Thaiger Rabbit – Dani Valent

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391 Victoria Street, Richmond, 9077 5891

My score: 3/5

Victoria Street mainstay Ying Thai has been serving fish cakes and red curry in a clattery shopfront since 1996. Last month Ying and her family upped sticks, moved their restaurant 300 metres eastwards and refashioned it as the cool, fun Thaiger Rabbit, complete with a dad-joke pun for a name. I like the place, even though the radio was almost tuned to Smooth FM while I was there, so we had to listen to Spandau Ballet static while eating fragrant pandan-wrapped chicken morsels, and distorted Adele accompanied the stir-fry. Even so, the flavours won through.

The menu is long and exuberant. A parade of well-wrought hits is boosted by lesser-seen dishes, including the gorgeous yum sam grop, a salad starring dramatic shards of fried fish skin stacked by a bowl of tangy tamarind and chilli dressing. This dish is usually made with small fried fish; using cod shards catapults the dish into 2015 but also makes it fairly fishy. There’s a pork crackling alternative if a face full of seafood doesn’t sound fabulous. Stir-fries include ka-nar moo grob, gleaming Chinese broccoli tumbled with crisp chunks of pork belly in an exceedingly well-judged juxtaposition of healthy, crunchy greens and sweet, juicy fat. Desserts are better than most of Melbourne’s Thai offerings; the khanom tuoy are steamed coconut puddings with a delicious sweet custard layer and delicate savoury cream topping.

Thaiger Rabbit is fresh and colourful with an upbeat blend of Buddha chic, bird cage light fittings and kooky figurines in the toilets. The upstairs dining room would be great for group dining. Victoria Street has long been a destination for cheap, good Asian food but it’s feeling tired lately; Thaiger Rabbit is one a handful of restaurants forging on with the next optimistic chapter in the strip’s story.

More Thai:

Jinda Thai, 7 Ferguson Street, Richmond, 9419 5899.
Up the city end of Victoria Street, Jinda Thai does phenomenal food including its signature ‘boat noodles’ in a dark broth seasoned with blood.

Sumalee, 264 Centre Road, Bentleigh, 9557 1635.
The flavours are true and the welcome is genuine so it’s no surprise Sumalee is a bayside favourite. Try the Thai arancini, which sounds dodgy but isn’t.

Middle Fish, 122-128 Berkeley Street, Carlton, 9348 1704.
When a spicy breakfast is just the ticket consider the crunchy mussel omelette at Middle Fish. Later in the day, the savvy selection includes dark ox cheek curry with peanuts.

First published in The Age, July 26, 2015.

2018-05-04T16:49:20+10:00

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