Chat Thai, Haymarket

Chat Thai located in the heart of Thai town, Haymarket is the first Thai restaurant that I stepped my foot into the first time I arrived in Sydney. The foods that they serve never disappoint me. I especially love their dessert varieties. The things to know though, they serve different dessert for lunch and dinner. My favourite dessert here is the Sticky Rice Durian (Dinner Dessert) and unfortunately this post was from my lunch visit.

Been here a lot of times since I arrived in 2008 but after coming across other Thai restaurants around the city, I hardly go to Chai Thai anymore solely because of the queuing time! I went here once at 2AM and the place was still buzzing with people!

Fun fact about Chat Thai: It was established in 1989, pretty much it is the same age as me :P
Similar to Home Thai, They have a glass window at the front of the place show casing their dessert/entree kitchen with a guy here making the Khanom Buaing..

My friends and I were seated on the top floor of the restaurant which I think even though is less spacious but it's a nice place to chill and have a proper lunch without having to rush as we can't see how many people are queuing in front hehehe...
The drinking glass is quite unique,  made up from some kind of thick aluminium that can be bend easily :)

To start with I ordered Tod Mun Pla or Thai Fish cake. Unlike other Thai restaurants that serve the fishcake in flattened circular shape, Chat Thai serves it in small ball pieces with lettuce, chopped cucumber, coriander, onion and sweet chilli sauce at the bottom of the bowl, topped with crispy basil leaves. The combinations of flavour and texture are great and I literally can't get enough of it!

Bebski ordered the Kana Moo krob on rice which is crispy pork belly stir fried with Chinese brocolli or Chinese kale they called it in Chat Thai with oyster and soy sauce.

$10.90

For me, Chat Thai = Chicken Padthai~! Ive always loved how they marinate their chicken! So I ordered chicken pad thai with extra Crispy pork belly. But unfortunately the waitress thought that I want to replace the chicken with crispy pork belly :( Apart from that, The pork belly is juicy and fatty. The padthai has a good balance of sweetness and sourness but I need to add more fish sauce and chilli powder to it as usual ^^

Crispy Pork Belly PadThai $9.90 + $2

It's been a long time since I met Mr.M.. And yes, his appetite hasn't change! He ordered 2 dishes for himself. First is the Raadt naa which is flat rice noodle with chicken and chinese kale in soy sauce and yellow bean gravy. The gravy is depth in flavour and the rice noodle still has that chewiness to it. I will order this next time! It's really good for cold wintery day.

Raadt Naa $10.90

The second dish that he ordered was the claypot honey roasted pork ribs and egg fried rice. Unfortunately I didn't get to try this dish.. But according to him, its good :) Enough said ;p

$12.90

For dessert, we ordered the Tup Tim grob - tapioca coated water chestnuts in an aromatic syrup with coconut milk and young coconut flesh. I love this dessert! its cold and sweet and has young coconut flesh in it. It's a really good one to clean your palate ending the meals. The water chestnuts taste like candles though .. But u'll grow into it after 2-3 spoons..

Tup Tim Grob $5.50

We also tried this thin crispy wafers filled with meringue, candied dried shrimp and herbs. The creamy meringue works really well with the crisp from the wafers. It almost looks like open sesame Thai Fortune cookies ;p

Khanom Buaing $1ea

Overall, great service here, great food and Yeah, not sure what to recommend regarding time of visit cause they're always busy. Maybe try 3-4PM? ^^
Chat Thai has other branches in Randwick (Small takeaway shop), Manly, The galleries food court and a recent one in Westfield Myer foodcourt.


http://www.chatthai.com.au/