Level Three of HER Lights Up with Cocktails, Coals and Thai Heat at BKK
Find the laneway off Lonsdale and slip inside the lustrous HER. You’ll clock the lighting first, then the scent of something sizzling and then you'll know you're standing on business. Take the lift or the stairs, either way you’re heading up. By level three, the real world feels distant and irrelevant.
BKK
And rightly so. Between the glowing floodlights, the roaring charcoal grill and the neon buzz of chilli oil in the air, BKK is as subtle as a tuk tuk in peak-hour traffic. It’s a space that doesn’t ease you in gently. You arrive, you squint into the light, and then you order a cocktail. Probably two. They’re on tap, after all.
The open kitchen takes centre stage, framed like a boxing ring and just as intense. Flames lick the grills while chefs move like they’re running late for something important. It’s immersive in the best sense. Not theatrical, just confidently alive.
Now to the food. BKK takes its name from Bangkok, but it’s not a one-region show. There’s Northern Thai sausage with grilled pork belly, dripping in nam jim jeaw and the kind of spice that makes your beer taste better. There’s a very handsome soft shell crab perched atop squid ink fried rice, looking far too smug for a crustacean.
The hanger steak, marinated in soy and coriander, is charred to a smoky edge, sliced thin and dipped in sauce that bites back. Mussels and pipis bathe in chilli jam, sending up fragrant steam that perfumes your table better than any candle. And the fried chicken wings with sweet fish sauce? Let’s just say you’ll need extra napkins and no regrets.
You’ll spot a few lighter touches too. Som tum papaya salad offers the sort of chilli-sharp refreshment that resets the palate between meatier moments. There are betel leaves, chive cakes, satay skewers and fried laab lettuce cups for the grazing-inclined. And for those with weekday discipline, the express lunch specials and $15 noodle bowls do the job, fast and delicious.
But really, BKK is best enjoyed with time on your side and friends in tow. It's loud, it’s hot, and the whole thing glows under immersive floodlighting like you’re inside a music video with great food and better cocktails.
Once dinner’s done, it’s an easy ascent to HER Rooftop, where things shift from spice to spritz. But even if you never make it upstairs, BKK has already delivered the kind of evening you’ll be thinking about the next time someone says “Where should we go that’s fun?”
You’ll know exactly where.
Find the laneway off Lonsdale and slip inside the lustrous HER. You’ll clock the lighting first, then the scent of something sizzling and then you'll know you're standing on business. Take the lift or the stairs, either way you’re heading up. By level three, the real world feels distant and irrelevant.
