The Pickled Octopus sits perched on Tuross Head. Photo: Supplied.
Perched on the point of Tuross Head on the NSW South Coast, with a commanding view of the Tuross River, sits the Pickled Octopus specialising in Thai cuisine.
Bee Creevy has owned the seafood restaurant since 2017 and uses her northern Thai upbringing to govern the menu. She takes advantage of the local seafood and fresh produce from the onsite garden.
Bee and her husband came to the stunning location when former owners Greg and Kathy sold up and the new owners were looking for tenants. It led Bee to take a shot at a career change in a place she already knew well from years of visits.
“I thought to myself, ‘Well, I’m not doing anything’,” Bee laughs.
“We took the lease and were uncertain how we would go as we hadn’t done this before. So we signed for two years and eight years later we are still here.”
Bee Creevy enjoys her waterfront location. Photo: Supplied.
Having never previously owned a hospitality business, Bee leaned into her experience working in hospitality venues in Thailand and took advantage of a government sponsorship program to source qualified chefs from her home country.
“Being in a regional location is very hard to get good chefs,” she says.
“This program has helped a lot to secure very good professional chefs. Once you get a good Thai chef, you don’t let go.”
Despite the seasonal, itinerant population of the region, Bee runs the Pickled Octopus year round and is aiming to please her fellow locals.
“You’ve got to win the locals here; if the locals agree with you, they’re here for life,” she says.
“The people here are very well travelled; they eat very well and they’re very healthy. They have their veggie patches and when they come to eat with us, we want to have those standards too.”
The steep block on which the restaurant is built accommodates Bee’s veggie garden, originally established by the former owners. It’s a place for her to grow Thai ingredients that supply the restaurant with the freshest produce picked daily.
“The previous owners were serious gardeners and set it up with betel leaves, ginger, papaya and turmeric. We’re also growing kaffir lime leaves, chillis, mint, lemongrass and Thai basil in the summer and wild basil in winter when Thai basil won’t grow.”
With the restaurant reliant on fresh produce, Bee is on the verge of implementing a permaculture plan in the garden which adopts principles from natural ecosystems and will see her garden flourish.
World-class views accompany your meal at the Pickled Octopus. Photo: Tenele Conway.
Born and raised in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, Bee and her team of three full-time chefs craft a menu based on the tastes with which they grew up.
“I want our Thai to be authentic. We don’t use flavour enhancers or MSG or too much sugar because we didn’t use those at home in Thailand,” Bee says.
“If I don’t want to eat it, it won’t go on the menu.”
With an abundance of seafood around her, Bee is able to take advantage of freshly caught and local seafood.
“All of our prawns are ocean caught and we have a fish of the day which comes from Narooma.”
The oysters, which can be eaten natural or served with a soy, ginger and lime vinaigrette and topped with parsley and caviar, are sourced right there in Tuross.
The menu also features lightly charred barbecued baby octopus ($34), an aromatic Choo Chee curry of prawns ($48), whole baby snapper cooked in your choice of two styles – either fried with lemongrass, coriander, mint, chilli and cashew nuts or fried with a house-blended mild chilli sauce ($65) – plus a selection of northern Thai dishes such as Khao Soi soup ($30) plus a larb with your choice of chicken, pork or tofu ($30).
The menu isn’t cheap and nor should it be. Bee is sitting on a world-class view and serving quality ingredients in dishes packed full of flavour.
Bee is able to use betel leaves from her own garden to create her dishes. Photo: Supplied.
I was particularly taken with the larb, its textural roasted rice, abundance of lemongrass and smack of lime.
Bee gets excited when talking about the larb.
“That larb is from the north-eastern part of Thailand, the Issan region. It’s very fresh and uses loads of mint from the garden. I did take out the roasted red chillies because people freak out when they see them, but it’s very authentic.”
I also recommend the Khao Soi. This curry-style soup Bee likens to a laksa is reasonably hard to find on Australian menus. She does a version true to her home region in northern Thailand.
“There are lots of different styles of Khao Soi around,” she says. “The northern Thai style doesn’t have veggies; it has pickled mustard greens and crispy noodles and extra roasted chilli.”
One question remained: how does Bee and the team get anything done with that view?
“We glance at the sunset and go back to our wok, glance at the sunset and go back to our wok,” Bee laughs.
The Pickled Octopus is open for lunch and dinner Wednesday to Sunday. Check out the menu on its website as well as news and specials on its Facebook page.
