Thai City Restaurant

So I was on the hunt for a cheeky afternoon Tom Kha soup and was in Lygon Street. Now these two things do not seem to match but wait read on…
Sat outside at Thai City and we given a menu quickly and a glass of chilled water. Ordered the prawn spring rolls and a chicken Tom Kha Soup. Service was fantastic and the food came out nice, hot and quickly. The spring rolls were super crispy with enough dipping sauce to make me give it two thumbs up! The Tom Kha soup was delicious, right balance of coconut, lime and spice. All up with a drink the meal was $ 20. I have to say this was a winner winner thai dinner!

The staff here are so so nice. Friendly and helpful too. Our party of 8 were easily accommodated by moving some tables together at around 9.30 pm on a Friday night no problem. We were brought water, menus and delicious prawn cracker almost immediately.
The food arrived quickly and was super delicious. There’s a vegetarian portion of the menu for the non meat eaters and they were very helpful with suggestions and detail about menu items for one of our party who follows the FoDMap diet and is Gluten Free.
I will definitely be coming back here as its so close to work.
The décor is traditional Thai and the vibe is friendly and welcoming and prices are reasonable.
Overall a great find!

Had a nice meal here on a Friday night. Small little restaurant that gave friendly and prompt service.
The meals were nice and spicy! And well priced as well. Certainly recommend.

I did not know what to expect going in — and I was very, very pleasantly surprised.
My wife and I did BYO wine ($ 5 corking fee — no glass fee was charged). We ordered Lemongrass (Tiger) Prawn for an entrée. Very, very well made and the prawn well chosen by the chef. The menu indicated the dish was spice and it delivered: Spicy yet well balanced.
We ordered a minced pork soup. Delicious and mild — a mixture of vegetables, pork meat balls, and tofu in a meat-​based broth. The tofu was a bit of a distraction because it completely lacks flavour. The portions were almost too large.
The mains were a bit more mixed: neither was to be spicy. One was lacking in flavour but the other was (very) spicy. The spicy one (Sweet Basil site fry with pork) was amazingly good. And for my the level of spice was perfect — BUT they absolutely should have indicated on the menu it was a spicy dish. The second dish was a stir fry of beef with vegetables in a ginger sauce. Totally bland and the beef was tough.
I would have put 3.5 stars if I could have. This place has some really, really good elements. Service was very good (although strangely our waitress asked at several points about the timing of our meal — I am not used to that — but we were neither rushed, nor was the service slow). The atmosphere was suitable for a date (where you aren’t trying too hard to impress). The quality of food was very, very good, if a bit inconsistent.

Open on Mondays: Thai City — one; Ying Thai 2 — zero.
If it wasn’t for their longer operating hours, I probably never would have tried Thai City because Ying Thai 2 is so good.
Of course I ordered the chicken larb, and we also had prawn pad thai and a beef salad. First, the larb — it was ssssssppicy. I’m not chili wimp, but it was too much for me. I’m sure they’d do a milder version if I’d asked, but larb is normally a palatable level of hotness. The pad thai was pretty good with a decent number of prawns throughout, and the beef salad wasn’t bad either. Overall I’d say the food was good.
We went for lunch and sat outside so it was a pretty casual café-​style dining experience, however inside is more ‘restaurant’ style with linen table cloths, which explains the slightly more spendy prices than YT2. Sadly, though, the food just isn’t hitting the same standards as YT2, which is not really an insult since the only place that does compete is the original Ying Thai on Victoria Street.
Service was great (although we were the only customers) and the waitress was very good with the monkey-​child in our party, bringing her a special fruit drink and ignoring the systematic trashing of the napkin dispensers.
Overall it’s a viable alternative when YT2 is full or closed.