TheRestaurantGuy

Reviews

Restaurants, Asian, Thai, Vietnamese, Good For Groups

Overall 7.4 13

10 Highly Recommended

Food 10 Ambience 10 Service 10 Value 10

I dined at Grasshopper with a large group last week and could not have asked for anything more! The food was fantastic, the service was attentive without being over the top and the atmosphere on the night was perfect.

May 16, 2010

Pink Salt, Double Bay

Restaurants, Bars, Modern Australian, Has Bar, Serves Dinner

Overall 6.5 124

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4 Below Average

Food 4 Ambience 5 Service 4 Value 3

Winner of the 2007 TV series “My Restaurant Rules”, Pink Salt kept their name and relocated to Double Bay shortly after their win meant they were able to keep their Restaurant.

Loving all things Pink my sister had been wanting to go there for as long as she’d heard about the relocation and read their menu on-line where pink sangria and pink cupcakes had her sold! Her graduation from Uni provided the opportunity to dine anywhere she desired and Pink Salt it was with the whole family one Sunday night to celebrate.

We walked into a completely empty restaurant, which is never a good sign, and the dim lighting had my father needing a mini torch to aid his ability to read the menu. The menu was okay but we had pretty much all made up our mind before the waiters advised us of the specials and even worse that only upon ordering for two children under 10 did they point out they have a kids menu! As it turned out it wasn’t even a kids menu as, when quizzed on its contents, the waiter simply said they can do fish and chips for kids!

Between seven adults we had a pretty good spread of the entrée and mains menu with most of the daily specials also ordered. The only dishes that seemed to get any sort of acclaim were my nephews “pink” salt and pepper squid which his mother confessed was divine. My prawns in garlic and butter were reasonable but most others just gave their meals a “so so” rating.

Mains were even worse with only one at the table relatively happy with the meal and the same comment kept coming back to me… “it lacks flavour” and my seared Kingfish was no exception! Can I get those fish and chips on the kids menu please?

Dessert was almost a white wash of the chocolate pudding with pistachio canola outside a single order of the pannacotta. Out of an entire family of chocolate lovers I have never seen so much dessert left over and yet again the consensus on this one was unanimous, it was simply too rich to finish!

So with mains lacking flavour, dessert being too rich for even the biggest chocoholic to truly enjoy we all left wondering, how much has changed since the glory of winning “My Restaurant Rules”? What is left today certainly doesn’t rule at all.

Suitable For: When trying novelties like Pink Sangria and Pink Cupcakes outweigh any other desire, otherwise, I wouldn’t bother. Rating Category: Smart Casual Dining/Fine Dining. Score in this Category: 4/10.

Remember, my philosophy regarding rating restaurants is to rate them based on the category that a particular restaurant is trying to compete in. It is simply not fair to compare your local café or family run restaurant against the number of world class venues and high budget restaurants that exist throughout the country.

May 05, 2009

Hungry Duck, Berry

Restaurants, Asian, Modern Australian, BYO, Child Friendly

Overall 8 41

7.5 Recommended

Food 8 Ambience 7 Service 7 Value 8

Price Guide – Medium to High. 9 course banquet for 3 people plus a bottle of wine and a few beers came to $308.00. It doesn’t have to be such an expensive place to dine so keep in mind I took the most expensive option with the 9 course banquet. Entrée’s - $8 - $18. Mains - $26 - $32. Desserts - $12.

Wine List: Reasonable with some interesting choices including an Asian wine list! BYO is available for $5 corkage per head.

First Impressions – We booked a day or two in advance and were told 6:30 pm was our only hope, yet we talked into an entirely empty restaurant that didn’t fill up until at least 8 pm. Outside this minor issue though the waitress was swift and courteous and after selecting the 9 course banquet menu and placing a drinks order our dining experience starts very swiftly.

The interior is nice with a modern feel that is a little out of place in Berry but welcoming all the same. So with food and drinks arriving at our table promptly we are looking forward to the rest of our evening! In General, I am going to do the review in a similar fashion to the food. Dish by dish!

Sashimi plate with abalone mushroom and soy dressing - A combination of Kingfish, salmon and smoked eel with wasabi, soy dressing and some pickled ginger. A decent start and I can now add eel to the list of animals I have taste tested and say it wasn’t all that bad!

Homemade steamed pork buns - These are a bit of a house speciality and were absolutely fantastic! Served with a chilli dipping sauce the flavour was much better than the steam buns one is used to at the vast majority of Chinese Yum Cha’s you’ve ever visited. A must have dish!

