Longrain Restaurant in Australia's Sydney is often referred to as Sydney's most famous Asian restaurant. Popping up in Sydney just over ten years ago, Longrain Restaurant serves tantalizing Thai and Chinese influenced food with delightful cocktail infusions, and is credited with the revival of the Caprioska stick drink.
Located in Sydney's downtown Surry Hills, where trendy creative's are known to work and socialize, Longrain Restaurant is a meeting hub for friends, partners and networkers. The contemporary eatery has been cleverly designed in a 110 year-old warehouse space - with a buzzing central open-plan kitchen, bar lounge to the left, and dining area to the right. All under one large open-plan roof, the dining area is one long table. Guests are seated next to strangers, which ultimately creates a lively, buzzing atmosphere, set to sultry sounds from the resident DJ- in fact, by popular demand - you can buy the Longrain CD should you wish to recreate the ambience at home.
The dining idea at Longrain is that you enjoy a cocktail in the Longrain lounge-bar before sitting down to eat. And if you do, I recommend snacking on smoked trout on betel leaf, before being escorted to the exciting shared dining table. This delightful starter snack, infuses sweet and sour flavours to the betel leaf mixtures; trout roe, ginger, smoked trout, lime juice, coriander, eshallots, and red chillies. Dear reader, take it from me: this equals heaven for your mouth, and eagerness from your belly for more.
Once seated at the dinner table, menus designed byExecutive Chef, Martin Boetz, are presented. Dishes served are designed to be shared, with approximately one main between four mouths, as per Asian tradition. Longrain Thai restaurant is all about balancing flavours, so plates will arrive with accompanying sauces and sides to do just that.
Waiting staff happily recommend wine to complement the spicy chilli flavours of Asian dishes. Two amazing concoctions must be recommended, Eggnet sidedish, and carmelised pork hock with chilli vinegar, where pork hocks are carmelised in a honey-like consistency. Not being a pork enthusiast, I was hesitant to try, but the dish came highly recommended to me... and I am now passing that recommendation on to you - a divine food indulgence. The eggnet dish comprises a beansprout salad inside an impressive cross-hatch egg netting. Prawn, beansprouts and cucumber relish complement a taste sensation of peanuts, chilli, mint, coriander, and coconut. Amazing.
Longrain Restaurant in Sydney makes for a thrilling atmosphere and a taste-bud treat, this restaurant is definitely an experience of the senses.