Thai Tree, George St, Sydney

Thai Tree, George St, Sydney

Wednesday 8 & Thursday 9 August, 2007

There is a brand spanking new food court underneath the NAB building called Food @ 259 on Grosvenor St. Bizarrely it is advertised as open even though only 2 of the 10 or so offerings are actually open for business. The dining space is huge with indoor and outdoor seating and a white/ orange colour scheme. It's bright, fresh, clean and inviting and will be even better once all the food outlets are open.

Thai Tree is located in the rear of the food court and is a buzzy place. There are about 7 staff behind the counter & in the kitchen. They cook all the noodles and soups to order so be prepared to take a number and wait. There are also dishes available on display in the heated bain maries.

On Wednesday I ended up here by accident. My lunch buddy & I were going to eat in the cafe in the foyer of the NAB Building but there were no seats available so we decided to walk around to Food @ 259. There was a reasonable queue of about 10 eager lunch goers which allowed us to review the large menu hung above the serving area before we reached the counter.

I decided to order the Pad Sen Mee with chicken. The Thai noodles used for this dish were rice vermicelli noodles also known as sen-mee in Thai, may-fun in Chinese, or mee hoon in Malay. These rice flour noodles should not be confused with glass noodles (vermicelli) which are made with mung bean flour. After ordering and paying at the counter we were handed a numbered ticket. Mine was 94 and my lunch buddies was 95.

We stood back with the patient crowd waiting for our numbers to be called out. To our dismay the next number called was 13. What the?@*! Turns out each staff member had a different series of tickets so we wouldn't be standing around for 80 more orders......

The turn around was relatively painless given the eager lunch goers and we collected our meals and stocked up on chilli sauce. We grabbed seats in the centre of the large open dining space and tucked in. Pad Sen Mee is fried rice vermicelli noodles cooked in oyster sauce stir fried with chicken & vegetables. The noodles were a little on the greasy side but the chicken & vegetables were fresh and well cooked. I had packed on the chilli sauce so my mouth was on fire but in a good way.

The following day, I ended up here by accident.......again. My lunch buddy and I walked to Jimmy's only to discover a queue out the door. Not prepared to wait, we walked over to Food @ 259. So, it was back to Thai Tree. Today, I decided to order the Pad Siew. Siew means soy sauce in Thai and the noodles used were long & flat.

We had a little wait before our numbers were called. Having experienced the Pad Sen Mee yesterday I was looking forward to trying something new. The Pad Siew was delicious - the falt noodles were light and coated in soy & chilli sauce tossed with chicken & vegetables. I absolutely loved this dish and will definitely return for more.

Note: thanks to Tea & Cookies for the fab photo.

Thai Tree - 259 George St, Sydney