Ran Proad — Restaurant in Sydney

Casting a golden glow onto a quiet sidewalk in Rosebery, Ran Proad will likely surprise, especially if you venture in for their pad prik king with crispy pork belly ($23.90). This dry curry stir-fries beautiful wedges of crisp, meaty pork belly with a house-made red curry paste, juice green beans, lime leaves and red chilli. It’s well balanced and compelling, but what you might expect from a pair of chefs, Sorun Tujinda and Yanto, who have spent time in the Long Chim kitchen.

Ran Proad, which loosely translates to “favourite shop”, is the pair’s first restaurant. It’s a modest 24-seater with colourful but simple decor, a street-food mural and elephant neon. We settle at a sidewalk table and a spicy (at our request) bowl of green papaya salad ($16.90). Massamun beef curry ($23.90) is rich and aromatic, with big hunks of slow cooked beef that dissolve into strands easily. We eat ours over egg fried rice ($10.90) but it was such a lush gravy it probably deserved simpler jasmine rice ($4).

I was so impressed with the house-made curry pastes I bought a green curry with crispy pork belly ($21.90) and a red curry duck ($21.90) takeaway for lunch the next day. The green curry impressed with crisp apple eggplants and Thai basil, but wasn’t quite as well balanced (it ate a bit sweet). The red curry was rich and wonderful. My only complaint was a slightly heavy hand with MSG left me overly thirsty after dinner, but not after lunch the next day, so maybe it was the crazy-delicious...

A new local Thai eatery just opened up by 2 senior ex-Long Chim chefs in the Rosebery suburbs.

'Ran Proad' roughly translates to 'favourite shop', and what can I say, they're only a month in, still finding their footing, but it's looking like a new favourite. The food is good. And I mean, really good. There is a reasonably priced lunch special here, $15.90 with complimentary 375mL soft drink til 4pm, but we opted for the a la carte menu.

4 of us went in for lunch, we got, the Chicken Pad Thai ($18.90), Crispy Pork Belly Salad with Green Apple($19.90), the Massaman Beef Curry($23.90), Thai Fried Rice w/ more Crispy Pork Belly($23) and we started with the Hand made Prawn Cakes w/ Plum Sauce.

The Crispy Pork Belly Salad and Massaman Curry were the highlights, the salad is a good mix of crunch, savoury, sweet and just the right of acid from the apple, and the Massaman Curry was aromatic and authentic, with slow cooked, 12 hr brisket, thick and rich, no skimping on process here - the curries are made in-house by hand, no store bought, pre mixed pastes in sight.

Portions are generous, and the hospitality is en pointe for a local eatery and obviously, the place still needs a bit of work, but I would definitely...

I don't really do food reviews, the rare times I do were because the food was horrible or outstanding.

Ran Proad is hands down one of the best Thai restaurants in Syndey. We took our parents there, and we thoroughly enjoyed everything we ordered. They definitely use top-quality ingredients, and the food all tasted amazing. My favourites are the Green Papaya Salad and Pad Prik Khing with crispy pork belly—the best crispy pork belly I've had in Sydney. The fried curry flavour exploded in my mouth, and the texture of the crispy pork belly is just wow! I don't think I can eat anyone else's crispy pork belly after this! My parents don't really eat really spicy food, so the chef tuned down the spiciness of the Green Papaya Salad for us, amazing is an understatement.  We all loved it, it's so refreshing and flavourful, the dressing has the perfect balance of spicy, sweet and sour. My parents favourite is their Pad Thai with prawns.

The 30-minute car ride from our place is well worth it. I would recommend this place to anyone who loves authentic Thai food, not to mention the super friendly service.

Next time I would want to try their curries, Tom Yum Goong, green apple salad with crispy pork belly, and...