could this be the key to solving frustrated
Chat Thai’ers who are sick of joining the infamous queues?

Sydney’s eating culture has some what changed over the past couple of years. These days popular Asian restaurants have a clip board stand with a form for those keen to join a queue which can sometimes be a pain in the butt if your not in the mood to stand around.

After walking past Home Thai Restaurant numerous times on a Friday night, my first impressions reminded me of Chat Thai due to the similar branding and restaurant concept. After being curious for quite some time, the restaurant was packed out without the crazy queues which was a shock as I was prepared to wait 20minutes or so. While waiting briefly (5minutes), the big glass windows displays thai chefs cooking as it is bound to draw attention to anyone walking past.

When we were seated, you instantly notice all waitresses have ipads which is what they use to place orders. When browsing through the extensive menu, I immediately noticed the amount of n/a stickers on the dishes that was unavailable. Many of them were the ones I wanted to try such as the sai groog isan (thai sausages). Having said this, they have an extensive menu so don’t worry there is heaps of food to choose from.

entree

Sai qua – Homemade from Northern, deep fried pork marinated with Thai herbs served with fresh ginger and vegetable
Chili wusses this is something you’d want to avoid as you’d most likely feel this is going to burn your tongue off. I loved it it was extremely fiery enough for a chili lover to want more. (J) & (B) couldn’t stomach it so (M) and I were there rubbing our hands with excitement ^_^

yum hua pla – Banana flower with chicken, prawn, shallot, coriander, onion, dried coconut, cashew nut, fried shallot, chili jam with chef’s dressing
A popular dish which many seem to order. It reminds me of cambodian / thai paw paw salad. Really refreshing salad type dish which has a lot of flavour and is divine and healthy!

Musmun curry – Slow cooked beef with massaman curry paste, coconut milk, tomato,
onion, peanut on top with fried onion
For those who are used to musmun curry that is thick with coconut milk, this musman curry was the opposite which was blardy delicious. I loved it because it didn’t feel dirty or heavy like Thai curries can often make you feel. The texture of the whole peanuts with the delicate beef melted in your mouth. Different musman curry and one which you must try.

Pad See Ew – Fresh rice sheet noodles wok tossed in a soy sauce with pork, Chinese broccoli and egg
Probably one of the most satisfying pad see ew’s i’ve had in a very long time. The flavouring was spot on and for once it wasn’t oily like it usually is. Eggs were very generous which is one of the main ingredients of making awesome noodles.

Pad Khing – Stir fried chicken with fresh ginger, onion, shallot, fungus, long chili and black bean sauce
A simple stir fry. We ordered this because the picture in the menu looked great but when it came out didn’t quite look like what we saw aww. Hardly got any fungus and chili which was a shame but hey, it was still a pleasure to eat despite some of the ingredients not prominent in the dish.

dessert

Steamed sticky dumplings stuffed with sweet peanut and garnished with coriander, lettuce and chili
We had no idea how to eat this so we decided to experiment. At first bite it was quite unusual eating it on its own, sticky textured dumplings with a sweet yet savoury peanuts. The second dumpling, I decided to incorporate the condiments by wrapping lettuce around the dumpling (almost like eating san choy bau) with chili and the coriander. My god it was actually really delicious I assume the correct way is to eat it with the greens??.

Par tuhng go
Must order dessert! This is the signature dessert as everyone had a plate of this on their tables. I couldn’t resist pandan and coconut and of course the golden crunchy & fluffy interior of the fried donuts (also known as yau ja gwai (cantonese) and dau chao quay (vietnamese)) which is often eaten when downing a bowl of congee! Who needs san churros when you could have this??? Its a billion times better ^_^

tub tim krob – coconut milk, ice shavings with tapioca
Refreshing summer dessert if your not up for eating anything heavy. Tapioca balls are soft and chewy which reminds me of similar type which (B’s) mom makes.

Verdict, deep down Chat Thai’ers will always be the peoples favourite but Home Thai restaurant does a great job with their food and is no doubt an option if I really can’t be bothered lining for ages. Home’s website states their food is “authentic” thai cuisine so if anyone out there is thai, i’d love to hear your thoughts!

Home
Shop 1 – 2 / 299 Sussex Street
Sydney, 2000
P: (02) 9261 5058
W: homethai.com.au