Oh Boy! This is a Southeast-Asian winner
With Southeast-Asian food this good it’s little wonder that Golden Boy is so popular.
delicious SA
Don't miss out on the headlines from delicious SA. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Think ahead. This is one popular dining corner. Prime-time Golden Boy bookings call for compromises unless you plan well ahead. Fortunately, there are sittings up to about 10.15pm, an overflow to footpath tables, and an extension into the super cosy now-Boy-dedicated Botanic Bar space.
If you pack a cardy, effective outdoor heating and green screening make “terrace” tables an all-weather choice. There’s also a “cellar” bar downstairs adjacent to a private room. Rest assured, the obliging crew are switched on enough to service them all.
The original restaurant with open kitchen, to the right, is home to the biggest hubbub. For a quieter time, go left, to a curved leather booth in the former pub corner.
The Boy’s menu has seen some changes. Sadly no egg-net salad tonight, but plenty of GB’s signature balanced spice-hero crowd pleasers.
We dabble in a bit of DIY, piling tender pulled pork shoulder meat, cabbage, herbs and sweetie Thai sauce into torn thin pancake pieces. Spicy Thai sausage wins big nods from the boys, along with good fish cakes ready to wrap into lettuce cups.
Both make great bar food if you’re not in for a full spread.
There’s an excellent massaman wagyu beef curry, as faintly sweet as it should be. We debate the method behind barbecued turmeric chicken because it’s so, so juicy and tender. Poached, then char-grilled to get that lovely burnished skin? And, rather than dominating the plate, pad Thai noodles are a restrained element tumbled with chicken, tofu, and peanuts, and bound with punchy tamarind.
Only the papaya salad gets a “just-OK”, but to be fair we’ve taken wind out its sails to work with allergies. It will certainly be better, as designed, with chilli and prawns.
We love the coconut accents in our desserts. A giant banana fritter, soft then crunchy, is all about comfort, and a bowl of memory-tugging tapioca is in mod form with clementine and finely shredded kaffir lime.
It’s Southeast-Asian flavour and fun central, worth planning for.