Thai-heritage wine bar · North Melbourne · $$$ · Newcomer · should-visit · verified

Joe Taylor

The duck in the miang kham is smoked in-house for three days before it ever meets the pepper leaf.

Why go

Scot Nottle and Mini Punapaprasurt run the Airport West cafe Bola Bake, and this is their second room, opened in May 2026 behind the painted glass signage a tailor hung over the door in the early 1900s (Broadsheet). Punapaprasurt was head chef at The Glass Den and grew up in Thailand, and much of the interior came out of Bangkok antique shops. Head chef Taarn Kasemra draws on the same central Thai home cooking, and she is direct about the boundary: "You won't find classic Thai dishes on the menu like pad thai or massaman curry." What is there instead is the three-day smoked duck in a pepper leaf with pandan-infused pate, and a spanner crab tartlet that takes thong muan, the sweet wafer cigar, and rebuilds it as a savory dish with young coconut, nashi pear and macadamia. The wine is bought by Pinitnat Sutarosvatcharathon, previously with the Bangkok importer Wine Garage, and the list turns over roughly monthly. Matt Went of the Exhibition Street bar 1806 wrote the cocktails.

Order this / avoid

Order: duck miang kham. The spanner crab tartlet. Tom yum shoestring fries, which are the drinking snack. The preserves with chilli salt, toasted rice and lime. Then the Mango Sticky Rice Martini, built on vodka, pandan liqueur, mango liqueur and bianco vermouth.
Avoid: coming for the Thai restaurant standards; the kitchen has said out loud they are not here. And do not book a bar stool, since the bar is walk-in and only the tables take reservations.

What locals & experts say

Taarn Kasemra, head chef, setting the boundary: "You won't find classic Thai dishes on the menu like pad thai or massaman curry." ref
Scot Nottle, co-owner, on where the room came from: "The history of the space is what has influenced everything." ref
Nomi Makin, Broadsheet (May 2026), reporting the opening: "The new North Melbourne spot has mismatched tableware, a largely Australian wine list and cocktails designed by an 1806 bartender." That is an openings report, not a verdict. ref
No verdict yet. No critic has reviewed it and no Melbourne chef names it across 74 industry picks, which is a function of it being three months old rather than a judgment.

Good to know

Where: 7 Errol Street, North Melbourne.
Not the old Joe Taylor. A previous bar at this address carried the same name. Broadsheet states plainly that the current business is completely separate, so nothing written about the earlier room applies here.
Timing: Monday to Wednesday from 5pm, Thursday to Saturday from 4pm, Sunday 4pm to 10pm. These are the venue's own current hours and they already differ from the ones published at opening.
Booking: walk in at the bar. Tables are bookable online.
Music: records from Nottle's family plus Thai vinyl found at Collingwood Yards, chosen fresh each service.
Hygiene: Victoria publishes no consumer-facing food-hygiene rating, so there is no Australian equivalent of an FSA score to record.

Jeff's take (his words)

Nothing. Melbourne has no _src saved-places export in this repo, so no Jeff note stands behind this row and none has been written for him.

Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)

should-visit — The duck in the miang kham is smoked in the building for three days before it goes into the pepper leaf with pandan-infused pate. That is a lot of work for a snack, and it tells you what this kitchen is for. Head chef Taarn Kasemra says plainly that you will not find pad thai or massaman here, and instead she is cooking the central Thai home food she and co-owner Mini Punapaprasurt grew up on, including a spanner crab tartlet that rebuilds thong muan, the wafer cigar, as a savory dish. The wine is mostly Australian, changes roughly monthly, and is bought by a sommelier who came from a Bangkok importer. The cocktails were designed by Matt Went of 1806 and include a Mango Sticky Rice Martini that has no business working. It opened in May 2026 in a shopfront still wearing the painted glass sign from when it was a tailor. Should-visit rather than higher because it is three months old and no critic or chef has weighed in yet.