Bangkok street food party continues to rage at Perth’s Long Chim

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“I first went to Thailand by mistake,” writes Sydney-born chef David Thompson in his sophomore cookbook, Thai Food. “But it was a mistake that I have never regretted.”

Eaters have never regretted Thompson’s misstep either. In addition to writing one of history’s most authoritative Thai food compendiums, Thompson has also opened equally influential restaurants.

After announcing his arrival with landmark Sydney – and some could argue Australian – restaurants Darley Street Thai and Sailors Thai, Thompson joined forces with the Singaporean-based Como Hotels group and started exporting his rigorous, uncompromising Thai cooking globally.

The partnership started in 2001 with Nahm at The Halkin hotel in London before a second Nahm followed at Como The Metropolitan in Bangkok in 2010.

In 2015, the Thompson story went full circle with the opening of Long Chim at Como The Treasury in the State Buildings: a real double coup for Perth. The hotel was Como’s first (and only) hotel in Australia, while Long Chim marked Thompson’s Australian homecoming.

Next year, Long Chim (and the rest of the State Buildings) turns 10. I’m not sure what the current conversion rate is for restaurant years to human years, but it’s safe to say that, in the current climate, an innings like this is not to be sneezed at. Part of this longevity, I think, comes down to consistency.

The 170-seat, mess-hall-style dining room in the State Buildings basement still throbs with brio and vim during big services. The bar remains a bona fide destination for both eaters and drinkers. Sharp cocktails, slippery white wines, thirst-crushing beers and other spice-sympathetic libations continue to anchor the drinks program.

While Long Chim’s mission statement remains unchanged, a new generation has been tasked with keeping the party going.

So the mixed drinks are now the responsibility of Matt Bodycote, a barman whose handiwork I first tasted at William Street’s dearly departed The Hummus Club. The bracing negroni-adjacent Young Prince ($24) suggests the bar’s reputation for great cocktails remains intact.

For the past three years, the kitchen has been run by Welly Yuan: a native of Nanjing in China’s Jiangsu province.

For anyone who still subscribes to the belief that chefs can – or should – only cook the food of their ethnicity, I’d like to point out two things (in addition to the widely held belief that Sydney-born Thompson is one of the world’s best interpreters of Thai cooking.)

Firstly: Yuan comes to Perth via Melbourne where he cooked at, among other places, the Victorian capital’s short-lived Long Chim at the casino. And secondly: whereas Thompson made his name cooking the refined, often-times laborious food of the Thai royal court, Long Chim is all about the – as Thompson is often wont to say – “rude” street food flavours of Bangkok: a style of cooking migrant Chinese workers helped shape.

It was the Chinese, for instance, who brought stir-frying to Thailand and laid the foundation for the country’s famous stir-fried rice noodle pad thai ($34) to become one of its best-known exports. (Noodles, incidentally, were also introduced by the Chinese.) A fragrant Malay-leaning curry powder is the performance-enhancing spice that soft shell crab ($34) never knew it needed. Cooks in Phuket and throughout southern Thailand, however, seem to have been in on this secret for decades, and like many dishes, was soon absorbed into the broader Thai cooking and eating curriculums.

“...Long Chim remains one of the few restaurants – and bars – delivering the complete package.”

In some instances, though, local cooks and eaters had little need to radically alter the Chinese original, largely because the OGs were already pretty damn good. Chinese broccoli stir-fried with Southern Chinese-style roast pork ($29) is a menu stalwart for good reason, as is watercress rendered bold and savoury with fermented yellow bean ($18): still one of Perth’s most underrated sleeper vegetable dishes. It’s not on the current menu, but if the stewed five-spice pork (the beloved office worker lunchtime favourite known as khao kha moo in the Thai capital) ever resurfaces, I’d be grateful if you let me know.

The Chinese weren’t the only group to influence Siamese food culture. Neighbouring nations to Thailand’s north have also made notable contributions. Miang ($22) – a two-bite snack consisting of toppings wrapped in a betel leaf – can trace its origin story back to Laos. Long Chim’s prawn version looks the part, although it leans a little too sweet. More freshness wouldn’t go astray.

Food historians also believe that Lao know-how was crucial in developing the blueprint for som tum ($24) – Northern Thailand’s famous crunchy, zesty and potentially hot papaya salad – all those centuries ago. I suspect those early Lao cooks might be surprised to find corn in Long Chim’s version. They might also prefer those strips of green papaya to be a little more bruised in the mortar so that they absorbed more of the salad dressing’s all-important lime and chilli components, too.

But despite the occasional missteps in execution, the kitchen’s grasp and understanding of flavours is on point and flavour profiles are distinct from dish to dish. The boiled sour orange mackerel curry ($34) is heady with the funk of fermented shrimp paste. The Chiang Mai chicken larp with its weapons grade-chilli ($24) burns and intimidates because that’s how Thompson wants (and likes) it. Despite the differences between Australian and Thai mangoes, the mango sticky rice ($16) still manages to nail the soft-hard, sour-sweet balancing act. (Pre-plating coupes of Thai coffee ice, $16, and storing them in the freezer isn’t something I’d expect from an outfit like Long Chim, though.)

Perth’s Thai food scene has gently grown over the past decade with more regional options for eaters to consider. Princess and Art of Rym Tarng have brought sharp Thai cooking to lucky, lucky Bicton. (The couple, incidentally, are both Long Chim alum.)

Bangkok Street Grill in Victoria Park remains the city’s sole champion of northern Thai-style grilled chicken.

Yet Long Chim remains one of the few restaurants – and bars – delivering the complete package. The flavours are on-point, as are the drinks, service and the space. And despite some dropped stitches on this recent visit, regrets don’t enter the discussion when eating at Long Chim.