long chim perth

prettygoodmost of the time, the restaurant manager is a bit of a pretentious arse. the food isgoodthough, mild for thai food, but tasty and worth the price.

good decor and service but cannot applaud the food. the crispy prawns for starters were well prepared and a decent size serve. but the tofu laksa was simply inedible. the waitress warned me it was hot, i assured her that was fine. it wasn't. laksa is one of my favourite dishes and i have eaten it throughout s.e.asia but i have never met one anywhere near as thick and hot as this. it is probably "authentic" to somewhere in thailand i have never been. i was hoping for subtlety and nuance, freshness and clean flavours, the balancing act ofgoodthai cooking; i received oral thuggery. when the cashier asked what i thought of the meal, i told her, and she said that it had been toned down as there were so many complaints originally and the chef refused  to alter it further. i have some sympathy for the notion that asian food in perth is too often a bland shadow of "genuine" but then there are some originals it is not worth recreating.

hot hot hot! most of the dishes numb your tastebuds here. i am a spice lover but some dishes are way too spicy, to a point that you lost thegoodflavours of the dish. food aside. the ambience and cocktail selections are playful and fun, perfect for your friday night outs. worth a try!

the service was outstanding and the interior was really funky, which creates a very cool atmosphere. unfortunately the food is overpriced and average. however the dessert was amazing, we ordered the banana roti and coconut cake which were very delicious. the whole experience was stillgoodoverall.

i tasted many dishes here as part of a fantastic degustation menu.
stir fried mussels with chilli jam - really appreciated this dish, so yummy. 
a dish of stir fried watercress with garlic and yellow beans.
crunchy tiny prawns with herbs and chillies, a verygoodstarter!!!
beef skewers with turmeric, cumin and coriander - a nice starter.
chiang mai larp of chicken which was too hot and you even could not ask to make it less spicy.. who knows why..
a delicate coconut and turmeric curry of chicken at long chim. verygoodand delicate flavor. loved it.

can't rate it more that 2.5, sorry. the problem with most perth "fine dining" or upmarket venues is that you come to get a great service and unforgettable food experience (since you're paying 3 times the price of a local takeaway shop) - and instead it's average at best for the premium price.
anyways, the good: pretty decorations, nice tables, cute outdoors area. it's a pleasant place to spend a few hours at. thumbs up for that. tasty green curry (with not much meat though).
the bad: the food is nothing special. at all. beef in the massaman curry (which is supposed to be melting in your mouth) was stiff and leathery. duck curry had maybe 4 pieces of duck, that's all. the amount of rice (plain boring rice) wasn't nearly enough for 4 people. the wine glass my friend has been given wasn't clean enough so she had to ask for a replacement. a small bottle of cider for $11. total bill of $200. the overall feeling in the end: hmmmmm, and this is considered good?? cmon perth, stop praising mediocre overpriced places! design andgoodservice are supposed to be default to attract the customers, and then the food is supposed to wow - not just be acceptable. a place like that wouldn't survive in melbourne or europe.

went along in a group of 15 on a friday night, this place is popular and busy ! if you can get a spot it’s really interesting food, very fresh tasting and just enough spice, the deep fried fish was reallygoodbut in general every dish had its own interest.

we went on nye and were locked into the set menu. the beef skewers were disgusting! it was basically fat on skewers and were inedible. the manager sent it back to kitchen and gave us new ones. they were still inedible. we deservegoodquality meat for $75 per person. the presentation of the dishes were also unappetising. the photos were evidence of bad thai food in the pretence of being upmarket. we felt cheated!

3.5/5 a nice upper market asian restaurant in the heart of perth. the spring rolls were homemade and the chicken wings hadgoodflavour. the noodles were ok, the egg brought a bit of a smokey flavour which i thought detracted from the dish. the standout was the chinese broccoli - the sauce was well balanced and complementary. the banana roti for dessert was nice but super sweet, had to be eaten slowly.

first time eating at long chim. since i am not from perth, it took me some time to go d it. you have to look for stairs going down.

the restaurant is dimly lit. service isgoodand staff attentive.

i have ordered the thai seafood laksa. the broth is richer compared to malaysian laksa. the bowl of laksa came piping hot with vermicelli noodles, seafood balls, prawns and very spicy coconut soup. compliment the fiery dish with lemongrass drink.

overall very tasty and spicy. highly recommended.

good date night with my husband, the staff are always knowledgeable with the wine selection and food is always delicious. agooddinner recommendation in perth which is casual yet delicious.

