Yim Yam

January 2016: Yim Yam closed their Collingwood branch in September 2015. They're still trading in Yarraville 

January 25, 2012

One my colleagues came into work recently raving about a new Thai place that had popped up on Smith Street called Yim Yam. Some quick research revealed that this is a new outlet of a small chain of Thai/Laotian restaurants with a highly regarded store in Yarraville. Once we scanned their online menu and noted all the little 'V's, Yim Yam went straight on our list of places to try.

We stopped in at about 8:30 on a Wednesday night to find it heaving with people and unreserved tables only available out in the courtyard. The menu is loaded up with vegetarian options and it was all we could do to stick to just 3 dishes. We started with the vegetarian Thai coconut pancakes filled with tofu, salad and two sweet sauces ($10.90 for two). While it was a little to heavy on the condiments, the pancakes were great and had us looking forward to what Yim Yam might bring next.

The first of our mains came with a ringing endorsement from Matt Preston - the menu boasts that the toasted rice and coconut salad ($14.90) is his favourite dish.

It's easy to see why - the combination of toasted rice chunks, shredded coconut, herbs, peanuts and lettuce gives you the a wonderful range of textures and flavours. The crispy rice in particular is wonderful - not as dry as I'd feared it would be, but still packing an impressive crunchiness. There's a bit of heat in this dish, courtesy of a sprinkling of dried chillies, as well as syrupy sweetness and a lime tang.

Our second main was one of their $9 Wednesday specials - a serve of the snakebean, basil and tao-hu stir-fry with rice.

The tao-hu is a kind of chewy tofu, and combined well with the fresh beans and bamboo shoots. The stiry-fry sauce packed a solid punch, with some Thai basil flavours peeking out from behind the chilli kick.

Yim Yam is a welcome addition to the Gertrude end of Smith Street - between it and the nearby Easy Tiger, this area has the cheap and fancy ends of the market sewn up. Yim Yam looks quite small from the front, but seems to have about four different seating areas (front room, courtyard, upstairs, downstairs). The staff have to work pretty hard, but things moved along fairly well despite the packed house. The menu states that they're happy to accommodate vegan and other dietary considerations (and it's possible that everything we ate was vegan). Given that they're open for weekday lunches as well as dinners, I'll almost certainly be back.

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Nobody seems to have reviewed the Collingwood outpost of Yim Yam yet, but there are plenty of positive write-ups of the Yarraville branch: Addictive and Consuming, eat, drink, stagger, Tune into Radio Carly, Footscray Food Blog, No Spring Chicken, Temasek and half-eaten.

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Yim Yam
76 Smith Street, Collingwood (also in Yarraville and Moonee Ponds)
9419 3985
veg dishes: $6.90 - $14.90
http://yimyam.com.au/

Accessibility: The front area has a flat entrance but is fairly crowded. Access to the courtyard and other rooms (plus the toilets) require you to negotiate at least a few steps. The toilets are spacious enough but not necessarily designed with accessibility issues in mind. Ordering takes place at the table, then payment is at a relatively high and crowded counter out the front.