Seafood Sausages - Seafood in a sausage I hear you ask? Does seem a tiny bit odd I admit but believe it or not they are much better than I had first imagined and a family member at the table who doesn’t even like seafood gave these the tick of approval!

Steamed lemon Chicken with Asparagus - The chicken which was cooked to perfection and served in varied pieces including some off the bone was very tasty. A great dish with my only slight criticism being that the lemon sauce if piled on becomes overly sweet.

Snapper fillets with lime salt, tomato salt and ponzu mayonnaise - The snapper fillets were done tempura style and like the chicken were cooked perfectly. The waitress instructs us to take a piece of fish and scrape it through the two lines of varied salts and then finally into the mayonnaise. Doing this, however, resulted in an overly salty taste and all at the table agreed to stick to trying one salt at a time. Even ditch the salt altogether, dip the fish into a bit of the mayonnaise and just enjoy a greatly cooked piece of fish!

Tomato salad with five spice Tofu and coriander sauce - Served alongside the Snapper fillets we had wondered if this was going to count as one of the nine dishes in the banquet. Given that in all I count 10 different things served I am still unsure? Either way the salad of various tomatoes and spiced tofu drizzled in coriander sauce is fine but looking at the menu some of the other vegetable options seemed more appealing.

Duck three ways - Another signature dish alongside the steamed pork buns this dish includes duck spring rolls, slices of medium rare duck breast and legs in Sichuan spices. The spring rolls were my favourite. An enjoyable dish if you like duck!

Ox tail sang chow bao - I don’t recall having tried Ox tail before and so I get to add a second new experience after the eel from one restaurant! The flavour is very rich as the meat appears to have a lot of marbling (fat content). Interesting flavour and a great twist on the standard sang chow bao.

Fruit platter - Not much to write about on a fruit platter except we had thought it was part of our nine course banquet but as it turns out it is not. The waitress looked concerned at what she thought was a rather small portion for three people but it was fine with us.

Flavoured Sake - Served cold we had Melon, Cherry and Cinnamon and Watermelon and Chilli. A unique dish to serve as a desert and we liked the watermelon and chilli so much we ordered another round of it alone.

What impressed and what didn’t: The homemade steamed pork buns, Ox tail sang chow bao and watermelon and chilli sake were our three favourite dishes. No dish wasn’t enjoyed in some way, however, we did find ourselves a little disappointed in the lack of a proper dessert, mainly as we can see some delicious looking desserts being served at tables all around us and we had fruit and sake!

The staff were great right up until the point of serving our final dish as we were then seemed to have been forgotten about, and obtaining the bill seemed to take longer than what we would’ve liked.

Upon reflection: I had an enjoyable evening and sampled some new foods for the first time. And after a lack of proper dessert we found ourselves at the famous Berry hot donut stand and ordering half a dozen freshly cooked donuts for $5. I’ll tell you that these were so good that I tempted to recommend not ordering dessert at the Hungry Duck and doing this instead!

Would I return: Yes, when I am in the area, but next time I will order al la carte.
Suitable For: When you’re in or around Berry and want an enjoyable evening with good food in a not too formal setting or if you have a penchant for steamed pork buns!

Rating Category: Smart Casual Dining. Score in this Category: 7/10

Remember, My philosophy regarding rating restaurants is to rate them based on the category that a particular restaurant is trying to compete in. It is simply not fair to compare your local café or family run restaurant against the number of world class venues and high budget restaurants that exist throughout the country.

May 05, 2009

Wildfire Sydney, Sydney

Restaurants, Bars, Function Venues, American, Brazilian

Overall 5.7 153

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

6.5 Recommended

Food 5 Ambience 8 Service 7 Value 6

Price Guide, High, but not over the top. The bill for four people with two entrees`, four mains and two desserts and alcohol came to $447. Entrée’s - $22+. Mains - $34 - $85. Desserts - $17 (Cheese menu also available). Wine List: Very good, with plenty of local and international choices with a healthy price range and good “by the glass” selection as well.

First Impressions, Before I had even made the booking it wasn’t the best, as two good friends of mine had visited separately in the past month and had not come back with glowing reviews. However, its my fathers birthday and for years he has gone on about how much he enjoyed Wildfire, Auckland, and he has been keen to find out if its local counterpart is just as good. I too have also had the pleasure of dining at the Auckland restaurant and look forward to finding if in deed we have trumped the Kiwi’s again!

