Last March we reviewed Rice in Garema Place for their lunch box and it was OK.
Not bad. Not good enough to get me back in the face of the hot competition in this space.
But with La Pasa (my go-to Chinese lunchbox) closing down I was in the market for this sort of thing.
A hot german Phd student wanted to meet me for lunch there (nice work if you can get it) and if anyone knows where a quality cheap eat can be had it’s foreign Phd students.
We hear there have been *cough* changes in the kitchen and, well wow.
It might have the words Thai and tapas in the name (a worrying train wreck at the best of times) but this is more top notch chinese with some nods to Thailand along the way.
The basil and chili pork is the closest I’ve ever had in Australia to the Sichuan food I was eating when bumming around Southwestern China in the late 90s.
And the fire in some of these dishes! I had drops of sweat running down my neck and face after one of their meals this week.
The menu varies quite significantly from day to day, not everything is a dance with porcelain death, they do wimpy massaman curries and other things that look mild but I have little interest in exploring too.
Pictured is Chicken Larb and Basil and Chilli Pork on a noodle base.
This isn’t just great $8 lunchbox food, it’s great food.
We’ve never felt the need to do a second review until now and those stairs really make it quite the adventure!
(For more sub $10 lunches in Civic check the tag, if you’ve got recommendations let me know.)
Loading ...
