Joe Taylor

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A few recognisable Thai terms jump off the page at this spicy new Errol Street wine bar, but not as you know them. Hot and sour tom yum is served not as a soup but as a seasoning for shoestring fries, and the mango sticky rice has shapeshifted from a sweet dessert to a stiff drink in a frosty-fingerprinted martini laced with pandan liqueur.

Lesser-seen Thai dishes have also been given the Melbourne wine bar treatment. Thong muan, a traditionally cigar-shaped Thai wafer, is instead moulded into a curved shell for spanner crab tart strewn with savoury pandan custard and compressed nashi pear. Chunkily hand-cut kangaroo larb is so delightfully tender you barely need to chew, dressed in a roasty, toasty northern Thai spice mix, and destined to land in crackers made of fried beef tendons.

There’s a homeliness not only in the hodgepodge of antique tableware, but also in how accommodating the staff in red T-shirts are. Right at home with fellow Errol Street disruptors Boire and Manze, this is anything but your average Joe.

Must-order: Charred pork jowl, smoky larder rice, tamari yolk, green mango, ginger, condiments.

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