Coming Soon: The Soi 38 Team Will Open a Completely New Southern Thai Restaurant

Chavalit “Top” Piyaphanee and Phawinee “Tang” Suwankamnerd, the husband-and-wife owners behind Melbourne’s favourite car park restaurant Soi 38 , have a busy few months ahead.

They’re relocating their iconic Thai restaurant later this year after nearly 10 years operating out of a Wilson Parking garage off Mcilwraith Place.

And next month, the duo will open R.Harn, a completely new restaurant specialising in southern Thai food, a cuisine less common in Melbourne compared to other Thai regions.

“There’s a lot of influence from Malaysia, because [Thailand] is neighbours with Malaysia,” Piyaphanee tells Broadsheet. He says the dishes at R.Harn will use a lot of seafood and shrimp paste and there’ll be a focus on dry curries.

“There’s a lot of variations of noodles as well, that Melbourne hasn’t experienced that we’re going to try to bring,” he adds.

Noodle dishes will have similar flavour profiles to the well-known pad see ew – but will be made with egg-based Hokkien noodles rather than flat rice noodles.

R.Harn, located opposite Melbourne Central and next door to Indonesian restaurant Kata Kita on La Trobe Street, will be a casual spot, but Piyaphanee says it will have a completely different feel to Soi 38.

“Nothing’s going to be fancy at all,” he says. “It’s going to be just like when you go and eat at your friends’ house.”

R.Harn is expected to open at 260 La Trobe Street, Melbourne this October.