Long Chim

Long Chim has had a highly heralded arrival to the Melbourne food scene and the lavishly lauded David Thompson meant my expectations were high and I was curious about how authentic Thai food would fit in with the glitz and glam of Crown casino.

I dined with my dear friend Kirsty and had Sunday lunch there seated inside the pleasant dining area. We found service smiley, prompt most of the time except when we needed the bill but I think that was just a momentary lapse. 

The $45 set lunch meal was appealing so we decided to give it a whirl along with a couple of cocktails.

• Chive cakes
• Chicken satay

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These entrees came out quickly. The chive cakes were nice enough with sweetish soy and stuffed with fragrant chives. The chicken satay was juicy and tender and I liked the chilli dipping sauce more than the ubiquitous peanut sauce that is usually served in Thai restaurants. Certainly a tasty enough start and washed down by a couple of fruity, punchy cocktails it was a good Sunday afternoon!

• Mashed prawn curry
• Stirfried Siamese watercress
• Glass noodle salad

My favourite here was surprisingly the watercress which was stir fried to perfection with a punchy sauce. The flavour of the prawn curry was powerful and yummy with the steamed rice but mashed prawn means mince prawn which I found a bit mealy and I'd have preferred whole prawns or some other chunkier protein. The mashed prawn is obviously more cost efficent as uses less prawn but I would have preferred to pay more and have more protein.

The glass noodle salad came out a little later so were had trouble finishing it but it was fresh and tasty. I think the noodles were slightly overcooked so a bit mushy but again, the flavours were good.

We were asked if we wanted to wait for dessert or plough on through demonstrating attentive service.

• Thai tea ice cream, pistachio, young coconut

It was a big serve and I definitely didn't need that much ice cream and ended up leaving almost two thirds as it's very sweet and rich. I didn't like the coconut jelly which was very authentically Asian in texture and I know is not my thing but plenty others enjoy. 

Our waitress asked for feedback on it and I told her it was too large given how rich it was and she seemed to take my opinion seriously which made me feel valued!

In all, we enjoyed our Long Chim visit. I wouldn't be averse to another one to try more as the food was appetisingly attractive and tasty. Not all of it was to my taste though but enough of it tantalised the old tastebuds to warrant a second try.