This is not a Thai restaurant

I love a pun as much as the next girl, especially if that girl* is comedian Jennifer Wong, so I wanted to call out a few of my favourites around town.

Now, many of you might point out that Thai restaurants are the god tier of punning, but I would say that while a lot of the names use ’Thai’ with another reference, that other reference doesn’t always make sense for a restaurant, which makes it a bad pun. How is a restaurant called ‘Thai-tanic’ – that is neither large, Titanic-themed nor on a ship (maybe for the best?) – more than just replacing a syllable?

Compare that name with Thai massage place Siam Ease in Newtown. You have the Thai represented in its old name, ‘Siam’, then the massage element in ‘Ease’. Together it sounds like ‘Siamese’ but it’s more than the sum of its parts. Great pun. I was delighted when I saw it. I have kept it in the metaphorical back pocket of my brain for years and am pleased they’re still around.

One of my other favourite pun names is The Souvlucky Country, which is not Thai but Greek. You’ll be tickled to know that yes, there is souvlaki on the menu, but also a dash of that Aussie can-do spirit as in Donald Horne’s The Lucky Country. It’s not exactly entirely by fortune that this place exists but it’s a clever and memorable name.

And lastly, also in the Parramatta neighbourhood is Doughkyo, a Tokyo-style bakery – the kind that’s European in aesthetics and form and Japanese in flavour. There’s ‘dough’ and there’s ‘Tokyo’ – great pun, no notes.

*just to be clear, we’re both women