The new Dickson location of Chong Co has a more casual feel to it. Photo: Tenele Conway.
Chong Co, the popular Canberra network of Thai restaurants, has opened its fourth Canberra location in Dickson in the DKSN 2.0 Eat Street Precinct.
It’s been a tough grind to fill the new development, but with this latest addition, hot on the heels of the Pakistani restaurant Zaiqah, the vibe is slowly building.
Chong Co will join Bhutanese restaurant Fuzion Eats, De Doughnuts, Sushi Fresh and Our Hours Korean Bakery. Signage has been promising a Nigerian restaurant called Kenmasi for a long time, but that is yet to materialise.
Chong Co opened its first location in Belconnen in 2011, followed by a slow expansion across Canberra, with locations now in Greenway, Kingston Foreshore, and most recently, Dickson.
With a corner tenancy facing Challis Street, the restaurant is more visible than many tucked away in this new corner of Dickson. However, once inside the venue, it has an intimate feel, with warm wood tones, hanging plants, and a pavilion-like structure built over the bar.
The layout is quite different from Chong Co’s expansive Kingston Foreshore restaurant, which is my usual Chong Co outlet, and I like the casual feel that suits Dickson.
The DKSN 2.0 development is slowly progressing with the addition of new tenants, Chong Co. Photo: Martin Conway.
Heading to eat my first meal at the new location, I’m greeted by the clack-clack-clack of metal paddles against steel woks as I sit down with the extensive menu that these guys are known for.
Leaning heavily on Thai classics well-known in Australia, simply navigating the 10-page menu, plus the additional lunch specials menu card, is a feat in itself.
On this occasion, my attention was taken by a few menu items that were reminiscent of a recent trip to Bangkok and ones I would highly recommend diners try.
The marinated BBQ pork neck with nam jim jaew dipping sauce is a dish you’ll find all over Thailand in settings that range from fancy riverside restaurants to local markets where stacks and stacks of plastic containers of BBQ pork with their accompanying dipping sauce are ready for you to grab and go.
Chong Co’s version features deliciously tender pork, yet retains the texture you’d expect from a cut like neck. It has a light smokiness, and the nam jim jaew has a good kick of tamarind, along with the crunch of roasted rice. The sauce could have been spicier for my taste. One of the things I love about Thai street food is a sauce that kicks you in the butt, but that you can apply at your discretion to suit your spice tolerance.
Ka prow gai and grilled pork neck is a great way to experience Thai street food and Chong Co. Photo: Martin Conway.
To accompany the pork, we chose Thailand’s unofficial national dish, pad kra pao. In this instance, it’s called ka prow gai (gai meaning ‘chicken’ and ka prow being a slightly different phonetic translation of the Thai words for ‘holy basil’).
On a technicality, pad Thai is the actual national dish of Thailand, as the government designated it as such in the mid-twentieth century. However, many Thais consider the minced meat-based stir-fry, pad kra pao, to be the actual national dish and one that many people eat on a daily basis.
If you haven’t had a kra pao, well, consider this your chance. The stir-fried chicken mince is sweet, tender and juicy, and the Thai holy basil, which is the basis of the dish, is fragrant and herbal. Chong Co’s version is pretty mild on the spice level. In Bangkok, if you don’t ask for ped noi (a little spicy), it’s going to blow your head off.
To wash it all down, we went with iced Thai milk tea, a drink that I crave. While a saviour when it comes to staving off the Thai heat, it’s still incredible in a Canberra winter. I was impressed with this version. It was face-puckeringly sweet, just like in Bangkok, but the tea flavour was strong enough to hold its own despite the sweetness.
Thai milk tea is so, so sweet and very delicious. Photo: Martin Conway.
As you can imagine, with a 10-page menu, you have all the curries you would expect, including red, green, and massaman. There are also loads of stir-fries. I recommend trying the ka na moo grob (crispy pork belly with Chinese broccoli). A range of lovely whole fried barramundi, accompanied by a selection of sauces and toppings, makes for a great sharing meal. Soups, including the famous tom yum, are a nice meal for one, and there are some lovely salads, including the famed Thai salad som tam (green papaya salad).
In the meantime, I’ll be keeping one eye on this precinct. I’m hoping that the wave of suburban revival that Canberra is currently experiencing will be enough to see it succeed, and more of those hidden shopfronts will fill up, creating another vibrant food district in Canberra.
Chong Co Dickson, located in the DKSN 2.0 Eat Street Precinct on Challis Street, is open seven days a week for lunch and dinner.
