The great laksa debate: where is Canberra's best bowl of spicy noodle soup?

My colleagues at The Canberra Page like to pose hard-hitting, current affairs questions to their audience and this one recently piqued my interest: Who does Canberra’s best laksa?

The competition was fierce, with more than 450 commenters all hyping up their favourite bowl of curry noodle soup. And so I was drafted to do some rigorous investigative journalism to adjudicate the battle, in what would become one of the most-read articles of 2023!

After initially wading through the top comments to find the most worthy contenders and, after eating a medically inadvisable number of laksas in the name of journalistic integrity, the findings were published. But not everyone agreed! The people of Canberra – including one outraged colleague – had yet more laksas for me to try.

A few of last year’s candidates have been bumped from the updated selection of the best below. Once again there is a decent geographical spread, although Gungahlin remains sadly underrepresented (now taking recommendations).

Where available I ordered the combination laksa, which typically comes with a variety of meats and vegetables, and often (but not always) seafood.

Phat Panda, Tuggeranong

Phat Panda is a very small stall tucked away in the South.Point shopping centre. After three wrong turns I made my way into the small kiosk, which specialises in Asian street food. I’m generally not particularly bothered with presentation when it comes to laksa, but at first glance the broth appeared very oily.

Fortunately, that oil was actually a good vehicle for the spice and flavour, so once I started eating it, didn’t bother me. The broth was excellent: spicy, creamy, with a well-balanced and intense curry flavour. There was a good selection of toppings, including several big pieces of chicken, prawns, wombok, lots of coriander and beansprouts. The tofu was quite firm yet still had decent sponge quality, but there was only one type of noodle.

Ming’s Pantry, Civic

My colleague James Day went in to bat for Ming’s Pantry after I neglected to include it in last year’s piece. Ming’s is a hole-in-the-wall eatery just next to no-name-lane in the city. Their Malaysian menu is full of classics, but I’m there for the laksa.

Their combination comes heavy with seafood: squid, prawns, fish balls, crab sticks, and a mussel on the half shell. The broth is complex and fragrant with a decent hit of spice and creamy undertones, plus they use the good spongy tofu. It’s good enough to bump off one of last year’s contenders!

James is quite right: this is a laksa worth seeking out, so it’s going on the list of Canberra’s best.

Thip’s Thai, Belconnen

Hidden up the stairs of the Churches Building on Benjamin Way, Thip’s Thai is something of a cult favourite for Belconnen residents. There’s a steady flow of office workers grabbing a lunch box of preprepared dishes in the bain marie but those in the know will order from the menu of Thai classics.

The laksa at Thip’s Thai is less creamy than others I’ve tried, but it’s incredibly flavourful. Makrut lime leaves, lemongrass and ginger perfume the dish, which comes with vegetables, truly delicious fried chicken, and seafood including mussels on the shell. The toppings are all excellent, and while the combination doesn’t come with tofu, the mussels offer the same soup-sponge quality which I enjoy. The spicy broth leaves my cheeks flushed and my belly satisfied.

The spicy and sour qualities of the soup make it firmly Thai-infused and I enjoy that the toppings are different to other laksas.

Dickson Asian Noodle House, Dickson

I have to admit my bias here: the Dickson Asian Noodle House combination laksa (with extra tofu, always with extra tofu) was my top contender coming into this contest. And I’m not alone there: many commenters on the original post wanted to shout out the DANH Laksa as superior, not only to other laksas, but even to other laksas in the Asian Noodle House brand across Canberra.

The broth here is well balanced and spicy and comes with both chewy egg noodles and slippery rice noodles. The combination toppings include premium items like roast duck and char siu pork as well as chicken and vegetables.

Unlike other restaurants, if you want the addition of seafood you need to order a jumbo laksa, which gets you a range of prawns, squid and fishcakes in addition to the meats. The toppings are all good quality, and the tofu is the perfect sponge to soak up the delicious broth. My hot tip is to order extra tofu: you won’t regret it.

Overwhelmingly this laksa fulfils the cravings of my soul, it is the laksa by which all other laksas are judged and it continues to be the benchmark of ‘laksellence’.

Baan Latsamy, Manuka

Baan Latsamy was another name recommended to me so I checked out their lunch special recently.

This combination laksa comes with a crown of crispy noodles and a mix of seafood, chicken and beef. I would have liked some tofu and a little more veg, and it would have been nice to see some bbq pork or duck in the mix. The usual style of thick noodles was also accompanied by thinner wheat noodles, rather than the expected vermicelli but I enjoyed them.

The real draw here is the broth: very rich and slightly sweet with shrimp-paste umami and a lingering chilli warmth. And their understanding employees will bring extra napkins in a non-judgemental way as you splish-splash your way through the soup.

A laksa well worth seeking and slurping.

Tak Kee Roast Inn, Dickson

I was surprised to see that several commenters believed Tak Kee Roast Inn had overtaken local favourite DANH. While I’ve often enjoyed a gow gee soup or BBQ pack at Tak Kee, I’d never tried their laksa.

The Tak Kee Laksa is generous: lots of toppings and excellent egg and rice noodles. They also have my favourite tofu and their combination includes crunchy Chinese broccoli stems, prawns and fish cake slices. Unsurprisingly, these specialists feature plenty of BBQ meats in the soup, which add a delicious sweet smokiness to the mix. It does, however, make char siu a dominant flavour of the dish, which may not be to everyone’s taste.

But if you like that barbecue char (as I do) then you’ll dig this dish.

So, who does the best laksa?

I’m still calling it as a dead heat between the two Dickson candidates. The Tak Kee laksa is definitely good enough for me to cheat on the DANH, but not quite enough that I’d totally change my allegiance. I think Ming’s Pantry may have slid into second place with the others close behind.

At the end of the day the true test will lie in the personal preferences of each laksa lover, so leave a comment with your favourite laksa.

I’m going to go eat a salad now…