Sydneysiders are not unfamiliar with the fragrant, pungent, spicy and enticing tuk-tuk ride through Thailand. This city is the home of Thai cuisine Down Under, after all. Its emergence and evolution has gone from ‘slightly Westernised to appease local palettes’ to ‘contemporary spin’ and ‘exploring genuine regional Thai’, and now a new Darlinghurst restaurant is hoping to take diners to the moon and back with modernised Thai classics given a European accent.

Housed in the two-storey terrace where Onde kept Sydney’s confit duck demands sated, Moon has risen thanks to Jackie Park and former Longrain panhandler Aum Touchpong Chancaw to alter our perceptions of what Thai can be. The menu is matched with an adequate wine list and the service is proficient. Food’s the focus here.

Dishes fly out of the kitchen at supersonic speed, so arrive ready to eat. By day Restaurant Moon trades as an everyday Thai restaurant, but the attention to detail and deft touch in the kitchen – both day and night – has it pegged well above the ordinary.

Beautiful balance is seen in a delicate pad Thai, sharpened wonderfully with a heavy squeeze of lemon, and salmon glazed with miso and ginger. Kingfish poke has a spicy smack of gochujang, tempered with diced cucumber, while black bean and chilli work wonders with pork belly and crackling.

At night things get more creative. Bone marrow served in its shin comes slathered in pepper relish with prawn crackers on the side. Surf and turf is a riff on a tartare with stir-fried sirloin, basil and confit octopus arranged around the just-set yolk of a fried egg. Tamarind-glazed Jack’s Creek beef short rib, meanwhile, cooked for 72 hours will bring the carnivores much joy.

In fact, there’s much joy all round at this new Thai temptress. You’ll maybe even be over the moon.