Tom Toon Thai Noodle Cafe, Melbourne

After unsuccessfully trying to get a booking and subsequently trying to walk into Jinda Thai without success, we decided to head around the corner to Tom Toon Thai Noodle Cafe—a restaurant we'd walked past many times but never ventured into.

Like at Jinda, the service is friendly and inviting but unlike Jinda, the place isn't packed, which actually makes for a nice change.


M and I chose a dish for ourselves and a couple of others to share. We also each got a glass of our favourite Thai milk iced tea. I chose a bowl of boat noodles (although they call it something else on the menu), something I get whenever I see it on the menu at a Thai restaurant. He went for the crispy pork with Chinese broccoli, one of his favourites. My boat noodles were pretty good, flavoursome and generous. Even though the stewed beef in it was delicious, I didn't touch the sliced beef which was bland and not the greatest quality. I couldn't detect any blood added to the soup, which while a bit disappointing, isn't a deal breaker for me. M's pork was tasty and a very generous serving of nicely crispy pork belly, but the capsicum was a bit of a confusing addition which didn't add anything to the dish.


To share we got a spicy beef salad which was abundant with the same sliced beef which I was ignoring in my noodle soup. However, the salad itself was very tasty with plenty of spice and herby flavour. The dish I was perhaps most looking forward to was the Thai fermented sausages, something I had been wanting to try for ages and something that (I don't think) is on the menu at Jinda. These were very yummy, tangy and nicely flavoured meat (and rice?) in a crunchy sausage skin.

For dessert M got his favourite pandan layer cake which he thoroughly enjoyed. Although I had been wanting to their sticky rice with mango, alas even my stomach has its limits so we'll save it for another visit.