Mekong

These days, everything is a journey. Life is a journey, apparently. Even a meal is a journey, especially as you travel from one street-food stall to another in Chippendale's lantern-lined Spice Alley.

The journey continues as you climb the stairs to the newly arrived Mekong, where the menu is described as "a travelling feast along the river", somewhat tediously divided into Little Jetties (snacks), Enter (entrees), Enter Mainland (main courses), Curried Fields (curries), and River Sides (side dishes).

Mekong is forgiven its poetically inclined, pun-filled menu, however, because it delivers a lightness, elegance and nuance we don't often see in our Asian restaurants. Indeed, it brings us dishes we don't often see, taking its influences from the Mekong River's own journey through Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam; stopping short of Tibet.

Chef Tiw Rakarin, who also curated the street food of Spice Alley for developer Dr Stanley Quek, has installed Mekong above the more casual Lower Mekong. Rakarin has his own followers from his time at Rambutan, Alphabet and Mama's Buoi, and looks set to find more in Chip 'n Dale. The long, darkly furnished room is pleasingly lined with mottled, mossy green walls, thrusting thickets of bamboo and a copper-lined bar, topped with wire mesh pendant lamps recalling fishing baskets.

And so we trace the Lao border, wake up to Thai sunrises, pause by gilded Cambodian pagodas – lordy, let's just eat. The inspiration for some dishes is recognisable, such as "smashed prawn cakes" ($15 for three),  a richer, sweeter version of Thai tod mun pla fishcakes; and a "little stack" ($6 for two),  a sweet/salty hit of juicy pineapple stacked with smoked salmon and caramelised radish that is Mekong's take on ma hor. Others come from left field, such as a complimentary opener of baby heirloom carrot, coated in chilli jam, lime zest and fluffy, funky-smelling moo yong (pork floss).

Then there's a simple, crisp omelette filled with sour pork roll and morning glory ($14); and squid ink dumplings ($12), the crab and prawn filling held within delicate, glossy, jet-black skins, served with a pour-over fragrant chicken pho broth that's a trip in its own right.

While the cute titles could drive you batty – the rice is a "jasmine paddy field", and a red curry of confit duck is "a duck at sunrise" – the cooking is true. Chunky with sweet potato and heady with lemongrass, "sweet rumdul" Cambodian beef rib curry is sweetly satisfying, while a main course of "young ginger" ($24) is a prosaic stir-fry lifted by truly excellent Holmbrae chicken thigh meat.

Sauces and relishes are consistently delicious here; a world apart from the bog-standard sweet chilli sauce brigade. And if you want to finish your journey in a fresh, cool amusement park of flavour, go for the Bangkok ice-cream bowl ($10), a happy mix of coconut ice-cream, pomegranate, roasted peanuts and chewy palm seed lozenges served in a coconut shell.

BYO for its first few weeks (the excellent Red Bottle in the adjacent Central Park makes that no problem), Mekong will be doing cocktails as well as mocktails any day now, alongside a spice-friendly wine list.

There is charm on the floor, and a kitchen that cares enough to raise what is often street food to a higher level without losing the reason you liked it in the first place.

As they say – and I couldn't, to save my life: "Take a barge down the Mekong River, loaded with the richest cargo: its cuisine."

THE LOWDOWN
Best bit: The smell of jasmine rice.
Worst bit: Bit of a journey to the downstairs loo.
Go-to dish: Cambodian beef rib curry, $28.

Terry Durack is chief restaurant critic for The Sydney Morning Herald and senior reviewer for the Good Food Guide. This rating is based on the Good Food Guide scoring system.