Brisbane restaurants: Jumbo Thai’s creative take on tradition | Review

With equal parts tradition and imagination, in a top spot above Brisbane’s Embassy Hotel, Jumbo Thai wins over our reviewer in a single sitting. Does he like it? No, he loves it

Jumbo Thai Restaurant & Bar recently opened in Elizabeth St in Brisbane’s CBD.

This might sound a little melodramatic, but the truth is I’ve been waiting for somewhere like Jumbo to open in Brisbane for years. Decades even.

It’s a Thai restaurant with equal parts tradition and imagination, in a splendid setting above the Embassy Hotel. Sure, we have had Longtime strutting its stuff for a while now, but that’s more rock ’n’ roll Thai meets mod-oz. And there’s Thai-Wi-Rat – food from the streets and long-houses. Jumbo is luxe, polished and exotic.

The upscale ambience of Jumbo Thai Restaurant & Bar sets a new standard in Brisbane.

Which isn’t to say that Jumbo sits within the same confines as every suburban Thai – fishcakes, spring rolls, curry puffs and moneybags; green, red, massaman and Penang curries; pad Thai; stir fries – a menu that’s repeated thrice in every suburb.

The Jumbo kitchen has taken those traditional dishes and spun them with the stuff of Queensland. Like grilled Queensland scallops with finger lime (that’s bush tucker) and fried shallot ($16). And bao (salapao) with soft-shelled crabs, ginger and chilli mayonnaise ($12). Green curry with Angus beef cheeks ($34, pictured right); southern-Thai yellow curry with local sand crab and betel leaves ($42).

It’s a clever melding of the local fruits and meats that we Queenslanders prize and the dishes of Thailand.

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We begin with betel leaves holding a sticky, sweet ball of coconut, peanuts and tofu, topped with smoked trout and salmon roe ($16). Are they too sweet? Maybe, but they are seriously delicious, and the trout is a nice touch.

Better are butterfly-pea flower steamed dumplings with crab ($14). They’re gorgeously blue, textural, dainty, just beautiful. Larb, I reckon, is the litmus test for Thai. It’s a relatively simple dish, but also a balancing act: larb can be great and it can be mundane.

The Jumbo version ($24) is pork-based and laced with pieces of liver. Top marks for the offal. That’s authenticity rearing its head.

House made green curry with braised beef cheek and grilled eggplant, Jumbo Thai

It’s a meat-heavy version, the toasted rice more a background component than a feature. And it’s tame: we ask for Thai-hot and I don’t reckon they believe us. Sure, it’s runny-nose territory but well short of what it could be. Still, that’s a quibble: it’s a decadent larb.

Even more decadent is the yellow curry with sand crab ($42). There are so many big, fat chunks of fresh meat, it’s quite extraordinary as well as rich, and filling.

But dish of the day goes to a bowl of som-tam with salted egg ($21). It’s explosively flavoured – sour, sweet, savoury and salty – and invigoratingly fresh.

But, once again, it could use more chilli.

Wasana and Andrew Park, owners of Jumbo Thai on Elizabeth St, city. Picture: Tara Croser.

There is plenty of choice in terms of drinks – Thai beers, craft beers, ginger beers and cider; a great list of cocktails and a solid, lengthy wine list, culminating in a rather well-priced bottle of 1996 Grange ($1100).

Although I don’t like the idea of spoiling the Grange with Thai food, or spoiling the Thai food with Grange. But each to their own.

I’m a fan of Jumbo; I love it. It has been cunningly pieced together using an intimate knowledge of Thai cuisine and a grasp of the Brisbane market.

At last!

SCORES OUT OF 10

Food: 8.5

Drinks: 8

Vibe: 8

Service: 7

JUMBO THAI RESTAURANT & BAR

Level 1, 214 Elizabeth St, city

Ph: 3477 6464

Chef: Chatchai Taewpia

Lunch Mon-Sat; dinner daily

Vegetarian and gluten-free options