despite the mixed reviews i’ve been wanting try this place for some time! and finally tonight my partner and i decided to dine for the ‘chefs recommendation menu’. we took the $68pp option which had 8 courses (the $95pp option had an extra two courses of the lamb ribs and banana roti)
the restaurant itself is located downstairs in the treasury building. it has a beautiful warm and cozy feel to it. but that’s about asgoodas the positive news went for us.
to say our dining experience was a disappointment is probably an understatement. the quality of food, not to mention the portion sizes for the shared menu were very small and below average. to start we had chicken satay skewers, fried prawns and the pork and rice cakes. the skewers were okay, but definitely could use sauce. fried prawns tasted like nothing but batter. pork and rice cakes were good.
mains just got worse. fried fish tasted rubbery smothered in sickly sweet sauce. the two tiny pieces of roast duck did not belong in a green curry.
and finally our tiny coconut cake dessert. again, a sickly sweet coconut sugar cake that lacked sauce or an accompaniment of any kind!
honestly, this had to be the worst dining experience we’ve had in an asian restaurant. for $140 for two. this place is an absolute rip off for what it is. i’m so glad we didn’t go the $95pp option. after looking at the menu again we noticed the ribs on their own are $42 (we would have been paying an extra $50 for the ribs and given a smaller portion to share!)
so a tip to anyone that does want to try this place, regardless, for themselves - do not go the chefs menu. our thinking was ‘well this is the best dishes on the menu that the chef has selected’. this is definitely not the case imo. i’d recommend just go with a couple more friends and pick dishes from the main menu to share. but honestly, for the price, the quality is just not even worth the waste. save your $$ and dine elsewhere. there are plenty of amazing asian restaurants in perth that have far more to offer for a portion of the price.

we went for a drink after dinner at wildflower. the courtyard with the umbrellas was a great place for a drink. menu lookedgoodfor a return visit.

i’m a big fan of thai food and have been to lots of thai restaurants (cheap and expensive,goodand bad). i have to say long chim is my least favourite thai restaurant i’ve ever been to.
the $18 grilled pork is very small portion but we were still ok with it. the thai beef salad is small portion but tastes exactly how it should be so i thought ok at least the flavour is there for a $30 salad.
then i almost dropped my jaw when the curry fish we ordered was served. it was very bad presentation with 3.5 pieces of thumb sized broken fish fillet along with some veggies that i could hardly recognise what they were, served in the smallest bowl i’ve ever had for a thai curry dish. and the flavour is the worst curry i ever tasted, it was just watery spicy soup. this is unacceptable for a $33 dish. i expressed my unhappiness with this curry dish to the waitress and she kindly took it to the kitchen and came back with a few more fish fillets and veggies in it.
then the glass noodle was served, it felt like that the noodle, veggies, squid, eggs, pork mince were cooked separately and then merely plated together to form a dish. the mince was extremely salty.
look, i don’t mind you being pricy as a modern australian-asian restaurant, but you need to serve your customer what they pay for. food with this price being small quantity, it’s expected to havegoodquality and the taste! the curry fish should even be off the menu! i ended up with paying expensively with big disappointment and didn’t bother ordering any other things to try.
there are plenty ofgoodthai restaurants. long chim - never again for me. and i will stop people i know from going as well merely to avoid a bad experience for them!

if your idea of thai food is the typical bits of chicken floating in pale green coconut cream from the standard fair australian thai kitchen, then read no further - this restaurant is not for you.  i am a keen follower of david thompson's recipes and reproduce agoodnumber of dishes from his books.  last night i finally got the opportunity to find out what the restaurant could teach me about how it should be done.  i went pre-prepared with a selection of 12 dishes (enough for 7-8 adults).  wow - it certainly was good!  a revelation on what thai food should be.  

we started with cocktails and i can recommend the tropical thunder (had to have two).  

the grilled chicken is crispy skinned, moist and delicious, a superb choice for those not too keen on chilli.  my 10 year old daughter is hooked and it's a recipe i'm keen to emulate at home.  the crispy prawns are exactly that and full of flavour but be prepared to eat the school prawns whole, the heads and shells are where the flavour really is, a point lost on many people i know.  the sour orange fish curry, the snapper tom yum, chinese brocolli & pork, roast pork and roast duck were absolute stand-outs.    the food makes your taste buds sing with fresh lime, mint, coriander, lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, fish sauce, palm sugar and of course chilli.  

the most important thing i think about this restaurant is that if the staff tell you a dish is hot, they mean just that. i like chilli and cook with it a lot but some of these dishes are not for the faint hearted - just as i've had them served to me by thai friends.  you may even need to take a turn outside to cool a sweated brow but let me assure you, if you like authentic thai food, this place is unmissable,  

the only thing i wouldn't order again were the beef skewers which were a touch bland and could have been more tender.  the baked prawns in glass noodles can be a trap when sharing with a large table - there are only three prawns.

at long chim if you find the fire too hot - you're in the wrong kitchen!  can't wait to go back!