Chat Thai: Reinventing Thai Street Food

We got two times lucky with Chat Thai. The first, was while taking a new route back to the hotel from George Street, and the second, while shopping in Westfield Sydney Shopping Center. 

The long queues and working kitchen in the front of the restaurant at Campbell Street complete with bowls of kueh, coconut jelly and multi-coloured glutinous rice were enough for us to suggest Chat Thai for supper with Matt's friends the next day and then jump at spotting Chat Thai on the store directory while shopping around Westfield Sydney Shopping Center on our last day - it quickly turned into a natural choice for our last dinner in Sydney.

For supper at Chat Thai, I picked the Khao Sao. Egg noodles and braised chicken in coconut curry and chilli oil. On a chilly winter's night in the city, this dish warmed me completely through my belly. It was very comforting because the rich spicy broth reminded me of laksa from back home, and yet its sharper curry and chilli flavours carried their own weight, forming a perfectly appetising balance of spice against the coconut cream which does not sit too heavily on the gut. Perfectly dangerous - I could keep drinking the curry without feeling it weigh on my stomach.

On our second visit, we had Todt Mun Goong Gaeng Keaw, battered green curried prawn mousse deep-fried and then served with pickled plum sauce. The pickled plum sauce and curry spice lent an interesting and  refreshing sharpness and flavour to what would otherwise have been the usual prawn cake.

We also had Gaeng Keaw Louk Chin Bpla Gaia, housemade fish dumplings and eggplants soaked in green curry (can you tell I really love green curry?), and, in a measly effort to make up our vegetable intake, emerald duck or stir-fried five-spice duck with greens. These were delicious dishes and the flavours were nicely balanced.

But what really took the cake that night was the dessert.We picked the Dessert Lovers' platter, eager to try a little of Chat Thai's bests - sticky rice and mango and Khao Nieaw Daam Bieak, black sticky rice and coconut cream pudding with yam and coconut flesh. What I really enjoyed about the sticky rice and mango was the creamed mango which had an almost pudding-like texture and the fragrant, scented sticky rice. It was a first, and a very good first, with creamed mango and sticky rice, and it was a very sweet note to a very sweet meal. The Khao Nieaw Daam Bieak was also interestingly sweet and salty, creating a richly flavoured and creamy black sticky rice porridge. The platter also came with a small glass of dessert wine, but with strong offerings like the sticky rice and mango, I thought it was a little bit extra. 

We walked out of Chat Thai at Westfield full and fully satisfied. Chat Thai reinvents Thai street food that is deliciously playful, but stays close enough to familiar favourites to create one very interesting and still comforting Thai dining experience.

CHAT THAI THAITOWN
20 Campbell St. Haymarket
10am-5am, Mondays-Sundays

CHAT THAI WESTFIELD
Shop 6002, level 6
188 Pitt Street
Westfield center point
10am-10pm, Mondays-Sundays