Porkfat
Sydney is abundant with Thai restaurants - this seems to be a favourite cuisine among many Sydneysiders, but depending on where you are it may be difficult to experience authentic Thai cuisine. Porkfat is a newly established high-end Thai restaurant in Haymarket that claims to want customers to feel like they have stepped off the chaotically delicious streets of Bangkok into their grandmother’s kitchen. Does it live up to the hype? Let’s find out!
Photo credit: @porkfatsydney
If you asked me what my favourite Asian cuisine is, Thai would be in my top three (after Japanese and Korean) cuisines and I think it’s due to the intensity of flavour and multitude of spices used across Thai dishes. Whether you are a fan of hearty curries or delicious pad thai, there is something for everyone. However I’ve always enjoyed the $12 Thai lunch specials near home (quick, cheap and yummy) so when my friend suggested we try Porkfat I was a little nervous given any high-end Asian cuisine could either be amazing or a messy disaster - let’s see how we went.
Thai milk tea
Photo credit: @porkfatsydney
If I’m being honest I have always preferred Hong Kong-style milk tea to Thai milk tea given experience indicates that Thai milk tea can be overtly sweet and hard to swallow (similar to Vietnamese iced coffee… hello diabetes). Porkfat’s Thai milk tea was quite refreshing and authentic but a little too sweet with the condensed milk, unfortunately I found myself refilling the glass with water in an effort to water down the sweetness of this milk tea. If you are a fan of sweet, sugary drinks (think brown sugar bubble tea) then this will be perfect for you.
Porkfat’s Larb
Porkfat’s Larb (GF, DF), $36
I must admit for all my love of pad thai and green curry I have actually never tried Larb before; Larb is a type of meat salad that features minced meat served with an assortment of fresh vegetables and herbs. Porkfat’s Larb features pork fat, smoked chili, roasted rice, sawtooth, mint, cabbage, and cucumber. All the salad ingredients are dipped in the smoked chili and then wrapped in cabbage (similar to a San Choy Bow) but the flavour profile packs a punch, I enjoyed the different textures of the pork fat, roasted rice, and onions - the umami really shines through and any greasiness or meatiness is undercut by the fresh vegetables.
Stir-fried Sa-tor beans with Queensland Tiger Prawn (GF, DF)
Stir-fried sa-tor beans with prawn ($42)
I was today years old when I found out that the direct translation of Sa-tor beans is “stinky beans” but this dish actually disguises the strong taste and aroma quite well - the tiger prawns are tossed in prawn oil, southern curry paste then served with sa-tor beans and makrut leaves. I am a huge seafood lover but it’s always a little messy deshelling prawns in a nice restaurant - luckily these have already been de-shelled and easily pulled apart with a fork. My favourite part of this dish was the souther curry paste - the perfect balance between spice and savouriness was infused into the prawns and was perfect as a pour-over on rice. The tiger prawns were quite succulent but I wish there were a few more (note that each additional prawn is $8 so you decide if it’s worth it).
Massaman curry of chicken
Massaman Curry of Chicken ($42)
My love for curries knows no bounds but my usual go-to Thai curry is either a green or red curry, my friends were a little scared of the spice so we settled on the Massaman chicken curry which includes poached potato, fried shallot, pineapple puree, chicken fat, and peanuts. To be honest, this was the most underwhelming dish of the night, I just couldn’t find any differentiation between this Massaman curry and what I can order from my local Thai. Admittedly the pineapple puree is an interesting twist but the flavour didn’t shine through the curry, I did like the side dish of fresh veggies and chilli to cut through the rich and thick texture of the curry but this wasn’t really worth the price tag for me.
Overall rating: 7/10
I have mixed feelings about Porkfat but perhaps I am projecting my bias towards high-end Asian cuisine in general, to me great Asian food (whether Chinese, Thai, Korean or Japanese) is casual dining or street food. I vividly remember how much I enjoyed the hawker centres in Singapore and the street food in Shanghai and Japan, nothing compares to the flavour and texture (or ‘wok hei” of stir-fries from a street stall). Elevated Asian dining is often a miss due to the tendency to overcomplicate simple dishes which then compromises flavour. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed the Larb and tiger prawns but I feel like the variation between Porkfat and more casual Thai restaurants (think Chat Thai, Home Thai or Khao Pla) is quite minimal. Would I revisit it? probably not but would I recommend that you visit at least once - yes! The quality of ingredients used and flavour profiles for some of these dishes are amazing, however in the current economy with rising cost of living and increasing debt (mine just keeps racking up) I’ll stick to the $12 lunch specials at my local Thai restaurant.
Address: 33 Ultimo Rd, Haymarket NSW 2000
Website/Menu: https://www.porkfat.com.au/home#menu
Instagram: @porkfatsydney
