Easy Tiger: 96 Smith Street, Collingwood, 9417 2373
My score: 4/5
‘Is the chef Thai?’ asked a nearby diner. ‘He’s white Thai,’ joshed the waiter. You’ll forgive me for eavesdropping because most seating at this stylish modern Thai kitchen is at a communal table and it was all I could do to stop myself pouring a slurp of the next group’s wine and nicking a spoonful of the fish curry I couldn’t quite fit onto my own extended food order. It’s true that there’s no-one Thai involved at this two-year-old restaurant which is, nevertheless, doing Thai food that is delicious, fresh and attractive. The wine list shows thoughtful effort, featuring single-vineyard offerings that dance with the food.
Textural play and frolicking flavours along the hot-sour highwire are at the fore here. The taro chips make good thinking music as you peruse the menu: they’re thin, crisp and perfectly spice-salted. Smart street-food starters include betel leaf topped with tea-smoked scallop, peanuts and fried shallots; tofu sheets rolled with shitake mushrooms and crunchy water chestnut; and springy footy-shaped fish cakes. Larger dishes include the awesome ‘crying tiger’ salad made with fat, juicy Wagyu rump, amplified with fish sauce, chilli and lime. The meat is served with raw Thai apple eggplant, cabbage and roasted rice: perfect for a hot night. Nothing was mega-spicy but if you prefer to eat with tears streaming down your face, simply add liberal spoonfuls of the ‘prik nahm pla’ fish sauce firewater.
I don’t usually enter Thai restaurants with my dessert stomach primed but Easy Tiger’s sweet stuff is marvellous. Desserts appear to be brought to us via the Compulsory Coconut Council, as the big brown fruit appears in every single one. Not that I’m complaining because I ate three desserts on a recent visit and they were all great. (The fact that my trousers and I broke up that night is another matter.) Chewy rice-flour dumplings, dyed green with pandan leaves and filled with chocolate, are served with melon balls, slippery basil seeds and salted coconut cream. An arrestingly pretty icecream and sorbet terrine is framed by coconut sorbet. Coconut créme caramel comes with sweet poached pineapple and crisped black rice.
Easy Tiger is noisy inside and a little more sedate in the courtyard. An upstairs lounge is on its way. Service is nicely judged and prices are reasonable, making it an easy decision to set aside some tiger time.
More Thai:
Chin Chin, 125 Flinders Lane, Melbourne, 8663 2000
Not just a party on the plate, Chin Chin rocks all the angles with its buzzing no-bookings dining room, basement bar and feisty Thai food. Top spring dishes include mixed cress salad with soy-roasted nuts, and pork satay with cucumber and pineapple.
Paladarr, 7 Rowe Street, Alphington, 1300 725 232
Carefully wrought Thai dishes are the concept but local produce stars in dishes like marinated roo and Moreton Bay bug tom yum.
Middle Fish, 122-128 Berkeley Street, Carlton, 9348 1704
Southern Thai cafe food is served with a smile in this welcoming warehouse space. Don’t miss the mussel omelette and the Thai-style coffee made with Melbourne rigor.
First published in The Age, October 21, 2012
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