Cuisine Undercover - Nine Elephants - 3 stars

Promising food compensates for lack of atmosphere

Ahh … Village Street. Such potential. Such promise. “The Degraves of Docklands” they told us it was going to be – filled with restaurants and cafes and alfresco dining, introducing an element of the CBDs laneway culture into the stark and supposedly barren streets of Docklands …

It’s trying. And newcomer Nine Elephants epitomises all that’s involved in the struggle.

Tucked between the thriving Cafenatics and sleek sophistication of Bob’s Steak and Chop House, this neat little Thai restaurant lacks obvious signage and is easy to miss or mistake as part of the café next door. The chairs outside are mostly empty or removed because, as nice as the idea of alfresco dining is, the reality of it taking place in a wind tunnel which often picks up the grit of nearby construction sites is something else altogether.

The interior fit-out doesn’t exactly scream Thai culture. Making the most of a rather uniform, boxy tenancy beneath the National Foods building, there’s lots of tables crammed a bit too close, which seems at odds with the white tablecloths, low hanging lights and dark, muted tones of the walls and carpet. Until you pick up the menu you’d almost have no idea you’d stumbled into a Thai joint.

But then out comes the food which, while sounding rather standard on the rather standard menu, was surprisingly, a cut
above standard.

The curry puffs were light and airy and accompanied by a smooth yoghurt sauce which made a nice change from the usual satay. The “usual satay” dish of chicken and roti came as individual little bites of chicken wrapped in a wheel of roti and dotted with satay and coriander – not so usual at all.

And the fish cakes “extraordinaire” were livened up with some crushed peanuts and fresh cucumber in quite an original sweet chilli sauce  – and while not quite extraordinary, were very bloody good.

I’d still be raving about a dish intriguingly named “Weeping Tiger”, if it weren’t for the rather odd decision to include just as many strips of fatty off-cuts as there were deliciously thin, rare and smoky strips of char-grilled porterhouse steak. The fancy beef salad came with a gobsmackingly good hot and spicy dressing topped with crushed chilli and roasted ground rice, which added a really striking textural component. Yumyumyum.

Equally intriguing – the “Khao Neua Ob” – stewed beef brisket with Thai herbs and spices. Brisket in Thai food – who would have thunk it? But again, the slightly sweet, almost fishy sauce made this every inch a Thai dish. The cubes of brisket could have been stewed a little longer, but were tender enough for a cuisine that isn’t exactly known for its slow cooking.

The wine list is rubbish with a very limited choice of your standards from the likes of Jacob Creeks or Wolf Blass, but there’s Chang beer and I wouldn’t expect much more from a Thai restaurant.

As we were leaving, the very keen waiter told us there’d be a new menu out soon, and I wondered if perhaps I might have reviewed this joint a little too soon. Maybe the signage, culture and character will come as it finds its feet … much like Village St perhaps? And in the meantime, there’s still some jolly good food to snack on.

Location: Village Street, Batman’s Hill Docklands
The bill: About $70 will get you two entrees, two mains and a couple of drinks.