Category: Thai

Thai is a hugely popular cuisine in Sydney. Some of their staple food are Tom Yum, Som Tum, and Pad Thai. They also had other exotic dishes like durian.

Oishii

Oishii Review:

Oishii is located in quite a prominent place in Hunter Valley. To be honest, we were never interested to even try because of the weird combination that they pitched their restaurant as: Thai and Japanese restaurant.

However, on this occasion, we decided to eat some rice and noodles as we have already had way too much cheese and bread… and apparently there are little to none options around the area.

Fried Rice with Seafood – $19.00

Considering we were here for the rice, fried rice was the obvious choice. The seafood fried rice at Oishii may seem like a very expensive one (especially when compared to most Sydney’s Thai restaurants). However, the portion was quite large and they put quite a lot of seafood toppings!

Chicken Teppan Yaki – $22.90 – barbequed on sizzle plate with stir fried Vegetables

It was a simple chicken teppanyaki with stir fried vegetables. The portion for the teppanyaki was bigger than what I expected.

Pad See Ew – $20.50 – thick white rice noodles with chicken and vegetables

We usually prefer having pad see ew more than pad thai because of the use of dark / sweet soy sauce. Again, Oishii’s pad see ew follows the trait of the other two dishes: quite a big portion with decent amount of meat.

Salmon and Avocado Hand-Rolled Maki – $6.50

The hand-rolled maki was actually an extra dish that I ordered because I was curious about their sushi roll. The temaki was suspended nicely like an ice cream cone.

Deep fried ice cream – $8.50

Deep fried ice cream is our son’s most favourite dessert at the moment. They have the usual three toppings to choose from: strawberry, chocolate and caramel.

The final verdict for Oishii

From the outside, Oishii might seem like an overpriced Asian restaurant with quite a weird combination of cuisines. However, upon closer inspection, their taste was pretty decent and their serving size was massive!

Did you know?

Hunter Valley is the wine region in New South Wales. They are famous of their vineyards and cellar doors.

Rating for Oishii:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: $16.50 – $28.90 per main

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

Tempus Two Winery, Hunter Valley

Corner of Broke Rd & Mcdonald Rd, Pokolbin NSW 2320

+61 2 4998 7051

http://www.oishii.com.au/

Sep 29, 2016
Surry Hills Eating House

Review:

This week, we were invited to Surry Hills Eating House. The restaurant is located in the corner of Elizabeth and Campbell Streets. It is owned by Sujet Saenkham of five Spice I Am restaurants in Sydney. Spice I am has a pretty good reputation in Sydney and it’s a great opportunity for me to try their other establishment. Surry Hills Eating House is a Thai restaurant that has quite a few seafood options.

Pla Tod Phae – $14.00 – Curried white bait fritter served with house made sweet chilli sauce and crushed cashew nut

I love white bait in Yum cha place. It is pretty interesting to see a white bait in a non-Chinese restaurant. Surry Hills Eating House’s white bait was amazing. It was probably our most favourite dish of the night.

Pad See Ew Chicken – $18.00 – Stir fried flat rice noodle with sweet soy sauce, egg and Chinese broccoli

We ordered this specifically for the little one. The portion was pretty decent and it was one of the best pad see ew chicken that we have ever tasted.

Phuak Neung Tod – $14.00 – Steamed dried shitake mushroom, dried shrimp and taro wrapped in bean curd skin and deep fried then served with spicy sweet coriander sauce

We were not going to order this entree. However, after looking at the first two dishes that came in, we decided to order this one. It was not a bad choice!

Gaen Kiew Wan Nua – $24.00 – Green curry slow cooked beef served with roti

The green curry was pretty good, but pretty spicy. They made the correct decision of serving it with roti. Curry tasted so much better when enjoyed with roti!

Lin Ped Pha Lo – $26.00 – Duck tongue simmered with five spice, served with braised pickle, green mustard and nam som (vinegar chilli)

We ordered this out of curiosity. There are not that many places serving duck tongue. They nailed it in terms of its taste. However, I think they should serve it as a side dish instead of a full main dish.

