Restaurant review: Sumalee Thai II

Restaurant review: Sumalee Thai II

THAI eateries are so numerous in Sydney’s inner west hub of Newtown that sometimes it can feel less like King St and more like Khao San Road, that famous mecca for backpackers in Bangkok. A new entrant to the club would surely pass without comment?

However, when it’s an old favourite returning to its former stomping ground, maybe it’s worth a second look.

It wasn’t too long ago punters at the Bank Hotel — a well-known LGBTI-friendly and mixed venue — could gaze down from the deck, through a forest of palm and bamboo, to diners slurping at big bowls of soup at Sumalee Thai.

But when the Bank had its latest facelift there was no more room at the inn and, for quite some time, Sumalee could be found wandering around Glebe pining for its old haunt.

Now, Chris and the team have battled their way back to the neighbourhood they called home for a 20-year stretch, this time installed upstairs at the Queen Victoria Hotel on the trendier by the nanosecond Enmore Rd.

The restaurant will be familiar to QVH diners of old — large wagon wheels, perhaps more Kentucky than Ko Samui, lazily lean upon the floorboards while foliage sprouts from planters and large TV screens (thankfully with the sound down) dangle like creepers from the ceiling.

The menu tries to please both the Thai aficionados and the pub and pokies crowd — not a fan of Num Jim rock oysters, then why not plump for the potato wedges or cheese platter instead?

But we were sticking with tradition and the Thai tasting platter for two ($25), seemed an appropriate starting point.

Those expecting a few moneybags with only some shredded carrot for company will be in for a shock when this smorgasbord of spice appears.

Comforting classics like fish cakes and curry puffs jostle for space with a slippery hot papaya salad and crunchy veggie spring rolls all served on a banana leaf. However, the pick of the platter was the Thai sausage. Crammed full of chilli and kaffir lime, just the right side of hot but with an almost minty cleansing afterglow.

Dining at Sumalee and not having the soup would be like going to church and not drinking the Sunday wine, so we had to indulge in the Tom Kha Pia ($18/$32). The Tom Kha is a staple of any self-respecting Thai menu but Sumalee’s variation passed over the chicken for salmon with the flaky fish hiding in saucy shallows beneath a flotsam of coriander and woody enoki mushrooms, circled by dried chilli pods.

Easily big enough for two, the chilli gave the dish a kick which the creaminess of the coconut balanced out while the earthy galangal and zesty lemongrass took me all the way back to the rainy season in Chiang Mai.

Unable to resist a stir-fry, we went for the roast duck ($22/$32). Smoky and aromatic, chilli was again a strong theme fighting for prominence with the fragrant aniseed of Asian basil.

This being the inner west, Sumalee also provides a number of veggie options including tofu in chilli jam with pumpkins and cashew nuts ($19/$24).

In the race to the bottom for the cheapest Pad Thai in town often flavour can suffer, every menu item seemingly a beige swamp of limp noodles.

Not at Sumalee – here the dishes were zesty, the flavour in your face, the food gorgeously presented and the portions generous. A welcome return from the wilderness for this Newtown veteran.

Sumalee Thai II is at the Queen Victoria Hotel, 167 Enmore Rd, Enmore NSW. Details: call (02) 9517 3777 or visit www.qvh.com.au

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