Not so good Thai food

If I could nominate one cuisine in abundance in Sydney, I would say Thai.

There are the creme de la creme with the likes of Chat Thai and Spice I Am, and then there are the nice and passable ones, edible and ok if you are stuck for a place to eat or on a budget.  Places like Thai Lemon Grass, Best Thai or notable chains such as Thairrific all pass and normally get the tick of approval.

However...

Last night on recommendation from a few peeps, I went and had Thai at my local pub.  The Pad Thai was quoted as "amazing", the pork belly "is just delicious", and the Thai food there is just "gorgeous".

So I ditched the gym, felt a little guilty as I had only went once this week but shrugged it off as I would be walking from Redfern station to home, en-route the pub - which will take all up around thirty minutes.

I was tossing up either the soft shell crab or pad thai, and decided on a pad thai with a side of crab and prawn spring rolls.

The food came out in less than ten minutes and I was impressed.

The spring rolls had a little furry texture around it, makes me think they were deep fried in a pastry not usually used for spring rolls, I have had something like this before so I wasn't alarmed.  But it tasted weird, it didn't taste like crab or prawn but a weird mush of something I couldn't quite put my finger on.  The dipping sauce was as thick and sweet as jam with an oniony consistency that stuck to the insides of my teeth.  Not impressed.

The pad thai had massive wedges of capsicum and onion in it and even though the noodles were cooked correctly, the sauce was sweet, sticky and I am positive it had been cooked with tomato sauce.

There is no other way to describe it but it actually was pretty gross.  Someone ordered chicken and cashew and it came out drowned in a sauce concoction that looked just like watery oyster sauce.  I tasted half a spring roll that was vegetarian and was glad I didn't take the whole lot.

Overall a major disappointment.  I walked home sulking, feeling sick and kicking myself for not going to the gym then buying mince pork at the supermarket for a nice home cooked meal of steamed pork, topped with coriander and freshly cut chilli on a bed of rice.  That would have cost me around $5 not the $27 that I spent at the dodgy Thai joint.

I went home and microwaved popcorn to make me feel better, watched half an episode of Sons of Anarchy and went to bed sulking, feeling totally sick in the guts.

Yours truly,

Miss A.

First time Thai Dessert

Last night I had a dinner date with the one and only Miss Janey.

We went to Chat Thai, which I can confidently say is the best Thai restaurant in Sydney.  I have always wanted to eat there but the lines have always put me off and I have never waited.  Last week was my first experience of Chat Thai and I couldn't wait to go back.

The wait last night was not that long, we went for a quick drink at a bar nearby and by the time we got back, we had our table straight away.

We started off with a serving of steamed dumplings, they were pretty standard dumplings, quite delicious though nothing out of the ordinary.  Followed by Pad Thai which was truly authentic I think, I could very well compare it to the Pad Thai I ate when I was in Thailand.

We also ordered a Penang (not quite Thai I know) Curry with beef - yes not the usual thing to have in a Penang Curry but it was really, really good!

BUT - this is what I really want to rave on about, and that is the dessert.  I have never really thought about ordering dessert at a Thai Restaurant before, normally I am so full that dessert is the last thing on my mind.  So tonight me and Janey strategically only ordered enough so that we would have room for dessert.

Although we were both really full, the dessert stomach always has room.  I left it up to Janey with my only request being ice-cream.  She ordered a coconut dessert in which I have struggled to find the name online. But here it is:

The coconut sticky rice was absolutely fabulous and I didn't know that rice could be so tasty when it's sweet and that it goes with ice-cream!  The coconut pancakey layer on the top was also really tasty and because it wasn't over the top sweet it was a definite winner with me.

I would highly recommend this cute little restaurant, especially if you have the patience to wait up to 45mins for a table, it will be worth it.

I have hit up my foodie buddies twice now to head onto Chat Thai, a place I cannot wait to eat at again.  So all I can say to them is hurry up and call me, let's make it a date!

Yours Truly,

Miss A.

They have a few restaurants, we went to their flagship (and they are open until 2am):

Chat Thai 

20 Campbell Street

Haymarket

Very affordable, our total bill was around $50