Canberra Business Owner Spotlight Hub
Bringing Bhutanese Flavours into Canberra’s Takeaway Scene
Canberra business Timbo’s Takeaway serving fast food and Bhutanese cuisine to locals and tradies seeking something different.
Business Snapshot
Business Name: Timbo’s Takeaway
Owner: Chador Gyelmo
Industry: Hospitality / Takeaway Food
Location: Canberra
Who They Help: Local workers, tradies, and food lovers looking for quick meals and unique Bhutanese flavours
Website: https://www.facebook.com/p/Timbos-Takeaway-61573919912738/
In Canberra’s busy takeaway landscape, Chador Gyelmo is quietly building something distinct. As the owner of Timbo’s Takeaway, she combines familiar fast food with traditional Bhutanese dishes, offering locals a chance to experience something they won’t easily find elsewhere.
With a background in hotel management and years spent working in hospitality, stepping into business ownership was both a long-held goal and a significant shift. What stands out is not just the menu, but the persistence required to turn an existing takeaway into something people actively seek out.
About The Business
Timbo’s Takeaway is a small, locally run takeaway that blends classic fast food with traditional Bhutanese cuisine. While burgers and takeaway staples bring in regular customers, it’s the Bhutanese dishes — rich in chilli and cheese, and centred around rice-based meals — that have created a point of difference.
Chador didn’t start from scratch. She purchased the business and stepped into an already operating takeaway, but one that needed new energy and direction. Drawing on her hospitality training and experience working at Parliament House, she made a key decision early — to introduce Bhutanese dishes to the menu.
"That decision reshaped the business. It gave existing customers something new to try and created a reason for others to travel specifically for the food."
Over time, word of mouth began to build, with customers returning and recommending the experience to others.
Today, the business sits in that familiar but challenging space for many Canberra operators — stable, known, and working — while still pushing towards its next stage of growth.
Q&A with Chador
What do you offer at Timbo’s Takeaway?
We do takeaway food like burgers and fast food, but also dishes from Bhutan. Our food is mainly rice-based with chilli and cheese, which is very common in Bhutan. A lot of people come to try it and come back again.
What’s something you’re proud of since starting?
I’m proud that I was able to finally start my own business. It was something I wanted to do for a long time.
What’s one decision that made a big difference?
Adding the Bhutanese menu. When I took over, the business didn’t have many customers. The Bhutanese food helped bring people in and kept the business going.
Why did you decide to go into business?
I studied hotel management and always wanted to start my own business. It didn’t happen straight away, but after working in hospitality for years, we decided to try running a business here in Canberra.
What has been the hardest part?
Staffing is the hardest. Finding staff, keeping them, and managing reliability — it affects everything in the business.
What are you working on improving right now?
I’m still working on the menu and trying to understand which days are busy and which are quiet. I’m also focusing on marketing through social media.
One thing that stood out
One thing that stood out here was how a single menu decision shifted the direction of the business. In Canberra, where competition between takeaways is high, introducing something genuinely different can move a business from competing on convenience to being chosen on purpose. This is a transition many Canberra business owners navigate as they look for ways to stand out in crowded local markets.
If you’re curious to try something different, Timbo’s Takeaway is well worth the visit.
Canberra Business Accelerators is a Fyshwick-based business coaching and advisory practice led by Natalie Sammons. It helps established Canberra business owners improve profit, reclaim time, strengthen teams, build leadership capability, and create scalable systems through one-to-one coaching, planning days, team development, and practical business workshops.
Canberra Business Accelerators is a Canberra-based business coaching and advisory practice led by Natalie Sammons. It helps established Canberra business owners improve profit, reclaim time, strengthen teams, build leadership capability, and create scalable systems through one-to-one coaching, planning days, team development, and practical business workshops.
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