David Thompson’s Former Right-Hand Woman Is Behind Seductive New Thai Restaurant Viand, in Woolloomooloo

One thing Sydney is not short of is Thai restaurants. But new eatery Viand (Thai for “an assortment of food”), which has found a permanent home in Woolloomooloo after operating briefly as a pop-up at the end of 2020 and the start of 2021, has a few little quirks.

The menu at Viand doesn’t run pages long. Instead, it’s trimmed down to a neat eight-course degustation for $145 per person (or $120 per person for the vegan option). You also won’t find dishes ubiquitous at most Thai restaurants in Australia – owner-chef Annita Potter hopes to offer diners something they might not have tried before.

“I’m not putting a green curry on,” she tells Broadsheet. “I’m not taking anything away from the Thai shop around the corner … I don’t want the comparison because [Viand] is not that.”

Viand celebrates the ingredients, flavours and nuances of Thai cooking with dishes that might include a five-hour-cooked pork curry with tomatillos, makrut lime leaves and holy basil, and flavour-punching salted duck-egg relish with aged pork, green mango and roasted shrimp paste.

“They’re the kind of dishes I want to showcase because you can’t get those dishes anywhere and they’re kind of a bit racy for Thai food in Sydney,” says Potter.

The Perth-born chef also aims to reflect her experiences in her menu. “I have this one crab dish on the menu I had with David once and it literally blew my mind, and so it’s my version of that.”

That’s Thai-food legend David Thompson, with whom she worked for years at a number of his restaurants around the globe, including the award-winning Nahm in London and more recently as executive chef at his lauded Long Chim. She also briefly had a pop-up in Macquarie Street’s heritage Mint building.

The drinks list is as short and sharp as the food menu, with a tight selection of palate-pleasing wine and cocktail options to “match the food impeccably”.

The kitchen, which is wrapped in an eye-catching mosaic of red tiles, has been strategically erected smack-bang at the centre of the restaurant. Potter says the idea is to create a chef’s table experience for the whole dining room, so that all preparation, cooking and plating is in full view of diners. Even those with their backs turned to the kitchen won’t miss a beat – there are mirrors on the walls for convenient viewing.

“I no longer want to be hidden out the back. I want to engage with people and I want to speak to the customers that I’m feeding. It’s basically like they’re coming into my home and we’re having a dinner party together,” she says.

The dining room spills into an intimate courtyard, which will be reserved for walk-ins who will be offered a short à la carte menu slated to be introduced in the coming weeks. An upstairs space is also available for private dining experiences and will double as an artists’ collective run by Potter’s partner, painter Mark Wotherspoon.

Viand
41 Crown Street, Woolloomooloo
(02) 8590 0873

Hours:
Wed to Sat 6.30pm–late

viand.club
@viand.club