
What if you mean Persian rugs or Persian cats
"Persian" also means two other things people search for. If you want Persian rugs, search "Persian rug Chatswood" or "rug cleaning Sydney" on a map, and be careful with "closing down" sales that never seem to close; that is a common sales trick in the rug trade everywhere, not just in Sydney. If you mean Persian cats, look for registered breeders or rescue groups rather than random listings. I will leave both of those there, because this blog is about people and conversation.
Finding Iranians in Chatswood and Sydney
In person
Look for these, because they are where the community actually gathers:
- Nowruz events in March. Persian New Year is the one time of year almost every Iranian shows up somewhere. Search for Nowruz or Persian New Year events in Sydney a few weeks ahead.
- Chaharshanbe Suri, the fire-jumping night before the last Wednesday of the year, and Yalda night in December. Smaller events, but often warmer.
- Persian classes for adults and cultural associations. Search for Iranian or Persian community associations in Sydney and check that the page has been updated recently.
- The grocery shop counter. I mean this seriously. The person behind the counter at a Persian grocery usually knows every event, every new restaurant and every family in the area.
Online
A lot of the Iranian diaspora lives online first, partly because so many of us are spread out. The places I see most are Instagram, Telegram groups and channels, Facebook groups for Iranians in a given city, and WhatsApp groups that you only get into through a friend. Each has trade-offs.
- Instagram is great for finding businesses and events, less good for actually talking.
- Telegram has huge Persian-language groups, but anyone can make an account, and spam and fake profiles are common. Its normal chats are not end-to-end encrypted.
- Facebook groups for Iranians in Sydney can be very useful for practical questions, like where to buy something, depending on how well they are moderated.
- WhatsApp groups are usually the most trusted, because you only get in through someone who knows you. The catch is that you need to know someone first.
Where Hashti fits, honestly
I built Hashti because I wanted a place where people from my community could find each other without the fake accounts and harassment that come with most open groups. It will not tell you where to buy saffron in Chatswood. It is a place to talk.
Hashti has public rooms with names and topics, where you can start or join a room for Iranians in Sydney, Persian speakers in Australia, or anything else. There are also private chats, calls and a walkie-talkie for once you have met people. It is free, it is for adults 18 and over, and it is out now on the App Store, with Android in its closed test.
The part that matters most to me is the identity check described on the safety page. Everyone verifies once against a government document. The photo is deleted, but a fingerprint stays, so the same document cannot open a second account. Unverified accounts cannot host rooms, speak in voice rooms or message strangers. Twelve verified reports closes an account permanently. For a small, spread-out community, that matters, because one bad actor can ruin a group chat for everybody.
Two honest limits. First, Hashti is new, so the Sydney rooms will be smaller than a big Telegram group for now. Second, the app's own interface is in English today; a Farsi interface is being built. You can of course write in Farsi in any room.
If your family is mixed, say a Persian-speaking parent and an English-speaking partner or kids, live translation in 29 languages comes with Hashti Plus. Everything else in the app is free.
A small thing that helps
When you do find the good Persian place in Chatswood, or the shop that stocks real sangak, tell someone. Post it in a room, leave a recent review, tell the person who asked the same question you did last week. Diaspora communities run on these small favours. Someone did it for me in Los Angeles years ago, and it is a big part of why I ended up building a place for people like us to talk.
Hashti is free, and it is 18+. Hashti Plus — live translation, writing help and catch-ups — is $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year, and nothing else costs anything. How rooms work is on the rooms page, and how reports and the ID check work is on the safety page.