After a decade, Melbourne’s best-known Thai restaurant, Soi 38, is about to exit the multistorey car park that has brought it fans and fame, moving to a larger purpose-built restaurant before the end of the year.

The move comes as the City of Melbourne prepares to sell the land on which the car park is located via a public expression of interest process.

Soi 38’s landlord, Dexus, has a lease on the site until 2037, but the new location will mean more seats and a better-equipped kitchen.

Located down a laneway in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shop within a CBD car park, Soi quickly developed a following that was as much about its food as its quirky location. Offering full-tilt representations of popular Thai street dishes such as boat noodles, founders Andy Buchan (Pour Diane) and Top Piyaphanee jolted Melbourne’s then-sedate Thai food scene to life.

The restaurant won The Age Good Food Guide’s 2024 Critics’ Pick award and in its wake, a Thai Town has flourished along Bourke Street’s east end.

But it hasn’t been easy to operate a restaurant in a car park. The kitchen has been unable to use gas, limiting the style of dishes served. And until it expanded in 2022, the space accommodated just 45 people but attracted many more, who formed queues outside at lunch and dinner. Adding more seats was a bonus but strained the small kitchen.

At its new home, inside the under-renovation Tivoli Arcade at 235 Bourke Street, Soi 38 will have room for 300 diners, three separate seating areas and gas for wok cooking. That means stir-fries will be on the menu for the first time, including one of Thailand’s best-loved dishes, pad krapao, using holy basil and dry-aged beef mince.

Current owners Top and Tang Piyaphanee aim to complete the build by mid-November.

But before then, they’ll open a second restaurant in the city, R.Harn (“food” in Thai) on a busy corner of La Trobe Street, near the under-construction State Library Station.

The 110-seat venue will be totally different to Soi 38, according to Top. Focusing on southern Thai food, it will serve more curries, more spice, and more grilled and deep-fried dishes. Kanom jeen nam ya, a noodle dish with fish curry sauce, will make an appearance.

“We’ll try to introduce another angle of Thai cuisine [to Melbourne],” says Top.

Worlds away from Soi 38’s beginnings, R.Harn is proof of Melbourne’s growing appreciation for the many shades of Thai food.