Home Thai

This is hands down my top three places to eat in Sydney, represent. “Home Thai” is a Thai restaurant located in the heart of the city just a short walk from Town Hall, Darling Harbor and Chinatown. Located on Sussex Street, it is somewhat hidden from the main street that people tend to walk, but once you know this place, and try the food, you will fall in love, and you will go back week in week out. I actually love this place so much that I would sometimes go there three-four times a week, no joke. 

Diving straight into the action, I will discuss my favorite dish there and what I feel is their strongest dish in the whole menu. What I order 99% of the time time is crispy pork belly, stir fried with green beans in a mysterious chilli-red-curry paste (Pad Prik Khing, not pictured unfortunately). I’m from Thailand and I’ve had countless variations of this dish, but I am confident to claim that the one from Home Thai is the best. It’s the bomb. In comparison to other restaurants in the area that serve this dish, I would say that none of them could compete or come anywhere close to the perfectly balanced taste of the chilli paste Home Thai uses. Another strong point of this dish here is that the crispy pork belly is actually crispy. Unlike other places, the pork holds its crispiness with no sign of it being soggy. Okay now, what else is good about this very dish? The price at lunch time. One thing I must warn you about though, is the beans. They're often under cooked for my liking, however I was always there for the meat and not the veggies!

Like many restaurants in Sydney, Home Thai also has a lunch time menu, with most items about $9.90 - or something else but most are less than $10. The pork dish I mentioned can be ordered with rice for just under $10, and this has got to be one of the best bargains you can get for having delicious Thai food, with quick service, at a decent-sized table, in a restaurant. They also have other options, in which I cannot remember all of the top of my head. There are a few noodle dishes, with soup or stir fried. Rice dishes of course, with BBQ pork, or steamed chicken, or pork hog. Basically, the menu spoils you with a lot of awesome choices for your dollars. 

If you’re into the lunch menu or simply just don’t make it in time for lunch (I think the lunch menu finishes at either 4pm or 5pm, but most likely 4pm), you could always select from a larger dinner menu. The menu for the rest of the day will not include rice, but of course the portions will be bigger. Another good thing about the dinner menu is that the best dessert (in my opinion) is only served in the evening. This is the famous and very much loved Patongko (once again I have no clue how to write this in English). This dessert is the same dessert that I had discussed for my post on Chat Thai. In terms of flavor, the deep-fried bread sticks are strong competition against Chat Thai. However, the dipping sauce is quite different. I would rather go to Chat Thai just because the Pandan dipping is more delicious and rich, however the ones offered at Home Thai is still good. 

When you’re here, make sure you also order a glass of Thai Milk Tea. The orange looking Milk Tea is delicious, but is sometimes inconsistent with the sweetness. That’s fine though, you could always adjust it with more water. 

The restaurant gets very busy for lunch since a lot of office works would come and line up for the delicious Thai food. Oftentimes, you’ll need to line up, by basically filling our your name and number of people dining, and take your number. Depending on how many your party consists of, the wait time could vary. If you’re short for time, you could always go for the take away option. I’ve never tried to call them and order my take away ahead of time, but I think you could try. Otherwise the take away is another option, and it’s great that they don’t decrease the portion size like some other places would. 

Coming from a Thai person, I would highly recommend this place. I would say that Home Thai is one of those places in the city area that we Thais would go to. We love the food here and the team members working service are also really friendly. The service here is probably the fastest out of all the Thai restaurants, which should make up for the long queue outside. Please do go try if you love Thai food, you won't be disappointed.