Opening in the Plateau on April 28, 2024 after a soft launch lasting a couple of weeks, the Thai noodle shop Bangluck is the latest from Laotian Montrealer Chitakone Phommavongxay (Chita) and Thai Montrealer Siriluksamee Rangthong (Nim).
Having made a name for themselves through their first venture of the Thai street food spot Thammada, followed by a partnership in Jesse Mulder’s standout Thai restaurant Pichai, their newest spot doesn’t try to flip any scripts.
If anything, it breaks ground by being an homage to tradition: “Originally, Thammada came from the goal of spreading the word about Thai street food, all the iconic dishes—pad thai, pad see ew, curries—but I knew the varieties of Thai food could be explored further,” Nim says.
“There just isn’t that much of what we want to see in Montreal. We knew we could enrich Thai culture here, and that’s why we started Bangluck.”
“So I wanted to dig down into what Thai people eat on a daily basis, and that’s noodles. In order to fulfill my dream of sharing Thai food further, the noodle shop was the best way to do that.”
“Thai food has so much diversity and unique identities to it—spicy, salty, sour, sweet, tangy, often in one meal—and with Bangluck, we could offer something new.”
Photograph: Nouvelle idée / William Lapierre
An old style, a traditional style
“When we were thinking of the name for Bangluck, we wanted something easy to pronounce like a neighbourhood in Thailand, or something tourists know,” Nim explains.
“But there was one neighbourhood known by locals for its congee, BBQ pork, its noodles—there’s so much that in that place alone, we couldn’t try everything in one day—called Bang Rak (located alongside the Chao Phraya River). The ‘r’ could be hard to pronounce… so we went with ‘Bangluck’. It worked, from sounding like it was lucky, and a small connection to Bangkok, too.”
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