Sukjai Thai, Haymarket
When I’m out in the city on a Friday night looking for somewhere quick to eat, there’s really only two options available in my mind – Korean or Thai. With the cold snap in the past few days I’ve rather overindulged myself with Korean soups and find myself hankering for something chili and sour. Chat Thai has been ruling for a while, but it’s got some competition coming up with the newly opened Sukjai.
Walking towards Sukjai, I realise it’s not alone, the shop next door (previous home to the now defunct I-San) is also a newly opened Thai restaurant complete with Tuk Tuk in the doorway. Torn I let my blogger instincts guide me and choose Sukjai for its better lighting and funky paintings. We’ve come pretty early in the night and are led straight to an empty table, looking around I’m immediately charmed by the mismatched chairs, crazy artwork and yes, the Airplane painted on the opposite wall.
Sukjai Interior
The menu is an A3 handwritten font nightmare which has me squinting trying to decipher the dishes. After ordering my Thai staple of Papaya salad I ask our waiter to recommend one of the specials to us, there’s only two of us at the table tonight and we immediately order way too much and can only wait in trepidation for our dishes to arrive. The crowd tonight is lively and in the background Asian pop is blaring away, with the big comfortable chairs and lovely wooden tables it’s the perfect place for a Friday night catch up.
Coconut Juice - $5.50
Half the fun of eating out is the drinks! The drinks menu isn’t extensive so we stick with the ever standard Coconut Juice. I’m expecting the takeaway coconut cups dumped into glasses so I’m happy when the full coconuts come towards our table, there’s something so fun about scraping the coconut from the sides.
Green Papaya Salad - $9.90
Oh the chili, salty, sour goodness that is Papaya salad <3. I’m utterly unable to resist ordering Papaya salad every time I eat Thai food and Sukjai’s rendition doesn’t disappoint. The Payapa is satisfyingly sour and chili, and the salty component comes in the form of whole soft shell crabs, they’ve been brined in salt and even the memory of the sheer amount of salt in the crab is making my mouth pucker up.
On my request the Papaya has come out medium chili but is still hot enough to have me reaching for my coconut (confession – as much as I mock Squishies for her intolerance of chili, the truth is I’m not much better either haha).
Kao Pad Kee Mao - Stir Fried noodles with chili basil and mixed vegetables - $10.90
Not being in the mood for rice tonight, our waiter suggests that we try the Kao Pad Kee Mao with noodles substituted instead. It’s a great recommendation as the fat noodles and generous servings of chicken come out glistening, by the end of the night the plate has been picked nearly clean.
Tom Sapp Kla Dook Oon - Spicy boiled cartilage hot and sour soup - $10.90
The soup is a blast of chili and sour the flavours so strong I nearly kill myself later in the night when I inadvertently choke on a mouthful while laughing at something. Cartilage is one of those ingredients which I think is definitely an acquired taste, P gives me a look of trepidation as we scoop up the contents of the soup, the spoon is full of various cartilage pieces, meat falling off the bones and copious amounts of chilli. The cartilage itself crunches softly between your teeth and I find myself deliberately picking through the soup, looking for pieces of it.
Larb Pla Tod - Fresh Fish with herbs and salad - $28
The fish is off the specials menu, our waiter simply describes it as fish with salad so we are utterly taken aback when an entire deep-fried fish arrives at the table. At this point the amount of food on the table is approaching ridiculous levels but we’ve got time to kill and stomachs to fill! Red onion covers the entire fish which I quickly push off to the side (I find the taste overpowering), the fish flesh has been scored before being fried and it’s almost like snacking, as we pull of squares of fried fish. Overall I find the dish an interesting one, but find it a little too dry for my liking.
Pa tong Go - $6.50
Because we’ve obviously not had enough food, we move onto dessert. The dessert section of the menu is a little lacking with only 3 options available, wanting something small to share we go for the Pa Tong Go, small pieces of sweet dough deep-fried and served with a green custard (pandan perhaps?). It’s perfect for our cravings and limited stomach space, each warm fried piece pulled apart and dunked in the cool custard and somehow before we know it the plate is empty!
