19 November 2021

Best in Canberra - Thai food

| Elias Hallaj
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Canberra foodies (back row): Thip (Owner of Thip's Thai), Michele Walton (Food and Travel Secrets, Elias Hallaj (CBR Foodie), (front row): Charinya Ruecha (Charinya’s Kitchen) Elissa Steel ( Five Beans Food) at Thip’s Thai in Belconnen.

Canberra foodies (back row): Thip (Owner of Thip’s Thai), Michele Walton (Food and Travel Secrets), Elias Hallaj (CBR Foodie), (front row): Charinya Ruecha (Charinya’s Kitchen) and Elissa Steel (Five Beans Food) at Thip’s Thai in Belconnen.

I recently caught up with some fellow Canberra foodies (Food and Travel Secrets, Five Beans Food, and Charinya’s Kitchen) for a cheap and delicious dinner at Thip’s Thai in Belconnen. You can drive or walk past this hidden Canberra gem without even realising it exists. It’s upstairs in the Canberra Churches Centre on Benjamin Way (opposite the ABS building). Thip’s Thai is one of those classic Canberra suburban Asian restaurants that survive on good affordable fresh food without any frills. The decor is not flashy, but the food is divine, particularly the pad Thai with prawns (pictured below). You have to pay in cash but the prices are very affordable and you will certainly come back for more.

 Standout must-try delicious dish at Thip's Thai is padthai with prawn!

The standout must-try delicious dish at Thip’s Thai is pad Thai with prawns!

But Thip’s is no secret to hundreds of regular customers who live and work in Belconnen. It’s easy to understand why – Thip is adored by her regular customers for consistently serving up wholesome, affordable and authentic Thai dishes that remind people of the best street food and home cooked food in Thailand. How do I know this? Well, I had the pleasure of enjoying the food at Thip’s in the company of Canberra’s most famous Thai food blogger – Charinya, of Charinya’s Kitchen.

READ ALSO The best Thai restaurants in Canberra

Now, unless you’re an avid foodie it’s quite possible you haven’t heard of Canberra’s most famous food blogger. But if you love Thai cuisine you would probably already be one of Charinya’s 183,000 Instagram followers. That’s not a typo. 183,000. Charinya is Canberra’s most world-famous food blogger. Not bad for a public servant whose video production team consists of 2 iPhones, a Kmart selfie stick and a few bulldog clips (and a very supportive husband who loves Thai food, obviously). So just before I return to the main topic of Canberra’s best Thai restaurant, here’s just one of HUNDREDS of inspiring recipe videos on Charinya’s Instagram page: Charinya’s roasted pork belly rice paper rolls!

Back to the topic at hand, Charinya recommends Thip’s Thai and Morks as two fine examples of Thai restaurants in Canberra. The last time The RiotACT asked its readers for suggestions of other top Thai eateries, apart from Morks and Thip’s Thai, the list included Thai Herb in Harrison and Soi-8 Thai in Griffith.

We do have a lot of really good Thai restaurants in Canberra, but I think Thip’s is hard to beat for value and taste. Don’t just take my word for it – our resident Thai food expert Charinya agrees, as well as food bloggers like Michele from Food and Travel Secrets.

What a wonderful little known Canberra gem! Thip’s Thai is hidden away in the Belconnen Churches Centre across the walkway from the Westfield car park. What a pleasure to meet the gorgeous Thipp and try the Thai Style Crispy Fried Chicken $15.50 BBQ Grilled Pork $16.50 ? Thai Style Chilli Paste Pork $15.50? Prawn Pad Thai $16 Rice $2.50 pp What a wonderful little known Canberra gem! Thip’s Thai is hidden away in the Belconnen Churches Centre across the walkway from the Westfield car park. What a pleasure to meet the gorgeous Thipp and try the Thai Style Crispy Fried Chicken $15.50 BBQ Grilled Pork $16.50 ? Thai Style Chilli Paste Pork $15.50? Prawn Pad Thai $16 Rice $2.50 pp @elissa_fivebeansfood @charinyas_kitchen

A post shared by Food and Travel Secrets (@foodandtravelsecrets) on

Where is your favourite Thai food in Canberra? We’ve listed a few of the better-known ones in the poll below, but feel free to suggest more in the comments section below and on our facebook page.

Where is your favourite Thai food in Canberra?

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Thip's Thai menu

You can spend a week trying all the delicious specials on the colourful Thip’s Thai menu and not get bored!

Elias Hallaj (aka CBRfoodie) is a part-time food blogger and full-time political staffer who has joined RiotACT as a regular contributor. All his opinions about Thai food are his own, except where he has borrowed them from Facebook, Instagram, Google, and Twitter. If you have any tips or feedback or advice about Thai cuisine, or other exciting things to eat around Canberra you can add a comment below or find him most nights on Twitter @CBRfoodie.

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Thai food is my favorite, I found a hidden Gem in the City, Alice Thai, The address is 19-21 E Row, Canberra, Because is at the bus interchange, there is no way to find it other than waiting for a bus or walking, you have to park your car somewhere close, but I definitely will be back there. They have a lunch special monday to friday $10 for a good selection of dishes, freshly prepared, very friendly owned operate business.

letterboxfrog9:27 pm 07 Sep 18

Sai Gon Pho (part of Sai Gon Hot Bake) in Queanbeyan City Arcade off Monaro St is awesome.

Good to see Joe’s at the small Wanniassa shops near Athlonn Drive make the grade.

Whilst it’s not Morks for absolute top shelf 5 star restaurant (and also Joe’s is luckily not priced like Morks) it is a great little place where the chef adds his own twist to some traditional Thai favourites.

Must book as we have made the drive back to that part of the world and unable to get a seat.

Holden Caulfield10:09 am 21 Nov 17

Morks is my pick, with Zaab a very close second.

Zaab has a pretty good bar selection too, if you’d like a pre-dinner drink.

Elias Hallaj10:00 am 21 Nov 17

Agree with JC that Soi Noodle bar is mainly a fusion menu. But their own philosophy highlights their Thai influence and we have to respect that too. “Soi Noodle Bar was born from the minds of two people who had experience in Japanese and Thai food for over 10 years in Sydney, and this is how the unique concept is conceived. Soi Noodle Bar is a Modern Asian Fusion restaurant, where the customers are offered to get creative and create their own Thai food experience by choosing their own noodles and flavours, or taste the special Japanese food set dishes from our very experienced chef. We are all about value for money meals while still maintaining the freshest of ingredients and highest of quality. We also have a wide variety of menu, ensuring there’s always something for everyone.”

Glad you voted for my favourite Thip’s Thai. Hope you have shared this with friends as well and encouraged them to vote too. I’m hoping to do a follow up story on Thip’s if they win the survey 🙂

Soi Noodle Bar? That’s not Thai! Sure it has a thai name and a couple of thai dishes but in reality it is just a generic try hard Asian place. If they did one thing and did it well it would be ok. But thai, Japanese, Korean all on the same menu no way!

And my vote is for Thips. It is about as close to REAL Thai as you can get in Canberra. I’ve been to some of the others on that list and whilst good tucker their dishes have been westernised to varying degrees.

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