Category: Thai

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Thai

Silver Spoon Thai – Nowra NSW Restaurant Review

The first in a series of reviews of Nowra’s finest dining establishments is this brief piece about my visit to Silver Spoon Thai, the undisputed current second best in term of online rankings in all of Nowra. Accolades won by this establishment to date include being described as “comparable to Holy Basil of Parramatta” (Reyes, 2022), a comparison I could not personally verify having never eaten at Holy Basil despite having lived in the Paramatta area for over a decade.

First on the menu was the Thai Basil Stir Fry with Beef ($20). This was a pleasant dish, with adequate basilling and certainly not too spicy. My dining colleague made comment of the veleted beef, which was not the favourite texture of my teeth or tongue.

I actually quite enjoyed the Prik Khing Crispy Pork ($22.90). The crispy pork was of good quality and crispiness despite being cooked in sauce, and the sauce itself had a good flavour, if a bit strong to have without rice. No complaints here.

I am glad that when asked if we wanted our entree first or just the dishes as they became available we chose the latter option. The Chicken Satay ($10) I enjoyed, but my dining colleague DTC, fresh from his trip to South East Asia, did not think it was the best he’s had in recent times.

Ultimately I think you certainly do worse than Silver Spoon, but nothing about what we had was particularly special. Paste, on the other hand… now that’s special.

Silver Spoon Thai
55 Junction St, Nowra NSW 2541
(02) 4421 7679

Categories
Thai

Yod – Haymarket NSW Restaurant Review

I wish I could have written just a nice little paragraph about my meal at Yod amongst a number of other Thai restaurants in Haymarket, but unfortunately one little thing made the whole experience turn a bit sour.

I had this Grilled Chicken Thigh Fillet (Gai Ping (ไก่ปิ้ง)) ($12.90), which was pretty good. It was nicely grilled, with a mildly sweet marinade that was not too sweet, and a tangy and spicy dipping sauce. There was nothing to complain about of the food at all, but the odd experience came when paying.

The point of service payment system rang up with a price of $14.90, even though both the large format menu clearly displayed outside the restaurant, as well as the menu handed to me when I ordered both displayed a price of $12.90. The woman working the till told me that $12.90 was the old price, and that I must have seen an old menu, but this was clearly the price on the menu that they had handed me. She wouldn’t let it go, and even when we called her supervisor across even she said the same thing. I must have seen an old menu. I realise that $2 is just $2, but at this point it became a sticking point for the two of us. She flipped in disbelief through at least six or eight other copies of the menu at the front counter, all of which said $12.90, all the while maintaining that these were all just old copies of the menu.

There were no new menus showing the “new” price to speak of.

Ultimately with some fight they relented and charged only the advertised and clearly printed price. It would’ve been a lot more graceful for them to accept that they were wrong immediately – if literally all of the menus in your restaurant are “old”, then they are the menu.

Despite the good food this whole process felt dirty to me and I will make a wholehearted effort to never go back.

And before you ask, I have the photos and the metadata.

Yod
462/40-54 Campbell St, Haymarket NSW 2000
0466 554 642

Categories
Asian Fusion Dessert Thai

Mango Coco – Haymarket NSW Restaurant Review

One of our Asian friends had reached her mid thirties without ever having bingsoo, and it was our solemn duty as friends and colleagues to correct this. Mango Coco, located within a particularly Thai part of Pitt St, was the chosen destination for this Korean shaved ice dessert.

The Mango Bingsoo was pretty good, but not really a standout from other similar bingsoos. The addition of dry ice was pure superficial presentation, and no additional mastery demonstrated in the design or construction of the dish.

The Egg on Nest was really quite good. It consisted of black mochi balls filled with salted egg yolk filling, atop a bed of thinly julienned sweet potato strips and fruit. The mochi balls which were bursting with golden sweet and umami filling were the star of the show.

At my insistence the squad agreed to order the Matcha Churros Parfait. The matcha sauce was unsweetened and quite strong – great for us, though many may not be as appreciative. The ratio of churro to matcha dirt and sticky ice cream and matcha sauce was adequately matched so that no dirt remained unstuck and no churro undirted by the end of the meal.

VERDICT
Would I go back? Probably. Whilst our meal was dessert focused (our colleagues had already had dinner) there are quite a few Thai fusion savory dishes on their menu that I wouldn’t mind trying if I were in the area.

Categories
Café Thai

Keramic – Westmead NSW Restaurant Review

New to Westmead this year, Keramic is a religious café and restaurant situated within a 100 year old (1921) Uniting Church owned cottage, the result of a collaboration between the Kongfucius team across the road and the Parramatta Mission. Originally a family home and subsequently a church coffee shop, the café is nicely decorated with period appropriate furniture, ornaments, and photographs of dead people.

Though there is adequate outside seating with park benches, we chose to sit inside in a well appointed family dining room for our post nights breakfast. I want to draw particular attention to these nice candles that my partner would’ve liked to see. She recently spent $16 on a candle stick from some inner west concept store because she thought they would melt nicely. As the owners of cats I really don’t see when they will come into use. My cat set herself on fire on the stove as recently as last night. (She’s OK)

I ordered Hannah’s Favourite ($15) for my 8:30AM breakfast, a fully lunchy meal consisting of a chicken curry of the day (massaman), sticky rice, and a fried egg. This was a very standard lunch meal that you could get from essentially any Thai restaurant. There was nothing particularly remarkable about this dish – just chicken breast in massaman curry sauce, a cylinder of well proportioned sticky rice, and a moist well-fried egg – though I guess you could say it is remarkable to have such a cultural lunch dish amongst Keramic’s otherwise mostly Western menu.

Keramic Cafe and Restaurant
43 Queens Rd, Westmead NSW 2145
0451 231 921

Categories
Café Thai

Boon Cafe – Haymarket NSW Thai Cafe Review

We walked past many enticing restaurants this morning to eat at Boon Cafe, a Thai cafe, restaurant and grocery store in the Sydney CBD.

Boon Cafe has minimal dining space, we counted a total of five tables and not much room for expansion. The tables were small, but somehow able to fit all of our food, condiments, and even some flowers snugly.

We started with a Pork Skewer ($3.50), which was pretty standard fare. I found the skewer a bit too tasty/salty to eat by itself, and think it would’ve been better with some rice (which luckily they offer as a meal) .

I really enjoyed the Chicken and Ginger Congee ($12), to which we added a Century Egg ($3). They got the flavours just right, with a generous serving of ginger. The century egg I would regard as essential for this dish, to add another dimension of umami flavour and texture. We found that the congee was very wholesome and warming, and can strongly recommend this. My girlfriend remarked that as a child she hated congee, but as an adult, getting to eat these wholesome and varied congees has really taught her to love it.

The chicken wings were nothing to really write home about but not bad either. They were a little on the dry side, but the flavours were good, as was the dipping sauce. They were split in half for ease of consumption, which was a nice touch.

The Khao Dtom Sen ($14) is a member of the Winter Special menu, and not to our taste. I thought that the soup had a bit of an undesirable coat-your-mouth feel, and my partner thought it was fishy however I suspect that’s just her brain’s explanation of something she doesn’t like.

I ended up quite liking Boon Cafe, in particular the congee. I would definitely consider going back and just getting more congee! I wouldn’t stray too far from that though (although I can’t speak for the lunch or dinner menus).

This is a handsome little street cat from around the area.

Boon Cafe
1/425 Pitt St, Haymarket NSW 2000
(02) 9281 2114

Boon Cafe Eatery & Jarern Chai Grocer Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato