Thai Deelite, Fairfield

I love Thai restaurant names, from the puns on the word Thai (Thairiffic, Thaiphoon, Thai The Knot to name a few) to interesting variations of the English language such as Deelite (but hey, why write it as Delight when you can be creative). Thai Deelite is a local favourite for my family, but more so for its Laos dishes rather than its typical Thai dishes.

One of their best dishes is the grilled ox tongue, a dish which if done wrong leaves a very chewy tongue (not a great image, I know…). At Thai Deelite, it is always tender, the way it should be. Deeliteful.

Their other great dish is the som tum, the green papaya salad, Laos style which basically means it is flavoured using little salted crabs. The trick here is not to underestimate the heat you can take. When they ask you what level of spiciness you would like for a salad, remember that hot is pretty darn hot and that medium is pretty darn hot too. But if you can take it, the heat is what makes the papaya and salted crab combo sing – that, and the depth of the salted crab flavour which they really elevate using a a mortar and pestle.

The pleasant surprise of the night for me was the tom yum goong. I have come to expect fairly decent tom yum at most Thai places, but this one was great in its balance of sour and savoury. Oh, and the deep fried quail was also pretty good.

If you’re in the South West and looking for Thai / Laos food, Dale St near Fairfield Station is where you need to go. There are about 6 Thai restaurants on that strip and Thai Deelite is definitely a solid choice although I will say that their kitchen is a little on the slow side, but hey, quality over speed.

Details: Thai Deelite, 4&5/2 Dale St, Fairfield NSW 2165