Narrow restaurant Thong Thai’s street-facing kitchen is the gateway to the city’s unofficial Thai Town.
Every year, one side of Bourke Street Mall becomes a no-go zone: crowds three-deep stand agog at tiny snowflake-crusted trains and elves; dozens more are in sprawling queues. But you don’t need to wait for the Myer Christmas windows to be stopped in your tracks walking through the city. Catch a tram further up Bourke Street, any day of the week, and stand at the window of Thong Thai, whose kitchen literally fronts the restaurant.
Hoi tod – the fried-to-a-crisp seafood pancake – is the dish that most people stop to watch being made. A chef will deftly move planks of rice flour batter through hot oil, cooking until a golden crunch is achieved without destroying the tender bite of the mussels or scallops within.
It’s great street theatre for what’s become the main thoroughfare of Melbourne’s unofficial Thai Town. As the first restaurant you’ll encounter, Thong Thai could be the strip’s gateway, the equivalent of the oversized wok that towers over Victoria Street in Richmond just before the area’s dense stretch of Vietnamese restaurants.
Slender Thong Thai was opened in August 2023 by Angelo Yap and his friend, chef Tom Jitsawang, who cooks recipes drawn from his upbringing in Ubon Ratchathani in Thailand’s east. In two years, the menu has evolved to serve fewer curries and more “straight from Thailand” dishes, none diluted for western diners.
‘Do you really want to order that?’ your waitress may ask with raised eyebrows.
While you’re here, whether it’s for a 20-minute solo lunch or two hours of feasting, you’ll be disarmed by the aromas sailing past. It won’t happen just once or twice. Lime, galangal, lemongrass and fermented shrimp colour the air with regularity, making you want to keep ordering more, even if your table’s already covered in food. Thong Thai defies reason, over and over.
Is that two-metre-wide glassed-in kitchen at the front really turning out 40-odd dishes, spanning noodles, deep-fried dishes, curries and soups? Does that description of the fish curry list chicken feet among the ingredients? “Do you really want to order that?” your waitress may ask with raised eyebrows.
You’ll also be asked if you want things “Thai spicy”, medium or mild, and staff will let you know if the order looks light-on or too big.
There’s guardrails like this all through the experience. Chicken green curry? You got it. Pad Thai? Decide if you want it with prawns, chicken or vegetables and it’ll come out on a sizzling hot plate. But dig a little deeper and even things that may be unfamiliar on paper are not at all scary once you try them.
I’d bet that if the pork spine soup known as leng zaap was fed to someone blind-folded, a la the Culinary Class Wars cooking reality show on Netflix, they would name it as one of their all-time comfort foods, up there with osso buco or an oxtail ragu.
It comes out in a jaunty silver pot, with a clay chimney underneath to keep the herb-flecked soup bubbling away. The pork bones are stacked high, forming a teepee that pokes out of the broth, which is made from makrut lime and pork bones simmered for three-ish hours and seemingly restores your immune system with every spoonful.
For meat-eating adventures off the bone, head straight to tao hu moo sub: saucy pork mince tossed with little clouds of egg tofu. The salty rubble of the pork mince makes a satisfyingly chewy contrast to the delicate wobble of the tofu. It’s served with jok – a snowy-white rice porridge – and it’s a must-order.
Unfortunately, some mussels in the hoi tod were sacrificed in pursuit of supreme crispiness on one visit. But stir-fried greens – a mark of good wok skills – are a tangle of water spinach leaves and stems that still have bite, seasoned judiciously with oyster sauce and fermented soybean paste, and more liberally with chilli. It’s nice to see this dish treated as more than afterthought.
Thong Thai is a minnow compared to Victoria Street’s golden wok, but, with its big pan of hot oil, it’s just as important a landmark if you’re a fan of unbridled Thai cooking.
Three more Thai restaurants to try
Thai Asia Unique Cafe
For a food court kiosk, this low-key, ultra-affordable eatery serves an impressive swathe of dishes, covering southern stir-fries of pork mince and prawns with sator (stink bean), central Thailand’s boat noodles and more. Bring friends and share a whole fried fish and beers, or come solo for khao soi noodle soup at lunch.
Paramount Centre, 108 Bourke Street, Melbourne
Nana Thai
Brightly lit and ferociously efficient, this barbecue-hotpot joint is thronged by queues seeking DIY fun. Drape swatches of pork belly onto the hot plate at your table, along with curls of calamari, deep-pink pork liver and prawns. Build a spread by adding snappy green papaya salad, sticky rice, grilled pork balls and condiments.
169 Bourke Street, Melbourne, instagram.com/nana_mookata
More Crown
Thailand’s rice porridge, jok, isn’t a Melbourne mainstay, but it should be. There are about nine variations of the warming dish at this bright little spot, all ginger-laced and egg-topped. Season as you please with on-table condiments: fish sauce, ground chillies and more.
273 King Street, Melbourne, instagram.com/more.crown.mel
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Emma Breheny – Emma is Good Food’s Melbourne eating out and restaurant editor and editor of The Age Good Food Guide.
