MELBOURNE | There’s a new Thai restaurant, Pick Prik, that’s popped up in the back space of Heng Thai. I recently visited for What’s On Melbourne to find out more.
The name comes from the two English spellings of the Thai word for the Thai aka bird’s eye chilli. Unlike the hotpot focus of the restaurant at the front, Pick Prik puts the focus on Issan style street food eats. Everything is made fresh on site, and you can see the staff pounding and mixing ingredients into sauces and pastes at the counter, which also serves as a raw bar for seafood and fresh cut fruit.
To start, it’s all about raw seafood and salads. Things like Korean soy marinated (which is a popular snack in Thailand) prawn, crab, and salmon, and the must try spicy salmon salad. Both the versions – with and without fermented fish dressing, are great.
Moving away from seafood, it’s things like wonderfully crispy fried chicken atop spicy Thai salad, grilled beef fillet and pork neck, and pork loaf salad with salted egg. The deep fried pork belly with fish sauce is a must try.
There’s also a few soups. The MAMA noodle tom yum seafood pot is great, with a fragrant, complex broth. For dessert, it’s a few treats like durian ice cream, grass jelly in syrup, and fresh cut fruit topped with your choice of sweet fish sauce, spicy shrimp sauce, or chilli salt with shrimp paste.
Pick Prik
Shop 2/131 Bourke Street
Melbourne
Victoria 3000
Australia
Telephone: 0452 594 542
E-mail: n/a
Website
Open
Sun – Thu: 5:30pm to 10:00pm
Fri – Sat: 5:30pm to 11:00pm