Boon Cafe at Jarern Chai Asian Grocer, Sydney
Thursday, October 20, 2016
Located along Pitt Street right by the area of Haymarket that is considered "Thai town" is Jarern Chai Asian Grocer's Boon Cafe. Every other time I've walked past this place I literally had no idea that it was THE "Boon Cafe" that my sister keeps mentioning I should go to. I honestly thought it was just a coffee stop within a Thai grocer. Which pretty much sums it up except they also serve a large menu full of delicious Thai cuisine!
Right after watching Cirque du Soleil's Kooza with my favourite 언니, Anna we literally began wandering the streets of Surry Hills for some dinner. We had a first choice but upon arriving there it was so crowded so back to the CBD we went. I mentioned I had seen this place on Instagram and that was good enough for both of us to scuttle in. I didn't even know Boon Cafe had a dinner service!
The outside of the Cafe & Grocer
The grocery section is full of amazing goodies!! I really enjoyed looking through it because there are so many different things (specifically, Thai food) that I have never seen before and that I can't get in my local Asian grocer. These include sweets at the counter, and packaged meals in the cold display fridge. I spotted some duck with sticky rice, yuuuumm!!!
The cafe section is located to the left of the entrance so Jarern Chai is split into two. We feel so lucky that we were able to get a nice table by the window because it began filling up after we sat down!
The decor is very cosy and adorable. There's a lot of quirky things such as the bike on the wall and the interesting display above the counter.
Cutie!
Service is friendly and fast. We're first served the table water and I have to mention that the bottle is so gorgeous. We're then handed a menu and this is when we discover that they have such an extensive menu. Overwhelmed with choice!! The kitchen is busy cooking a bunch of dishes and the smell is so amazing. As this is in a grocer, we take comfort in knowing that all our dishes are going to have very very fresh ingredients.
The menu has A LOT of pictures and they are all very pretty and mouth-watering. We were almost tempted to order one of everything, except prior to Kooza we both had already eaten lunch. So maybe we were hungry but it was all in our heads? 😂
In the end we decided to share a simple pad thai because we believe it will be a great way to test how good the food is, and a green papaya salad because that is a favourite! Also likely to be our healthy intake of the day hehe.
As for drinks OOOOOKAAAY MUCH EXCITEMENT HERE...
This pink drink has stolen my heart.
Nearly ordered tea but so glad I changed my mind.
I really think about this all the time.
Nohm Chompoo (Pink Cold Milk) $4.50
I'mmmm sooooo in loooove with this. Not sure if I'm late to the trend or anything but I saw the words "pink milk" on the menu as soon as I was about to order an iced tea and immediately changed my mind. Best decision ever. Nohm Chompoo is an iced milk drink mixed with a red syrup to get the pink colour. I was under the impression it would taste like strawberries but to my surprise it tastes more like candy or caramels and it's very sweet but so delicious. Can't wait to come back and order this again!
Entree: Mhu Phing $3 each
This is a sweet pork skewer served with a sauce that tastes like vinegar and fish sauce. The pork reminds me of Vietnamese nem nuong but much more flattened out and grilled. It's very tasty and these make an awesome start to your meal!
Only thing was as soon as Anna and I grabbed out skewers, one of the waitresses came around and cleared the plate without even asking. I had barely had enough of the sauce and didn't even touch the salad leaves yet so I was very sad.
Som Dtum in Dtum Thai (Spicy green papaya salad w/ peanuts and dried shrimp) $12
This is the most basic som dtum off the menu. We're so pleased with the generous mountain-sized portion and it smells so aromatic with its fish sauce, lime and chillies. In terms of taste, the green papaya is most definitely well picked being fresh, sweet and crunchy. No off-putting bitterness. There are also peanuts, raw green beans and cherry tomatoes which are a welcome addition to the freshness party. I don't even like cherry tomatoes but I really enjoyed them in this salad as they soaked up the delicious sauce. The sauce itself isn't actually too chilli or salty and is more on the sweet side. Nonetheless it's a really good som dtum and we happily ate everything off this plate. Down to the last peanut!
Padt Thai $13
Also the most basic noodles of the menu. Just simple thin rice noodles with bean sprouts, garlic, chives, tamarind & palm sugar sauce. Very beautifully presented, almost a work of art! But the portion was very small because we are slow eaters and we went through this quite quickly. The taste is fantastic though and I'd even go as far to say that it's completely on point. There are bean sprouts mixed in with the noodles, and fresh bean sprouts on top. I really wish there was more noodles though!
😍 😍 😍
Finishing our dinner we were both SO pleased with ourselves.
Good dinner place choice, good dinner plate choice.
Not wanting to leave just yet we also opted to grab some dessert off the menu. Our first choice was the pandan custard on toast but they had run out of toast for the day so we went with the croissant. All the dessert options on the menu are so yummy sounding and accompanied by amazing pictures. They have other options like condensed milk with sugar/milo which reminds me so much of my childhood.
Pandan custard on croissant $6
A warm and large croissant that is both buttery and flakey, cut in half and spread with a generous amount of pandan custard? Yes please! Got to admit we were kind of sceptical when we had to change our order to a croissant and we were kind of worried when we saw how much custard there was on it, but all those doubts went away with our first cut and bite into the croissants. The pandan custard is so light, creamy and fragrant. It is not overly sweet and we LOVE that! Can't recommend this enough if you like dessert but you don't like that super sugary feel.
All in all, Anna and I had the BEST experience at Boon Cafe and we feel like we also made some excellent choices with our meal. It's probably the best thing in the world to share a delicious meal with somebody you love. Thank so much to Boon Cafe for absolutely topping our night!
I highly recommend this place and have also heard it is great for coffee, and catching up with your friends for lunch. Have you guys been here? Share your experience with me if so, I'd love to know! xx
TL;DR:
Price: Decent
Quality: Fresh food with great flavours
Service: Friendly
Ambience: Busy feel but the cafe side is cosy and cute
Boon Cafe
1/425 Pitt St,
Haymarket NSW 2000
Open 7 days a week
7AM - Midnight
1 comments
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