Cashew Nut Chicken – $18.00 – Stir fried cashew nuts, shallot, onion and chilli jam

For those of you who enjoyed individual serving instead of shared dishes. They have a variety of stir fry dishes. Cashew nut is probably one of the staple dishes in any Thai restaurants in Sydney.

Gaeng Het Pho – $28.00 – Phuket-style curry of bar cod fillet, Thai black mushroom and betel leaf!

This last dish was recommended by the waitress. It was one of the most ordered dishes at the restaurant. I guess it is true when they say the customers cannot be wrong! This curry is less spicy than the green curry we ordered earlier. I also liked the texture of the mushrooms.

Surry Hills Eating House

Did you know?

Eating house is located on level 2 of Triple Ace Bar. It is also within a walking distance to Spice I Am’s other restaurant: House Thai.

Details:

Level 2, 198 – 200 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills 2010

02 9211 8107

Dec 4, 2015
Chat Thai Westfield

Review:

I have been wanting to write about this week’s restaurant for years. It was one of our favourite late night destinations (retired from nocturnal activities four years ago). Chat Thai has a few restaurants in Sydney. On this occasion, we went to Chat Thai Westfield in Sydney CBD for dinner.

One of the interesting thing about Chat Thai is that they have different menu for different time of the day: Lunch, Dinner, and Supper. Supper menu is only available in Chat Thai Haymarket (Thaitown).

Padt Thai Chicken – $14.00 – stir fried thin rice noodles with chicken, dried shrimps, bean sprouts, galic and chives in a tamarind and palm sugar sauce

If you google ‘National dish of Thailand’, Google will tell you that it is Pad Thai. However, it is not something that we normally look for in a Thai restaurant. We ordered this because other people in the party love a good Pad Thai.

Som Dtum – thai-bpu – $14.00 – Green papaya salad with peanuts and dried shrimps with the addition of pickled crab

People generally judged a good Thai restaurant based on its Pad Thai. For us, som dtum is the dish that we’d like to measure how good a Thai restaurant is. Chat Thai Westfield’s som dtum was one of the best we have ever tasted! It was fresh and had a lot of punchy flavours, especially from the pickled crab.

If you are not sure about pickled crab, you can order the normal Som Dtum Thai.

Gai Yaang – $14.00 – Char grilled turmeric and lemongrass marinated chicken with smoked chilli and tamarind relish

Crying Tiger – $14.00 – Char grilled beef tenderloin with smoked chilli and tamarind relish

Gai Yaang and Crying Tiger are the two dishes that my Thai friend always ordered when dining at Chat Thai Westfield. These two are also staple food in Thai restaurants. Both dishes were cooked to perfection. They were juicy and full of flavour!

Gai Yaang

Crying Tiger

Mussamun nuea – $16.00 – Mussamun curry of slowly braised beef shin and potato

This is a curry my partner love to order in a Thai restaurant. You can tell Chat Thai Westfield’s mussamun is great by the quality of its meat. The curry was thicker than other massamun curries we have tried and the meat was so tender that you can actually fork it off!

Suki Chicken Soup – $14.00 – braised chicken and glass noodles with water spinach

This is a dish that is rarely seen in a Thai restaurant. It resembles Chinese hot pot dish.

You can opt for a soup or dry suki.

Padt Si-ew – $14.00

The little one always orders Padt Si-ew when we go to a Thai restaurant. This dish is probably the most generic out of all Thai dish and the little-known brother of Padt Thai. It was a simple dish of rice noodles, chicken, vegetables and sweet soy sauce.

Bpla Dtom Som – $24.00 – steamed blue eye cod in caramelized palm sugar, turmeric and tamarind sauce.

I ordered this dish because of the picture in the menu. Being the most expensive dish of the night (and the last to be served) definitely put some pressure on this dish to deliver. All I can say is that it did not disappoint. Despite looking a bit overcooked, the fish was still perfect. The combination of sweet and sour sauce (a different kind!) was also very good!

