Morks brings Kingston Foreshore to life

Morks has brought the Kingston Foreshore to life for us, at last. We have visited various eateries at this concrete-clad part of the lakefront with largely (if not entirely) lacklustre results, and so often it feels like we're dining in a wind tunnel on an icy evening.

Tonight, it's warm, so pleasant, and we sit comfortably outside beside the strange canal that runs past the row of restaurants. The concrete canal is still brutal but the feel is different tonight because there's so much activity - people are everywhere, many in their exercise gear, some on roller blades, one woman walking her two cats in all the chaos, another tending to the tree in a pot in the small and very public courtyard outside her ground-floor apartment.

Apartment living can seem so impersonal, stark and cut off from the environment but here, tonight, these apartment dwellers are spilling into the streets and part of the community.

This is all good, but the real thing that has us seeing the foreshore in a new light is Morks - such a great little restaurant. Our colleagues have spoken well of Morks for years and on our first visit we finally understand why.

The menu is to the point and nicely brief. The idea is a modern, not-too-serious take on Thai food, and all the flavours you'll be accustomed to in this cuisine - the familiar red curry, peanuts, chilli, loads of coriander, that gentle sourness - are wrapped up in the mod-Asian package.

Salmon and pork crackling tortilla with kewpie and nam jim ($9) comes as an open tortilla that you seize and wrap, with chunks of delicately cooked salmon piles with bean spouts, spring onions, mayo and pieces of crackling, a pile of freshness and crunch.

Soft shell crab roti ($9) is a square of roti topped with a big hunk of deep-fried crab, all juicy and fatty, with strips of turnip on top for freshness and cut through from all that frying. It's just so good to eat.

Barbecue pork buns ($8) are open soft steam buns folded over a chunk of chargrilled pork belly, just right for one hand, with chilli and coriander. Simple and great. Sweet potato dumplings ($16) are covered liberally with a hot, sweet curry sauce, matching the colour of the soft sweet potato inside the dumpling. It's all of a squishy soft texture and a red-orange colour and it's lovely.

The duck salad ($32) is crazy with colour and texture, zingy freshness in the abundant coriander and mint, fried bits that we presume are shallots, celery, chilli and strips of young mango all pied on top of chunks of dark and sweet sticky duck meat. This is a favourite.

Fried pork ribs ($32) with a spicy soy glaze are fatty as rubs are and are supposed to be, with a dry spice rub and just a hint of smokiness. They're satisfying, if not the best part of the meal for us. The charred wombok salad ($20) is a medley of Chinese cabbage coriander peanuts bean sprouts red onion, surprisingly wet and exceptionally simple and healthy. It's a fresh accompaniment to the ribs but not a dish you would have by itself.

Desserts are wacky. The "dirty egg in hay" ($14) is presented like the head of a bull - a chocolate head, fried wafers as horns, Persian candy floss like a crazy wig on the bull's head. Unlike some desserts where presentation clearly has the upper hand, Morks hasn't disregarded the need for it also to be good to eat. It is pleasant, with a decent caramel sauce on the bottom, all rather sweet.

'Our Chinese grandma' ($12) is a pretty floury and heavy version of apple crumble, and despite the decent vanilla ice cream and toasted coconut, we're not big fans.

The dessert we would go back to goes by the name of  'Pikachu I choose you', and it's a very simple, sticky mango sorbet ($3 a scoop), bright with mango.

The space is simple and fairly utilitarian and I imagine in winter you would be hunkering inside trying to shut out all that cold concrete in this part of the city, but tonight there are so many things to like about Morks. The service is good, the wine list sensible, with great options by the glass, the food is bang on for an easy night out, and to add a layer of astonishment that your evening needs you can watch large domestic cats being taken for an evening stroll along the boardwalk while you dine.