Curry puffs in Adelaide: the golden snack to order first

10 July 2026 · 3 min read · Rim Thang Thai, Glenelg

Some dishes announce themselves. Curry puffs don't. They arrive quietly — four golden parcels and a little bowl of sweet chilli — and then they vanish faster than anything else on the table.

Known as karipap across Thailand and South-East Asia, the curry puff is one of the region's great snacks: crisp, blistered pastry on the outside, soft curried vegetables inside. Ours are vegetarian, filled with potato, onion and carrot, and they're $9.90 for four.

If you've only ever had one from a bakery warmer, a fresh one is a different thing entirely. These come out of the fryer when you order them, not an hour before — give them a minute, because the filling holds its heat like a champion.

A snack with a long back-story

Food historians still argue about where the curry puff came from. Some trace it to the Portuguese empanada, carried east along the old trade routes. Others point to the Indian samosa arriving with spice merchants, and the Malay karipap sits somewhere in the middle of the family tree. However it happened, Thailand took the idea and made it its own — a milder, rounder curry flavour, flakier pastry, and always something sweet and sharp on the side for dipping.

In Thailand you'll spot them at markets and roadside stalls, stacked golden in glass cabinets and sold in paper bags to eat on the walk home. The filling changes from stall to stall — some do chicken, some do sweet potato — but the rule never changes: the pastry has to crackle.

That's the version we make: a street snack, not a fancy one. Finger food, eaten hot, while you decide what else to order.

What's inside ours

The filling is potato, onion and carrot, cooked down with curry spice until soft and golden. Because there's no meat in them, they're a starter every single person at the table can share — one of the few where vegetarians never have to check the fine print.

The pastry does the rest of the work. Deep-fried until it crisps and blisters, it shatters when you bite in, then gives way to the warm, gently spiced filling. The sweet chilli sauce on the side ties it all together — a bit of sweetness and a little heat against the curry notes. Four to a serve means nobody has to do the awkward maths of splitting three ways.

Where they fit in a Thai dinner

Order them the way they're eaten in Thailand: first, and fast. Their mild spice warms the palate up without wearing it out, which makes them the right opener before a green curry or choo chee. And if your table wants to try a bit of everything, the Mixed Entrée at $24.90 brings two each of spring rolls, fish cakes, curry puffs and prawn cakes from our starters list. A cold Chang or Singha alongside doesn't hurt either.

We're at 39 Jetty Rd, cooking dinner from 5PM every night of the week. Eat in under the lanterns, or add a serve to your takeaway order — the pastry holds its crunch better than you'd expect on the trip home. Just don't count on all four making it.