Yok Yor Thai Food Factory ~ Thainatown / City South

Yok Yor is another of the handful of excellent Sydney Thai restaurants that cater for a mainly Thai crowd. We drop in for a quick bite, we like it so much we return nine more times. And there's still plenty of menu to explore.





The 'factory' gimmick with the staff in coloured construction hats threw us off the scent of how good this little place is, until we saw this post by Melbourne Thai food fiend, Krapow. Now we've been to Yok Yor ten times in three weeks.

Yok Yor draws a a mainly Thai crowd, lots of young folks as well as the the odd auntie and uncle. It's a tiny joint with room for twenty or so punters. It gets packed at night but opting to share a table will get you fed quicker. It's pretty easy to get a table in quieter times, making it a good option for solo diners between lunch and dinner rushes.

After ten visits we still want to come back, there's many dishes we haven't tried before, plus there's a bunch of very Thai loooking monthly specials on the wall.  We love how the menu doesn't pander to the masses yet though there's a few Aussie favourites such as pad Thai, so everybody's happy. It's a great place to explore a different menu and take some random punts. Yok Yor is a gem.



Khao Moo Dang - $8.50. Cantonese style bbq pork with gravy. Served with rice, chili soy sauce and soup on the side. Plain and simple.



Khoa Moo Krob - $9.50. Crispy skin pork on rice. Nice and not overly naughty, there's a little fat and crunch without being a lard-fest.



Khao kha moo - $8.50. 'Braised melting pork leg served with rice and chili vinegar relish.' Lovely slow cooked pork. Yum. Watch the chili sauce, it's bitey. This is by far Shawn's pick of the pork-on-rice dishes. There's still duck and chicken on rice to try.



Boat noodle soup - large, $7.50 I think. A nice rich beefy broth with some lemon tang and a little chili heat. Very happy.



Guay jub - $8.50 - a sweet dark meaty five spice broth just the way Shawn loves it. Rolled up rice noodles, crispy pork belly, some piggy innards and half a boiled googie. Yum, except for the offal which Shawn can take or leave, preferably leave.



Ba mee keow moo dang - $8.50. Chinese-style bbq pork noodle soup with egg noodles, veggies and scrummy little chicken and prawn wontons. The broth was nice and clean and not overly salty, especially nice when you add a dash of chili powder and chili sauce from the condiment set. Fans of BBQ pork noodle soup should definitely give this a try.



Nanom hean nam ngeal - $9.50. "Northern style rice noodles in a spiced tomato broth with pork ribs, chicken feet and blood pudding." A perfect solo lunch dish. Bundles of thin rice noodles in a lovely, lightly spiced, tomato-y gravy/soup, which is countered with fresh salad. Shawn isn't usually one for chicken feet and blood cubes but it works perfectly in this dish. He floated home on a cloud of happiness after this. Looking forward to trying the curry version.



Kao pad moon goong - $12.90 - "prawn bisque fried rice". From the July specials list on the wall. The rice looks and tastes like it has been cooked in prawn stock, lightly spiced with nice prawnie flavours. Good stuff.



The lime ice blend drink ($4) is divine - lime and crushed ice with a pinch of salt for kicks. Might sneak in a cheeky dash of vodka next time... Thai ice tea ($3) is always recommended.



Nud Dad Deaw - $8.50. 'Fried homemade sun dried salted beef with nahm jim jeaw.' Fried beefy jerky with spicy sauce. Nice beefy flavours with plenty of chew.



Cat fish curry $14. Cat fish was crunchy and bony with a little sweet flesh in the middle, we liked the texture though the sauce was a bit hot for us, we could eat it no problems but heat masked the flavours, something we've come across in Thailand too.



Spicy cucumber salad - a special from the wall - around $9. The dressing had some kind of fermented fish flavour which Alison loved but Shawn wasn't so keen. There are some flavours in Thai food that are alien to the western palette, usually dead fish is involved somewhere.



Larb moo tod - $9.50. The menu describes these as 'latest version of larb pork rolled into a small ball size and fried served with salad on side'. We'd call them Thai rissoles, bloody nice Thai rissoles with lovely herb flavours.



Stir fried mung bean noodles with prawn - $13. Clear noodles with a few prawnies as well as some lovely roasted garlic and eggie bits. The clear noodles do a nice job of soaking up the sweet flavours through them. A big thumbs up from both of us.



Banana and coconut fritters - $6.50. What is there to say? Banana fritters are banana fritters. Always yum. They weren't very coconut-y at all, we think the may have been a little coconut mixed in the batter. These could really do with some ice cream so...



Thai milk tea ice cream with sweet potato - around $5. The icecream didn't particularly taste like Thai iced milk tea as we expected, but it was still dang delicious. The little cubes of sweet potato are steamed or boiled, nice sweet'n'savoury flavours. The ice cream goes really well with the banana fritters.



Check the walls for the monthly specials, there's lots of really interesting stuff.



Yok Yok is on Campbell Street, right near the corner of Castlereagh Street, Sydney/Thainatown. Phone (02) 9280 0001. Open for lunch to around 1am on the weekends, yay!