The final verdict for Chat Thai Westfield

Chat Thai is one of my favourite Thai restaurants in Sydney! Should I really say more?

Did you know?

Unfortunately we had to skip on the desserts as we were pretty full at the end of the dinner.

With that said, I can create a whole post for Chat Thai dedicated solely for its desserts. They have a nice range of desserts. My personal favourite is Pa Tong Go – deep fried donuts with pandan sauce. I glanced at the dessert menu in Chat Thai Westfield and could not find it there, but they are definitely available in Chat Thai Haymarket.

Rating for Chat Thai Westfield:

8.0 / 10

Taste: 8.0 / 10

Price: $14 – $24 per main dish

Place: 8.0 / 10

Details:

Shop 6002, level 6, Westfield Centre Point, 188 Pitt St, Sydney 2000

+61 2 9221 0600

http://www.chatthai.com.au/

Aug 4, 2015
Why Thai Restaurant

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Unfortunately, Why Thai has closed its doors for good.

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Review:

We went to Why Thai for a random weekday dinner. Since there were only three of us, we could only order a few dishes. The restaurant wasn’t that busy with quite a lot of people ordering for takeaway (including someone coming in in onesie). Service was also nice and friendly.

Web Spring Rolls (5 pcs) – $6.50 – Mixed minced prawn and crab meat in spider web-like wrap served with sweet chilli sauce

For the price, the portion was actually pretty decent. The spring rolls were actually pretty big and had a nice crunch.

Tamarind Infused Prawns – $17.80 – Deep fried light battered prawns tossed in WHY THAI signature sweet tamarind sauce with mixed vegetables

We were obviously drawn into this by the word ‘signature’ on the description. Generally speaking, anything with ‘signature’ is more special than the ones with the word ‘special’. However, it might be pretty beneficial to include ‘crispy egg noodle’ in the description.

I love how the dish was pretty colourful. The combination of tamarind and pineapple was also pretty refreshing!

Crispy Egg Noodle in Gravy Sauce with Seafood – $14.80 – deep fried egg noodle topped with Thai style gravy egg, oyster sauce and vegetables.

We ordered this dish because we were craving for a similar dish that is called ‘i fu mie’ in Indonesia. It is a tale of the halves: half crunchy, half soft, half dry, half soupy. However if you don’t eat it quickly enough, it will all be pretty soggy.

The final verdict for Why Thai Restaurant

We ended up having three deep fried dishes at Why Thai Restaurant. Granted that it might be better to have a curry or stir fried dish, but I quite enjoyed all of them. Service was also pretty good at the restaurant.

Did you know?

Thai restaurants often have eye-catching names like Why Thai Restaurant.

Rating for Why Thai Restaurant:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $12 – $19 per main dish

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

52 Belmore Road, Randwick 2031

+61 2 9398 9552

Jul 21, 2015
Chao Praya Thai

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Review:

Chao Praya Thai at The Spot, Randwick is probably one of the first restaurants in Sydney I have ever visited. However, I rarely go to Randwick for a meal these days. On this occasion, I went with quite a large group of friends. Some of us are vegetarian, so I include a little vegetarian section towards the end of this article.

The first dish of the day was Salt and Pepper Calamari Rings. My son thoroughly enjoyed every bite of it. We have other entrees in the vegetarian section.

Salt and Pepper Calamari Rings

Our next dish was Larb Bhet. Larb is a spicy minced meat salad that mainly uses mint leaves, lemon juice and chilli. Bhet (or bped) is duck. Pad See Ew Chicken was sort of a ‘safe bet’ when we ordered because the dish was so simple and kids would usually eat them.

