13D Australia Summer Trip: Chat Thai, Sydney
Before I went to Sydney for my birthday trip, a lot of my friends suggested to eat Thai and Vietnamese food in Australia because (a) they are pretty authentic and (b) they taste so good. When I did my google search for "best Thai food in Sydney", the name Chat Thai popped up quite a number of times in both Zomato and Tripadvisor. It receives a lot of good reviews from the netizens and hence, we decided to just eat Thai food there.
Chat Thai is located pretty near to Chinatown area in Haymarket in Sydney. The first thing that you have to do when you reach Chat Thai is to write your name in the waiting list. The next thing that you have to do is waiting for your number to be called. Since there are only two of us, my number got called pretty fast. We probably only waited for less than 10 minutes.
Chat Thai is bustling with diners on a Thursday evening. Not a lot of restaurants can achieve "full-house" on a weekday night but Chat Thai does not seem to have problem achieving that. The restaurant was created almost 25 years ago as a meeting place for diners to socialise and chat about thai food, and food in general. I suppose that's how the restaurant got its name, Chat Thai.
Chat Thai offers a variety of honest and authentic Thai fare to Sydney diners. It splits it menu by starters such as Mhu Bing: Grilled Pork Skewers (AUD 6 for 2) and Todt Mun Bpla: Fried Fish Cakes (AUD 11), grilled and fried dishes such as Gai Yaang: chargrilled turmeric and lemongrass marinated chicken (AUD 12) and Kai Jiew Bpu: golden and puffy crab meat omelette (AUD 22), and noodles such as Padt Thai: stir-fried thin rice noodles and Padt Si Ew: stir-fried wide rice noodles (both AUD 9.90). A wide selection of curries, soup, desserts and drinks are available too at reasonable price. Since Sydney was so hot in late February, we started our dinner by drinking the iced Thai tea. The tea tastes super good. I think it's really the same type of tea that you can find on a street in Bangkok.
My friend immediately screamed in excitement when she saw the dish named "Crying Tiger". For a moment, I wonder if this restaurant really cooks tiger meat but thankfully, the meat is beef. Crying Tiger (AUD 12) is actually char-grilled beef tenderloin with smoked chilli and tamarind relish. The chilli sauce and the beef goes well together.
When you are eating Thai food, Padt Thai (AUD 9.90) is a must-order. The portion served at Chat Thai is huge and the Padt Thai is filled with a lot of hearty seafood ingredients like squid and mussels. I love the Padt Thai but I give those bean sprouts a miss. Chat Thai totally does not skimp on the seafood ingredients for its Padt Thai.
The chargrilled scallops that we ate back then in February seems to have been taken out from the menu. Chat Thai ensures that it keeps evolving and rotating its menu to spice up its offer to the customers so some dishes may have been taken out here and there occasionally. The chargrilled scallops taste so nicely seasoned and both Lee and myself managed to polish the whole plate clean. Hope Chat Thai will bring this dish back on the menu sometimes in the future.
Chat Thai is located at:
20 Campbell Street,
Chinatown, Sydney
Chat Thai's Opening hours:
lunch: 10AM - 5PM
dinner: 5PM - 10PM
supper: 9.30PM - 2AM