Longrain is about to add another Thai lunch option to the CBD. Longrain Canteen, a lunchtime pop-up, will open in the former Le Shoppe space on Little Collins Street next to Chancery Lane.

The casual offering from the Melbourne institution will open on weekdays starting next Monday May 13 until the beginning of spring.

Longrain head chef Long Le will oversee the food, which borrows flavours and some dishes from the Little Bourke Street version of the restaurant. At the canteen, you’ll find a roll filled with the restaurant’s caramelised pork hock with five spice and chilli vinegar. There’ll also be curries, a version of the restaurant’s poached prawn salad with glass noodles and a Thai milk tea panna cotta.

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To drink, there’ll be Chang beer, wines by the can, longan juice and Thai iced coffee.

The team has kept Le Shoppe’s leafy-green subway tiles, American oak finishings and copper fixtures. There’ll be limited room for people to sit and enjoy their lunch in-house, with the venue being thought of more as a spot for grab-and-go meals.

The original Longrain restaurant, which opened in 2005, closed in 2020 due to “unresolved lease issues” amid the coronavirus outbreak, as then co-owner Lisa Van Haandel told Broadsheet at the time.

During the winter of 2020, it was resurrected by chef and restaurateur Scott Pickett (Matilda, Estelle, Audrey’s), who signed a 20-year lease on the space.

Longrain Canteen will open at Suite 1/430 Little Collins Street, on Monday May 13.