Sydney Eat Street: Experience culinary delights in Thai Town
Originally known as ‘Thainatown’, this pocket of eateries close to Sydney’s Chinatown in Haymarket was originally just for the Thai community. Now the secrets of Thai Town are out, offering a wide array of Thai food for everyone to enjoy.
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BOON CAFE AND JARERN CHAI GROCER
When you think BYO, it almost always comes in wine-bottle form but at Boon Cafe it is a little more interesting than that. Bring along a recipe card as there’s shopping to be had as well.
What’s on the menu here is also available – or more precisely the ingredients are available.
Should any one of the breakfast, lunch and dinner items serve as inspiration for some home cooking, if there are Thai ingredients to be had, odds are they will be found inside the adjoining Jarern Chai Grocer.
Boon Cafe and Jarern Chai Grocer blended seamlessly to create a cafe within a grocery store or is it grocery store within a cafe? Either way it’s a one-stop shop that sells Thai dry goods ranging from nostalgic snacks to coveted curry pastes, has its own veggie cool room and offers pre-packed takeaway meals from sister restaurants, Chat Thai.
The cafe is open from brekkie through to midnight. The predominantly Thai menu is garnished with western staples such as the Big Boon Breakfast, which is a tasting tray of congee, skewered pork, baked eggs, organic pasture raised bacon, avocado, mushrooms and sourdough toast or spicy pork herb sausage toasted sandwich.
Boon’s seasonal menu is based on what’s fresh from their own Boon Luck Farm, near Byron Bay.
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If you are simply after a refreshment or a snack, their cold pressed juices are delicious and beyond healthy, particularly the “seasonal greens” which include 10 different ingredients.
Or opt for the lovely blue butterfly pea iced tisane (herbal tea) along with one of their housemade pastries such as their signature pandan croissants or pandan chiffon cake.
— 1/425 Pitt St, Haymarket; facebook.com/booncafethai
SHOW NEUA THAI STREET FOOD
You’d be hard pressed to find a northern Thai restaurant in Sydney, let alone know the specific dishes of that region.
At Show Neua, co-owner Pitt Yimsiri sets out to change that, modelling the menu off the region’s popular Hawker-style foods.
Rather than weaving through bumpy roads and whizzing scooters, here the ambience is set by the floor to ceiling dark shelves filled with an eclectic trove of time-worn treasures. In the middle of it all, vintage peddle-power sewing machines serve as table bases. There’s not a lotus blossom in sight.
It appears to be a way of emphasising how different Northern Thai dishes are from the more southern seafood and coconut centric regions popular with Australian tourists.
Show Neua’s signature dish – Khao Soi – is one of those quick comfort dishes you’d grab from a vendor on the streets in Chiang Mai, the largest city in the mountainous regions of Northern Thailand.
Khao Soi is red curry soup with egg noodles and chicken, topped with red onion, pickled vegetables and lime.
The broth is thinner than its southern counterparts and a nest of deep-fried noodles is set on top for that extra bit of crunch.
Other popular dishes include Kanom Jeen Nam Ngeaw, spicy pork bone broth with rice vermicelli, pork blood curd and meat bone pork, served with fresh bean sprouts, dry chilli, and pickle cabbage on the side or the fried baby clams with Thai herbs and chillies. And a cold Thai iced-tea.
— Shop 2A/710 George St, Haymarket; facebook.com/showneuathai
CHAT THAI
From day one, Chat Thai has been a family affair and now 30 years on that one small Thai eatery has blossomed into a Sydney institution, with seven outlets, a couple other eateries, a grocery store and Boon Luck Farm, an organic farm near Byron Bay – all still under the family umbrella.
It was matriarch Amy Chanta though that set the tone, naming that first venture for what she envisioned people would be doing in a casual Thai eatery – ‘chatting’ over Thai food – thus Chat Thai.
The Boon Luck Farm is also a key part of their authenticity in that the herbs and produce – from eggplant to chillies – needed for each recipe is purposely grown there.
“You have to warn customers about the (authentic) food,” Chat Thai Thai Town’s manager, Sue says.
“It can be quite pungent.”
The menu is extensive. It features nine versions of papaya salad (Som Dtum) alone, including a northern region rendition with pickled crab that both sour and salty; a Laotian version with fermented fish and pickled crab which has a strong, distinct flavour and salty; the traditional version that every one knows with peanuts, dried shrimp and a blend that’s spicy, salty, and slightly sweet.
A house favourite is the Gaeng Bpu, Yellow curry with crabmeat, betel leaves with rice vermicelli noodles and the sen mee padt goong, stir-fry rice vermicelli noodles, prawns, hens egg, seasonal vegetables and chilli.
It’s a big menu so plenty to save for your next visits but before you go, finish off with mango and sticky rice or one of their other desserts, which you can watch being made from the streetfront window.
— 20 Campbell St, Haymarket; chatthai.com.au
THANON KHAOSAN
If a pale blue vending cart out in front of this restaurant, stacked head high with clear plastic containers of colourful Thai desserts and sliced mango with coconut milk doesn’t stop you nothing will.
It’s a welcoming invite to eat great Thai at Thanon Khaosan. The vending cart draws much attention but in hot weather, the queue is for the coconut ice cream, which is scooped into a hollowed out coconut then topped with more mango.
It’s so tempting to start off with dessert.
Inside Thanon Khaosan is a back street bar feel with street signs, wooden stools, exposed brick and hanging lamps.
The menu is filled with all the Thai classics from raw prawns in spicy fish sauce, Pad Thai with grilled king prawns, red duck curry came served in a whole coconut with the removed lid and extra curry and roasted duck glazed with plum sauce, served with stir fried vegetables and shiitake mushroom.
— 413 Pitt St, Haymarket; thanonkhaosan.com.au
NEW THAINATOWN
Whether you’re wanting to stay in familiar territory or expand your culinary horizons this no-fuss, no-frill establishment is your noodle destination.
For zesty, there’s the ever-popular Tom Yum spicy soup with thin rice noodles or for something truly substantial, the Boot Noodle Soup – thin rice noodle with blended blood jelly, pork or beef balls and Chinese broccoli.
— 91 Goulburn St, Sydney
THAI TOWN LUNAR NEW YEAR FESTIVAL
Say ‘Sawasdee’ to Thai Town on the weekend of February 8 and 9 as the streets around this tight community come alive to celebrate not only the end of the Lunar Festival but also to showcase all the delights of Thailand that are available here in Sydney.
Hosted by the Thai Town Business community, this is a two-day event filled with song, dance, crafts and food. Lots of food.
From beautiful tropical fruits and green papaya salads, to icy coconut and mango desserts and rich curries, it’s all to be had here and to make it even more appetising, 30 local eateries in Thai Town, including Chat Thai, Khao San and Show Neua, will be offering either complementary dishes or 10-15 per cent discounts.
Pick up a map at the festival, or download it along with vouchers from the website, for a guide around the two square blocks that make up Thai Town, where you can take a culinary tour through the northern, southern, north-eastern and central regions of Thailand.
Inside The Metro Marlow Hotel there’ll also be an abundance of market stalls, decorations and much more entertainment.
— Thai Town; thaitbc.org/wp/