Little Sister

Little Sister opened on the busy dining strip of Kingsway in August 2017. Richmond Oysters originally bought the site to open another seafood restaurant. But after a few months, they realised the concept wasn’t suitable for the street.

Enter Thai-born chef Joe Kram, who ran his own Thai restaurants and cooked at five-star hotels across Melbourne. He and several other chefs from different Vietnamese and Thai backgrounds oversee the compact menu, which can be cooked quickly for one person during lunch breaks or shared leisurely by a big group over dinner. The “She’s Got Attitude” section is the most popular. Choose from red, orange or green curry for some spice. For something gentler, the Wagyu beef pho or crispy skin pork hock with tamarind-chilli glaze, perilla (an Asian herb) and lime.

The upstairs cocktail bar works with Asian flavours such as ginger and lychee alongside vanilla and blood orange. Try the Thai Firecracker, which fuses gin, dry vermouth and grapefruit with a chilli-salt rim.

Once you’ve got a drink, nestle into a booth or the four-seater couch in front of the fireplace. The interior by hospitality consultant Carol Rothschild also features wok skimmers across the walls.