Interior detail of restaurant Mekong Baby in Ponsonby and the Crab Betel Nut Leaves currently on the menu. Photo / Babiche Martens
Address: 260 Ponsonby Rd, Ponsonby
Phone: (09) 360 1113
Cuisine: Modern Asian
Rating: 8/10
When a trend takes hold, it seems we can't get enough of it.
Eateries dishing up upmarket, modernised versions of cheap Asian street and market food are popping up everywhere. And it's great to have an alternative to the too-long, numbered menus, the plates of bland stir-fried everything we've gotten
used to. I'm also over gourmet pizza joints, so how fantastic it was when one such stalwart, GPK on Ponsonby Rd, rebranded to become Mekong Baby, a food house set to serve up their take on the flavours you'd find if you took a trip on the mighty Mekong river as it wends its way from China, through Myanmar and Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.
But before the food at Mekong Baby got a chance to drive me wild, its phone service drove me crazy. I never managed to get connected to anyone over the course of a week of calling. That's an indication of what? Systems that aren't. So we chanced it and turned up. It was full. But a quick drink at the bar filled in time until a space became available, which saw us happily ensconced at a high table under the stairs. We ordered a bunch of dishes and the food came quickly. It also came in an annoyingly random order. Warning us that the kitchen "will send them out as they come" doesn't make it right.
But the food is splendid. The chilli caramel of the pork belly has a kick that can't be ignored, the crispy rice flour crepe is a dream with its frilly fried edges and overflowing filling of soft mushrooms and crispy tempeh, and betel leaves topped with sweet crab meat with kaffir lime and chilli are gorgeous mouthfuls.
