“Thai guys put in two or three spoonfuls of this,” says chef Chuma Jantharaphitak, pointing to a jar of house-made green chilli, lime and garlic sauce. “Just stir it through the soup.”
The soup he’s referring to is kway teow neua toon, the signature beef noodle gravy soup at Melbourne’s Tom Toon Thai Noodle Cafe. Flat, narrow rice noodles and three kinds of beef – sliced sirloin, braised gravy beef, and boiled beef balls – bob about in a rich broth.
On its own, the soup is sublime, fragrant with star anise and cinnamon. Fried pork rind gives a crouton-like crunch; a spoonful of Jantharaphitak’s chilli sauce rewards you with a complex spiciness that tickles the back of the throat.
Jantharaphitak was born in Nong Khai, in Thailand’s north-east Isan region. When he came to Australia 16 years ago, Melbourne’s Thai food scene was less developed than it is today. Back then, he says, it was more about pad thai and cashew beef.
So, in 2009 he opened Tom Toon (which means “boil” and “braise”) with a mission to serve a broader range of cuisine from his homeland, plus fiery and fermented dishes from the Isan region.
In those early days, most of Jantharaphitan’s customers were Thai. “Now, our customers are about 60% from the Australian Asian communities,” he says, adding that a recent visit from a social media influencer caused a spike in Chinese patrons.
Tom Toon is located near the quieter, western end of Victoria Street in Abbotsford, away from the busy hub of Vietnamese restaurants. But on a weekday lunchtime, the narrow restaurant - populated with many elephant ornaments, trunks up - fills fast with diners. (Note: people with accessibility needs may find the small space hard to navigate.)
There are Thai students sharing nam kra-dook orn (fried pork bone), couples enjoying a curry pick-me-up, and office workers tackling steaming bowls of noodle soup as they scroll their phones.
The restaurant is compact, but the menu is extensive and helpfully divided into salads, noodles, curries, stir-fries and hot pots. Keep an eye out for the Isan specialties sprinkled throughout, such as sai grok Isan (sour fermented sausage) and tom sab, a sour, spicy noodle soup with soft pork bone. “We add toasted, ground glutinous rice, and this gives it a very deep flavour,” says Jantharaphitak.
It’s worth studying the som tum section: there are 23 variations of the green papaya salad, including one with bamboo and river snail, and another with pla ra (fermented mud fish), and the servings are huge.
The plate of som tum bu nim comes piled high with shredded papaya, green cabbage, dried shrimp, and soft-shell crab. “Big, isn’t it?” says the waiter with a grin. It’s laced with a palate-reviving dressing of fish sauce, palm sugar, chilli and lime, and while we’ve wimpishly chosen the mild chilli level, braver souls can go all the way up to “very hot”. It’s progress that’s best made over repeat visits.
Tom Toon Thai Noodle Cafe, 241 Victoria St, Abbotsford, Vic, (03) 9417 7447
