Bangkok’s historic Thanon Nakhon Chai Si Road is a noodle soup lover’s paradise. The stretch between Ratchawat Market and Sri Yan Market is peppered with countless varieties, but Thai Chinese beef noodle soup reigns supreme. It’s where chef Varittha “Toki” Vatthakul grew up slurping bowls, dreaming of opening his own beef noodle shop one day. Last December, hidden at the end of the Devonshire Street Tunnel, Toki and his wife Isaree “Cherry” Vatthakul realised this dream with Ratchawat Thai Beef Noodle. “I’m trying to introduce
Thai beef noodles to more people in Sydney,” Toki says. “People already know ramen and pho, but Thai beef noodles have their own character.” The style is similar to cherished Surry Hills noodle spot Ama, where the Chansiri sisters make soups based on their food memories from Thailand’s Chinatowns. The Ratchawat menu is tight and focused: pick from the signature beef broth, a beef noodle soup, dry beef noodles and a beef rice bowl. And while style of noodle is your choice – between rice
vermicelli, thin rice noodles and egg noodles – they’re not the main event. “Our bowls aren’t like ramen or pho where the noodles are a big focus. The focus is more on the beef.” Traditional Ratchawat-style beef noodle broth plays by its own rules. Instead of leaning on bones, it builds flavour from sheer beef power: tendon, brisket and shin simmer with Thai herbs and spices for six hours, then cooks thermally for another three before being strained and seasoned, ready for the next day’s
service. Honestly, the result is intoxicating – intensely beefy, exceptionally comforting. The three cuts from the broth join marinated beef and house-made beef balls as mix-and-match options for your bowl. Our tip: get all of them. “Each beef cut has its own character,” says Toki. “So the bowl is more fun to eat and not boring.” Brisket is the crowd-pleaser: tender and rich with fat. The shin is leaner but softer, loaded with collagen. The marinated beef brings texture and chew, while the tendon gives
body to the broth – dissolving instantly on your tongue. Then there’s the beefiest of the lot: beef balls, springy with an al dente rebound. “Before opening Ratchawat, my daughter didn’t really like eating meat, but she would eat beef balls, so I tweaked my recipe to the flavour and texture of the Sri Yan-style I know.” Toki spent a decade building his beef noodle soup from memory and taste tests – starting with staff meals in North Sydney and later at his first restaurant,
Darlinghurst’s Toki Italian Inspired. Every trip back to Bangkok became research: sampling different bowls, bringing home herbs and spices for testing. He’s spent the last year fine-tuning the recipe for Ratchawat. On his last trip to Thailand, he went looking for a fried chicken stall he grew up eating from – only to find the owner had retired. But he needed the exact taste from his childhood, so he tracked down her phone number and secured her Hat Yai-style fried chicken recipe. Toki’s reworked it
slightly to his liking, but it’s largely the same: brined overnight then double-fried in a tri-flour blend. The chicken lands impossibly crisp, ultra juicy. It’s showered in fried shallots and best paired with sticky rice – exactly how it’s eaten in Thailand. There’s family-recipe Thai milk tea and Thai lemon iced tea, from Toki’s mum, who taught him the proper way to extract tea leaves. “I wanted to keep the feeling of a Thai beef noodle shop, but make the menu easier for customers in
Sydney,” he says. “The main idea is still the same as Thailand: the broth and the beef are the most important parts of the bowl.” Ratchawat Thai Beef Noodle6-8/827-837 George Street, Haymarket Hours:Mon to Sat 11am–5pmLast orders 5pm ratchawat.com.au@ratchawat_sydney
Ratchawat Thai Beef Noodle, Thai beef noodle soup, Sydney food, Haymarket, Devonshire Street Tunnel, Bangkok noodle shop, Varittha Toki Vatthakul