Thainatown, Haymarket Sydney

Beef rad naa $7.80
Stir fried flat rice noodles and egg
with beef, gravy sauce and Chinese broccoli

I would never think to look for a restaurant on this stretch of Goulburn Street. We're opposite the Masonic Centre yet this unassuming blink-and-you'll-miss-it Thai eatery is filled with locals who are hungrily digging in to bowls of noodles, plates of rice, and mounds of spicy curries.

It's my second visit to Thainatown after initially discovering it via Sydney Eats. I like this guide. It's filled with eats that are high on flavour, and low on prices.

On my first visit with J, I tried their famous catfish salad ($10.50). A plate of raw cabbage slices is topped with fluffy fried catfish shreds and topped with a sour fish sauce dressing. J has the bbq pork neck ($9.50), a tumble of tamarind-marinated pork neck slices that comes with a saucer of potent dressing that reeks of garlic, tamarind and chilli. We also share the gui chai garlic cake (3 pieces for $5.00), which turn out to be fried dumplings chock-full of garlic chives.



Garlic is an essential theme ingredient here, as helpfully noted on their menu.

My second visit is with Veruca Salt and AN. AN has the beef rad naa, a jumble of slippery flat rice noodles stir-fried with slices of beef, chunks of crunchy Chinese broccoli, a little egg and smothered in a sweet salty sauce that has the backburn of chilli.


Beef fried rice $7.80
with egg, onions, Chinese broccoli, tomato and spring onion

Veruca Salt opts for the fried rice--it looks a little wet for my liking, but Veruca is happy enough.


Boat noodle soup (black soup) $7.50
Rice noodles with blended herbal soup base, beef balls,
Chinese broccoli, liver and intestines

I've gone for another house specialty, the boat noodle soup. If you choose the beef balls over pork, you will be rewarded with a melange of liver and intestines.

The soup is sweet and herbal, reminding me a little of bak ku teh. The cavernous bowl is filled with soft rice noodles, blanched Chinese broccoli pieces, beef balls, soft slices of liver and the delicious chewy tubes of intestine. I love my offal.

The soup feels nourishing and innately good for you, even if there a pork belly cubes--dried and deep-fried to a golden crisp--scattered across the top.



The decor is minimal, the cutlery is in a metal box on the table, and the only soundtrack in here is the clang of metal on the woks in the kitchen. Sounds like a perfect Sydney Eat to me.


Thainatown
91 Goulburn Street, Haymarket, Sydney
(near corner of Pitt Street,
opposite the Masonic Centre which is next door to World Square)
Tel: +61 (02) 9211 0090

Open 7 days 11am-10pm

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