The tables are full by the time we get up to go with a queue beginning to snake outside of the doorway, service is quick and efficient with food arriving at the table only 10 or so minutes after ordering. With the majority of mains for under $12 it’s definitely value for month and has earned a place on my list of regular friday night haunts!
Sukjai Thai
415 Pitt St
Haymarket, NSW, 2000
Author
By Minh
Minh is a food, photography, tv loving girl who on occasion likes to think that she can cook. I can't hold my drink for what its worth and have an unhealthy obsession with green tea products.
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This article was written on 03 May 2010, and is filed under Dinner, Sydney, CBD, Thai.
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That submarine is cool
.-= Fiona´s last blog ..The Flying Spaghetti Monster =-.
Ok, deal! I’ll remember this as an alternative to Chat Thai, whose service I find to be inconsistent. Your photography makes everything looks great, and I like the airplane mural. It looks so whimsical … and fun.
.-= foodwink´s last blog ..Hawkesbury Farm Gate Trail =-.
Thanks foodwink! Service was a little hurried but pretty attentive at the beginning of the night, they were happy to let us sit and chat too which was great
I haven’t had a really good Thai meal for ages and this place looks fantastic
.-= john@heneedsfood´s last blog ..Ramada Plaza Hotel buffet, Yiwu =-.
Walked past this place and loved the funky decor! Glad to see the food looks and tastes good too. Thanks for the review!
Awesome they have the fried dough with sangkaya! I love that stuff so much mm deep fried carbs. Food looks okay (and quite cheap!), will have to check it out.
Mmmm carbs <3 Sangkaya! Haha thanks for the name, I had no idea what it was
Hee hee can never have too much food
hooray for fresh coconut juice! I am sad I don’t go to city much anymore.. craving thai esp pad chairman mao fat noodles
.-= FFichiban´s last blog ..B’day Spoils! =-.
The fresh fish looks really good. Just what you need after work on a Friday.
.-= Mark @ Cafe Campana´s last blog ..The Ten Commandments of the Grill – Cafe de Paris Butter =-.
Ooh this looks like a good alternative to Chat Thai when I can’t be bothered waiting in line there. And they have that fried dough stuff too!
I can’t stand too much heat from chillies either but I just love the flavour that they impart to dishes so it’s always oooh yum, ouch, ouch, ouch water please! This looks like a great find!
.-= Moya´s last blog ..Goodbye winter, hello spargel… =-.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Howard. Howard said: Another Thai restaurant in the City ? @minhg checks out Sukjai Thai in Haymarket. Pretender or contender? http://bit.ly/aIa5Bq [...]
All this food for two people?! Gaaahhh, well it must’ve been good then =p
.-= mademoiselle délicieuse´s last blog ..Fook Yuen (馥苑), 24 Jan 2010 =-.
Always nice to find out new places for Thai in the city
.-= Ellie (Almost Bourdain)´s last blog ..Flourless Chinese Five Spice Chocolate Cake (Gluten and Nut Free) =-.
I walked past the Thai place with a tuk tuk and wanted to try it.
The dessert looks cute!
The last time I went to Chat Thai I was waiting in line for 90 minutes. To hell with that sh*t! I am going to this place the next time I need a Thai food fix in the city. Thanks for sharing!
.-= Amy @ cookbookmaniac´s last blog ..Food Bloggers Treasures and Pleasures – Week 17 =-.
Definitely worth it! The weather is too cold now to stand around over an hour for a table
mm looks great.. where about are you situated as i am coming on holiday and would love to stop over?
.-= julian´s last blog ..On the Spot B&B – St Francis Bay – Eastern Cape =-.
Hi Julian, the es&t are all situated in Sydney
Hello!
You’ve got pretty pictures and they are well-taken!
I was wondering if you could provid the telephone number for this restaurant please?
Thanks!
Hi Althea! Unfortunately the restaurant is quite new so I wasn't able to find the number online, I'll update this post if I ever manage to get their number!
Another very cool thing about this place is that the interior was designed and decorated by a very cool Chiang Mai local artist by the name of Hern (Torlarp Larpjaroensook)
Great review!