Larb Bhet – Minced baked boneless duck sprinkled with lemon juice and just a touch of chilli, garnished with mint leaves – $16.90

Pad See Ew Chicken – Stir fried rice noodle, egg and Chinese broccoli with black soy sauce Thai style – $13.90

The most unique and best dish of the day was the Green Curry Salmon. It was the first time I had curry with salmon, and it was beautiful! The fact that it was priced at under $20 made us felt a lot happier! Our last main course of the day was Masamun Beef Curry. We usually try to find this dish when we go to Thai restaurant because it is possibly the mildest curry of them all.

Green Curry Salmon – Grilled salmon top with green curry sauce and mixed vegetables – $18.90

Masamun Beef Curry – Chunky tender beef slowly cooked in thick but mild tasty curry with peanut – $14.90

Since there were already too many dishes ordered, we only tried two desserts. The first one was Mango and Ice Cream. It was literally half a mango and a scoop of ice cream with a bit of whipped cream and caramel. The Deep fried Ice Cream was a bit more sophisticated.

Mango and Ice Cream

Deep fried Ice Cream

Vegetarian

They have quite a selection of vegetarian entrees. On this occasion, we ordered three of them: Satay Tofu, Curry Puffs, and Spring Rolls.

I did not try the main dishes, but they are the variation of Panang Curry and a choose-your-own noodles dish. The noodles dish was a choice of vegetables/meat, noodles, and sauce.

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The final verdict for Chao Praya Thai Restaurant

Chao Praya Thai restaurant is perfect for your everyday Thai fix. They also cater for vegetarian diners. One of their interesting items on the menu was their green curry salmon.

Did you know?

I wrote about another ChaoPraya Thai restaurant in Gold Coast. However, they are not connected to each other.

Rating for:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 8.0 / 10

Price: $12 – $19 per main dish

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

33 Perouse Road, The Spot, Randwick 2031

+61 2 9399 5509

http://www.chaopraya.com.au/

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Feb 4, 2015
ChaoPraya Thai Restaurant

Rating:

7 / 10

Taste: 7 / 10

Price: $35 per person

Place: 7.5 / 10

Review:

When I went to the Gold Coast the first time, long before I started writing this blog, we had dinner at this restaurant. We were pretty pleased with the food and it left quite an impression that I decided to write my next piece here. ChaoPraya Thai Restaurant has quite a nice interior design, very friendly staffs and the restaurant is located strategically on The Gold Coast Highway.

Our first dish of the day was Fried Rice Thai Style ($15.90), The description said it was ‘chef’s own special style of fried rice with chicken, egg and Vegetable’. All I could remember was that it was especially HOT! They put a decent effort in decorating the dish but it was just too hot for me.

Fortunately the second dish was a lot friendlier to me, it was Sweet & Sour Fish ($33.90) – Fried fillet of fish combined with tomatoes, cucumber, capsicum, onion, shallot in sweet and sour sauce. It was nicely served in a fish-shaped plate and had quite a nice balance of flavours.

Our next one was another nicely-presented dish, Larb Chicken ($24.90) – Minced Chicken cooked with lime juice, onion, coriander, chilli powder, toasted ground rice and mint leaves. It was also said to be ‘served with green lettuce at room temperature’.

The Crumbed Calamari ($12.90) – Calamari rings crumbed and deep fried. Served with sweet and sour chilli sauce – was presented in a squid-looking plate! We couldn’t help but wonder how many plates they have in their arsenal! Unlike the fish, the crumbed looked a bit darker. However the calamari itself was quite okay.

For our dessert, we ordered Sweet Sticky Rice with Mango ($9.90). In the menu it has the word ‘seasonal’ in bracket and we were lucky that mango was in season at that time.

The final verdict for ChaoPraya Thai Restaurant

There is no doubt that you would feel good after visiting ChaoPraya Thai Restaurant. They have good and beautifully-presented food and friendly services.

Did you know?

There is also a Chao Praya restaurant in Sydney. At first I thought they were related. However looking at their website, I don’t think they are.

Chao Phraya (???????????????) apparently is the name of a major river in Thailand.

Details:

Corner Frederick Street and Gold Coast Highway, Surfers Paradise

07 5538 8118

Feb 10, 2014