Restaurant Review: The Rickshaw

Location: 199 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy
Phone: 03 9419 5930
Link: http://therickshaw.com.au/
Cuisine: Asian, South East Asian, Indian
Overall Impression: 7/10

After a decade on Gertrude Street the Tandoori Times has reinvented itself as The Rickshaw with a menu of pan-Asian street food.

The interior has been stripped and rebuilt with a more modern style with a tuk tuk - the three wheeled motorcycles seen cross Asia - in the dining room. 

The revamp of one of Gertrude Street’s oldest restaurants up to contemporary tastes is the brainchild of owners Amit Tuteja together with hospitality consultant Satish Panjala who spent some 13 years as a senior food and beverage manager at Crown (working across restaurants such as Nobu, Silks, Koko's). Hospitality professional Yordan Rusev (ex Virginia Plain) is managing front of house. 

The menu is inspired by foods that prevail in the same streets that the rickshaw originated from, featuring food from the food courts of Singapore to the hawker stalls of Malaysia and India. We were pleased to find that the food served has a focus on locally sourced produce and is very reasonably pieced. Some dishes may outrage purists, like the chicken satay (named the Penang Bowl on the menu) that it is made without peanuts, while other dishes are made the traditional way like the Ma Po tofu. 

We particularly enjoyed the drunken noodles which were beautifully stir-fried and had a wonderful kick from the use of green peppercorns and wild ginger. 

The Thai tea panna cotta with honey syrup concluded out evening on a sweet note. The honey syrup enhanced the aromatic Thai tea flavours in the delicate panna cotta. It was beautiful.

With a focus on classic Asian dishes throughout the Asian region but adding a few of twists along the way, The Rickshaw is a delicious addition to Gertrude Street’s bustling food culture. 

Gastrology bloggers dined courtesy of The Rickshaw.