FOMO Thai is located towards the top end of Bourke Street. I had noticed it before because of it's catchy name. For those who aren't familiar with the acronym, it stands for "fear of missing out". However, because I didnt' go to finishing school, I unintentionally keep referring to this place as "MOFO"... an acronym that has quite a different meaning.
For an early weeknight dinner, we headed on inside.
It's kitted out with lots of tiles and metal features, and about medium sized space.
Because of all the tiles and metal scraping on the polished cement floor, the place is quite noisy even when it's not yet at full capacity (and the music doesn't help).
The first time I ate here, it was a sweaty, humid day. So we took the opportunity to order some cold drinks. The Lawyer got the lychee w pulp smoothie and I got the nicely tart tamarind drink. While both were nice, I did prefer the lychee smoothie more.
As hot weather zaps my appetite, I went for a salad - Yum Ped Krob - crispy duck salad. This was quite tangy and salty. I suspect the shredded duck was cooked then fried, as it was kinda chewy and dried in parts. The salad was incredibly punchy - lots of the the sharp red onions, spring onions and the zingy lime, tamarind and salty fish sauce... they definitely don't tone done the flavours for khun tang chat. I could have done with a bit more sweetness to balance all those flavours. A bowl of plain rice would have improved the enjoyability of this salad.
The Lawyer ordered a seafood pad Thai, which the staff will happily make for you even though it's not on the menu. He had had this before at FOMO and knew it was great. Indeed, I got a bad case of food envy when it came out. Big, lots of wok hei and that glorious scrambled egg net over the rice noodles. The envy continued as it had a fairly decent amount of plump prawns and squid through it. Aromatic, pleasantly chewy noodles, with slivers of garlic chives, beanshoots, tofu cubes and a nice sprinkling of toasted peanuts...an all round yum.
A few nights later, we were back again. I made sure that we got the seafood pad Thai again. In addition to it, I wanted to try something from FOMO's grill/bbq range. As such, we got the aptly named Crying Tiger - char-grilled beef tenderloin served medium rare w "a tangy dipping sauce". Our initial thought was "this is rare". The good points was that this was a bigger dish than it appears to be. The steak was tender and had a nice beefy flavour, as it was good quality beef, I didn't mind the rareness. The "tangy dipping sauce" was a bit of misnomer - it's fiery! One tiny smidge of it made my tongue buuuuuurn. But in that brief nanosecond before the chilli registered, I could taste that the sauce had a lovely savoury, complex depth to it. The tiny clump of salad leaves was a bit of a laugh, though.
We got a serve of rice to go with the tiger.
Verdict
Food - 7
Ambiance - 7
Service - 7
Price - 7
Overall
I quite like FOMO. It doesn't hold back on the flavours and I like the look of the many authentic, and less commonly available, dishes on the menu. I'd definitely be back to try more of the bbq dishes. It's a nice place to share a meal with friends. However, I have to say that both times I left feeling only just full - it feels a bit pricey to eat your fill here at FOMO. But the food is tasty and different enough to pique my interest to come back.
Address
FOMO Thai
171 Bourke Street
Melbourne 3000
Telephone: 9650 7987
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