baan a-ma

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Baan A-Ma
402 Magill Road,
Kensington Park
South Australia 5068

telephone 08 8165 1246
open – Dinner Monday – Saturday 5.00 pm – 9.00 pm
lunch Thursday and Friday only 11.30 am – 2.30 pm,/p>

Fully licensed
BYO Accepted $20 per bottle

website not available
instagram click here

Owners Sister-in-law Kanchana [Kan], Sirirat [Mum or A-Ma] and chef and Sarinee [Pui] front of house
Chefs Sirirat [mum or A-ma] and Kanchana [Kan]
front of house Sarinee [Pui]

AO 26 Setember 2026

thai food

Reviewing a Thai restaurant is a challenge for me. I have never been to Thailand, have found most of Adelaide Thai restaurants deeply depressing, perhaps because my benchmark is David Thompson’s long closed Darley Street Thai. My own, and only experience of Thai cooking has been faithfully following David Thompson’s ‘Thai Food’, basically the bible for Thai food. Does that count?

In this instance I dined with a regular visitor to Thailand, a retired chef with extensive knowledge about just about everything and another not known to praise anything not delicious, despite not being able to cook!

The rise of Adelaide’s suburban dining and small bars with pretty good snacks has been phenomenal in the last ten years. Many of the less reliable venues have owners with several venues, so there is something quite delightful about finding Baan A-Ma, a truly family run restaurant. Baan A-Ma is a true family restaurant run by three hard working women with a refreshing sincerity to their cooking and the hospitality they offer.

so tasty !

Sarinee [Pui] runs front of house, and her mother Sirirat [mum or A-ma] incredibly seventy-six [looks about forty] and their sister-in-law Kanchana [Kan] run the kitchen. Three of our group had been previously and mainly ordered dishes they wanted to eat again…always a good sign.

We started with Chive Dumplings, [pictured above] which were fried rather than steamed but excellent, and Pui basically insisted we ordered the Isaan Thai Sausages [pictured below], which were so, so good. We also ordered Crispy Eggplant, the only dish of the night that would not be ordered again.

We followed the starters with Roast Duck Curry …sublime…Beef Massiman the best so far by a mile in Adelaide. The Pork Belly foiled with a generous amount of greens was faultless….none of that nasty, reheated flavour found in most pork belly dishes in Adelaide. We also enjoyed a very good, and thankfully not predictable Pad Thai.

It is important to note there were no overlapping flavours, each dish was singular. The vegetable component always came with just the right amount of crunch or wilt and praise be the peanuts had been roasted and finely chopped…bless! I detest the whole peanuts chucked on many Asian dishes in Adelaide.

Baan A-Ma is not the haute cuisine Thai cooking of David Thompson’s cooking so perfectly written up in his book Thai Food. It is however, refreshingly honest every day Thai food.

Cook’s note [1]

ABOVE BEEF MASSIMAN CURRY

RIGHT DIVINE DUCK CURRY

[1] If you don’t own this treasure of a cookbook buy a secondhand copy for preference. This first edition hard cover has and exquisite hot pink Thai silk cover, satin ribbon bookmarks, quality paper and beautiful printed fly pages at the back and front.

ABOVE ROAST PORK BELLY

ABOVE PAD THAI

aND dESSERT AND SUMMER PARTIES

Asian desserts are mainly an anathema to me and the gifted coconut jelly stayed in that spot, however, the coconut ice cream was excellent and a perfect finish to a really satisying meal.

Baan A-Ma has a very cute courtyard area at the back that would be great in summer for small parties of twenty tops and with no nearby neighbours you could even add some noisy music without the cops being called.

A restaurant run by people with heart and integrity is always a special thing.

Bookings are appreciated.

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