Nana Thai

About Us

Two-storey Bourke Street dining room run by Nuttanan “Mint” Lohayanjaree and chef Panta “Wan” Thanapaisan — Melbourne’s first dedicated Thai mookata (mu kratha) venue after a 2018 car-park pop-up near Parliament and a March 2020 permanent opening (Broadsheet; Seasoned Traveller). Red plastic stools, steel tables and a mezzanine kitchen channel Bangkok street-food energy; queues form before the 5:30pm opening most nights, with orders taken on the footpath and food ready when you sit (WAtoday). The signature DIY format is mookata: grease a gold dome grill with pork fat, barbecue pork neck, belly, liver, bacon, prawns and calamari, and cook noodles, vegetables, enoki and egg in the surrounding broth moat. Moo joom herb hotpots and a dozen-plus som tum papaya salads — including fermented fish and raw blue crab — round out the Northeastern Thai menu at authentic spice levels (Broadsheet). Mama tom yum with instant noodles, deep-fried pork belly and seafood, salmon larb, Thai milk tea, pink salacca milk and Singha/Chang/Leo beers are crowd favourites (Broadsheet; WAtoday; The Age Good Food). Walk-in only — no reservations (What's On Melbourne; Broadsheet).