Yim Yam offers an interesting combination of dishes from Thailand and Laos.
We arrived on a Friday night at 7:45pm with no booking. There was no table space available, so we agreed to a 30 minute wait and went to the pub on the corner for a beer. This is definitely how to approch this place. Go to Yim Yam, put your name down, and then go have an aperitif.
Space was reserved for us at one of the two communal tables when we returned. All good.
It’s small, but definitely cheerful and warm on this winter night. 60s Thai Pop prints are french-hung on one wall, and counter seating runs along the inside length of the front window.
The menu has some items typical of Thai joints all over town: satay, green curry chicken, tom yum, etc. But the real draw for me was a goodly proportion of dishes that you don’t see everywhere, like som tum thai (here called simply papaya salad) and crispy fish salad. We ordered both.
The som tum thai was ok, it was a little too sweet and peanuty, almost like there was a spidge of satay sauce stirred through it. It is served in a little wooden mortar, which is cute. Overall it wasn’t bad, but it lacked the sour and hot notes and the fish sauce punch I want with my papaya salad.
Good mix of papaya, bean, carrot and tomato
The crispy fish salad was a chewy, crispy, salty and sour adventure. It’s a powerful dish, extremely tasty in small amounts.
Extremely flavourful but not at all spicy
We also tried the toasted rice and coconut salad. The coconut flavour was intense, and nicely balanced by mint and chili. The toasted rice was crispy in patches, and I would have liked more crunchy bits.
Lots of flavour, not enough crunch
The beef and Thai basil stirfry was one of the better I’ve had, with straws of crunchy bamboo shoot and a salty smoky aftertaste. This is the dish I will dream about and need to return for.
A cracker dish with plenty of mouth feel
Overall, Yim Yam is a pretty good place for Thai in Melbourne. It wasn’t knock-you-head off spicy, but extremely satisfying nonetheless.
$48 for two eating the above, plus one sticky rice and one coke.
Yim Yam is BYO.
40 Ballarat Street , Yarraville, Tel: 03 9687 8585
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