Monkey King Thai335 Barrenjoey Rd
Newport, Sydney
This restaurant is not your average Thai place with the usual Thai dishes and décor. It’s more contemporary, with some enticing and interesting menu items as well as all your old favourites. The interior is stylish and modern with local artists’ work displayed on the walls. There is also outdoor dining at the front and rear of the premises if you prefer the seaside air.
The menu is well presented and the photos look so tempting it gets your mouth watering. There is a “make your own” section where you can choose the components of your dish, such as meat/seafood/veg, sauce and noodle type. There are also signature dishes and chef’s recommendations and the variety is extensive but not overwhelming. This place also does some great Thai “street food”. They all sound amazing, so it’s hard to choose. What a nice problem to have!
We started with the steamed prawn and chicken dumplings with homemade sauce. They were light and soft in the middle and very good. Dame V loved these and stole one of Dame M's.
As we are seafood lovers, we also chose the crispy soft shell crab with sweet chilli sauce. It’s a popular dish and this one tasted as good as it looked. The coating was indeed crispy and not at all oily or heavy. Inside, the crab was still juicy and it was very tasty.
As we are seafood lovers, we also chose the crispy soft shell crab with sweet chilli sauce. It’s a popular dish and this one tasted as good as it looked. The coating was indeed crispy and not at all oily or heavy. Inside, the crab was still juicy and it was very tasty.
Next, something a bit astringent to freshen the palate – papaya salad (which can be ordered with a side of crispy pork belly if you like.) The combination was a winner. The tangy lemon-dressed salad was really good and so was the pork.We chatted with part-owner Top, who explained that his aim is to provide a casual and friendly atmosphere where locals feel part of the family.
There are lots of regulars here and Top is keen to get their feedback and suggestions so he can continue to meet and exceed their expectations. He supports the community wherever possible which we think is a nice way to do business.
For the mains, we started with king prawns with lime leaves and peppercorns. This was tasty and although there were only three prawns, they were giant ones so it was plenty. If you are a group sharing, you may like to consider the numbers and order extra servings as necessary. It was a delicious dish and you can adjust your intake of those punchy peppercorns to suit your taste.
Lovers of duck will love our next dish – duck with plum sauce and shitake mushrooms with star anise,cinnamon and garlic.
This was such a tasty mixture and apparently a very popular choice here.
This was not surprising at all once we tasted it - it was simply beautiful.
Dessert? Yes, Monkey Love please. That was the name of the amazing deep fried bananas in flaky pastry with green tea ice cream which we devoured next. These monkeys certainly loved it! We will go back for this too!Monkey King Thai in Newport is now open for lunch and offers some great specials accompanied by steamed rice. The banquet menu looks fabulous and also great value. The dinner menu is also very reasonably priced and there is Singha beer on tap. You can even get a signature Monkey King craft Pale Ale which is a bitter style so it goes well with this style of food. For the wine lovers, there is a Monkey King Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 which we also tried. It was a very nice drop. Allover it was a great dining experience which we would highly recommend. We know we will both be back to try some more superb dishes.
Those Dames, who review for Sir and Mlady Dine Out, dined as guests of Monkey King Thai. Big thanks to co-owner Top for this invitation.
