Not long before I moved away from Brisbane, a cool sounding little restaurant opened up in the Valley called LONgTIME. I'd walked past a couple of times and made the rookie mistake of looking at the bar area outside, assuming it was the dining area and thinking 'Meh.
I'd never really given the modern Thai restaurant much of a thought until we came back to Brisbane for a short visit and arranged to go along with good mates. You can imagine my surprise when I arrived for our dinner and found a huge and contemporary looking dining room, wrapped around an open kitchen, hidden from street view. I was gob smacked!
It didn't surprise me that it was one of the hottest dining spots in Brisbane and a favourite of our Brisbane buds Thommo and Druce. It was just the sort of hip and out of the way place that would appeal to our friends, who regaled us with stories of former visits and amazing food. I literally couldn't wait to get cracking...
But, wait I did. I'd arrived a little early and Thommo and Druce, who'd been entertaining SC, were quite late. So, I had the opportunity to sit in the dining room and watch it slowly, then quickly fill up as I waited for my dining companions. At least I was comfortable and it did give me the opportunity to admire the fit-out, which was solid looking wood tables and chairs and green leaf covered chandeliers, bringing the outside in.
By the time my dining buddies arrived, I'd pored over the menu and had a pretty good idea of what I would order, which promptly went out the window when we deferred the selection of dinner options to the LONgTIME veterans at the table! The menu was split into clear sections, including Bar Snacks, Curries, Salads, Meat and Noodles. There was plenty of contemporary looking options available and we kicked off with plenty of small bites from the Bar Snacks section.
Looking fabulous all bunched together were some of the Bangkok taco with crispy prawn laab. Now, I'm a relatively new convert to fish tacos, but since first trying them earlier in the year, I really can't get enough of the tasty little treats. The LONgTIME prawn tacos were delicious, crispy taco shells and fresh prawns, along with some spicy sauce really hit the spot. Granted I was particularly hungry by that point, but we quickly devoured our serving of the small bites.
Also from the Bar Snacks section were some crispy pork belly Bao as well as some some soft shell crab Bao with apple slaw. I have mixed feelings about Bao, which are more Vietnamese than Thai. I've had some good ones, and some terrible ones. The LONgTIME version were pretty good, the Bao and the ingredients were fresh, but I just didn't particularly love the combinations, although the soft shell crab Bao was the pick of the two.
However, the not quite Bao but burger like LONgTIME fried chicken burger with whitepepper mayo was a revelation. The combo of the fried chicken and mayo was superb and I didn't even mind that the burger buns were made out of Bao, the balance was perfect and they went down a treat!
We'd also ordered a couple of Curries to augment our Bar Snacks, including the Penang curry of slow cooked beef cheek with peanuts and ginger and the fried spiced eggplant with vine tomatoes and Thai basil in a yellow curry plus dried chillies. To be honest, I wasn't overly enamoured with the chillies and Druce lamented that the recent menu change had dropped off a number of his favourite curries, which all had sounded great. I picked at the beef cheeks in the Penang curry, but didn't fully commit. At that point, I was pining for the prawn tacos, which had been the pick of the food we'd consumed.
There was an all round consensus that the Bar Snacks had been the pick of the food on the night, with a bit of acknowledgement from Druce that the curries in the former menu were far superior. I also have to say that the rest of the table probably enjoyed the curries we'd ordered much more than I did... I'm particularly picky when it comes to Thai Curries, and usually order yellow curry chicken (which wasn't on the menu).
However, it wasn't all about the food at that point, we'd not seen or spent time with our mates in almost eight months, so it was all about the catching up. LONgTIME was the perfect venue for that and we felt welcome from the moment we arrived to the moment we left. I was particularly impressed with our waiter for the night, who was at the top of his game and possibly the best waiter in all of Queensland!
The team at LONgTIME have plenty of experience, having been involved in starting Melbourne's famous Longrain restaurant, as well as working in Michelin Starred restaurants. Probably the most interesting fact about the team was that they have cooked for the British and Thai royal families, a feat which only very few chefs get to enjoy.
Without doubt a super cool spot and I could see why the food would bring people through the doors, it was all well cooked, it just didn't float my particularly fussy (curry) boat.
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| I didn't catch what this one was, but Thommo did seem to enjoy it immensely |
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| Before the action starts - Kitchen team hard at work |
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| Cool little water bowls |
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| And before long, it was packed! I love the interior, especially the green chandeliers |
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