Love you Long Chim! Sydney review

It’s been a long time coming, David Thompson has come home. After incredible success with Nahm in London and Bangkok; Long Chim in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney are now the must-visit food destinations for anyone who loves great Thai food.

More than two decades ago David Thompson’s Thai restaurants, Darley Street (1992) and Sailors (1995) were just the beginning of his love affair with Thai cuisine. This passion resulted in a Michelin star for his Nahm London restaurant (within six months of opening and the first for Thai cuisine) and then accolades for Nahm, Bangkok including #1 restaurant in Asia and one of the World’s Best Restaurants for several years running. What was next on the agenda? Bringing it back home with Long Chim Perth (2015), Melbourne (2017) and Sydney (2016) and I say welcome home!

If you’ve been reading Foodie Mookie’s latest reviews, you will know that our culinary adventures took us back to Bangkok in August 2016 which included a return visit to the delectable Nahm restaurant. Once again it was a divine dining experience that I encourage you to try if you are ever at the beautiful Metropolitan by Como (which hosts Nahm).

This lovely Sydney night, we took our palettes and camera to Long Chim Sydney (tip: the entrance is via Angel place, not Martin place). The unassuming hole in the wall entrance is inspired by street food – unless you know it’s there, you might miss it! The entrance transports you towards the inner polished concrete sanctum into a sparsely furnished and spacious dining room with glimpses of the kitchen and scent of lemongrass and coriander. Salivating, we order our dishes quickly without requesting explanation or querying the chilli threshold (rookie mistake). The menu has a broad selection of snacks, noodles, laksa, stir fry, salads and curries, so there should never be an issue with finding something to enjoy.

With little fanfare, our dishes arrived quickly and piping hot with a rather off the cuff comment about spiciness {side bar} from our lovely waitress. Perhaps it was the thrill of the meal and scent of anticipation, that we dove into the treasure trove of loveliness without hesitation and to our detriment. The ‘Chiang Mai Larp of Chicken’ ($20) was crazy spicy and stopped us in our tracks for about five minutes before continuing on. However it was incredibly delicious, fragrant and worth every spicy bite. If you love your spice the Chiang Mai Larp of Chicken is the entree for you.

Our mains were served about 5 minutes after the entrees were cleared and once again a quick mention of heat and away we went. The ‘Baby squid with chillies, green peppercorns and holy basil‘ ($34) was a slow burn until it took our breath away for a few minutes. It was closely followed by the ‘Green papaya salad with chillies, peanuts and dried prawns‘ ($25) which was sweet, vinegar and spicy. Our tastebuds betrayed us as the heat took hold and once it did, it was akin to licking the satan’s scrotum whilst freebasing molten lava. I might be embellishing, but needless to say those two dishes were hot … delicious but hot!

On the flip (and mild) side, the ‘Charred noodles with chicken, squid, dried prawns and egg‘ ($32) and the ‘Prawn and fish dumpling laksa with deep fried shallots, peanuts and bean curd‘ ($34) were full of flavour with the laksa alone worth returning for.

Long Chim will no doubt be a popular destination with its broad menu, punch-you-in-the-face flavour and burn-in-the-fiery-pits-of-hell spice. I loved every bite and suggest you get your Thai-loving tastebuds to Long Chim post haste. You will not regret it.

{Side bar: Over the past few months, I’ve been working on my spice tolerance. I have managed to eat a whole raw ghost pepper (1,041,427 SHU) and survived. Next on the agenda is a Carolina Reaper … oh yes, the hottest chilli in the world (1,569,300 Scoville Heat Units (SHU)}