In General, We are well greeted and immediately shown to our table, followed by an introduction to our waiter who is very proficient in providing a wine menu and taking our drinks order. Inspecting the starter’s menu poses a problem for my father, he doesn’t particularly like seafood and we cannot see a single starter item that is not either seafood or vegetarian.

Due to this fact he’s not game to join the rest of the table in trying the Tapas plate and settles for some wood fired bread that is accompanied by a delish tomato relish that is almost like a hearty winter soup. Ironically the Entrée Tapas plate has almost no seafood and includes items such as meatballs, friend mozzarella and chicken.

We have a slight chuckle and my father looks a tad frustrated but acknowledges that, perhaps, we should have asked! However, upon actually sampling the platter the meatballs are overcooked, the bruschetta has anchovies and the chicken pieces are amongst the driest I have ever experienced. The friend mozzarella was good though as was the cold calamari.

For mains Dad and I share the 1kg spit roasted rib eye, as while he is keen to have the house speciality, Churrasco (a Brazilian barbeque in which large metal skewers of meat are walked around the restaurant floor by waiters who cut the meat straight off the skewer and onto your plate) its only possible if the whole table opts for the same, which doesn’t perfectly suit my mother and sister. So while the men tuck into a kilo piece of meat the girls have gone for Barramundi and Veal.

While the thought of a good Rib eye steak, spit roasted to perfection almost had my mouth watering, it, unfortunately, failed to deliver on my expectations. We opted for medium and got exactly what we ordered, however, it was very dried out on the edges and the nice pink centre just failed to deliver the nice flavour I had hoped for. I feel as if I could have done a better job myself and can certainly claim to have cooked a better rib eye in my time.

Similarly disappointed are the girls with comments like “Barramundi was fine but nothing more” and my sister is rather horrified with the extreme rareness of her veal and has to leave a large portion of it to the side. However, dessert appears to have made some in-roads in the saying, all is well that ends well. The unconventional Tiramisu is a hit with the girls and I am intrigued by seeing donuts on the menu of such an upmarket establishment.

They arrive in a box with three syringes on one side and a coffee fondue on the other. You choose your preferred filling from Raspberry, Chocolate or Vanilla cream and inject the donut via the syringe, then dunk in the coffee fondue. I am very impressed, although the waiter that took our dessert order has totally forgotten my matching dessert wine. After this is pointed out to our original waiter he fixes this immediately, apologises and says that it will be on the house for the delay.

What impressed and what didn’t: The décor of the restaurant is stunning and its contemporary chandeliers are being commented on by most patrons around us. The Harbour view, while not the best available in Sydney is still a welcome backdrop and I find myself slightly obsessed with the impressive, over-sized, dish like plate ware our mains were served on and get my sisters help in reading the brand on the bottom so I can Google it when I get home.

Our original waiter was very professional and efficient and I find myself perversely satisfied at his obvious disappointment in his colleague upon learning of the missing dessert wine. Dessert aside, however, the food really did disappoint most at the table, which is always more disappointing when the setting and service was very good.

Upon reflection: Sadly it seems the Kiwi’s have out done us on this occasion. If I compare solely to its Auckland based rendition a trip across the Pacific Ocean gets you the same Harbour side location, great food and incredible value for money. Our Sydney bill shares the same first digit with the bill of nine people who completely stuffed themselves and remember, that’s in New Zealand dollars!

Compared to its local competition the food means it falls short for the money. For these prices I have had much better experiences. And let’s face it, we are going out to eat, not to simply sit in a plush setting and experience great service, the food has to match.

Would I return: Only for dessert. Although the Sea Bar looks interesting. Suitable For: Business lunch or dinner, a date or any other occasion where the food quality is, perhaps, not the major goal. Rating Category: Fine Dining. Score in this Category: 6/10. Remember, My philosophy regarding rating restaurants is to rate them based on the category that a particular restaurant is trying to compete in.

It is simply not fair to compare your local café or family run restaurant against the number of world class venue’s and high budget restaurants that exist throughout the country.

Mar 11, 2009

Kobe Jones Sydney, Sydney

Restaurants, Asian, Japanese, Modern Australian, Good For Groups

Overall 6.2 389

8.5 Highly Recommended

Food 9 Ambience 8 Service 9 Value 8

Price Guide, Mid priced and highly dependant on the dishes ordered and number of dishes. Entrée’s - $9 - $16.50. Mains - $18 - $65. Deserts - $7 - $10. Wine List: Reasonable for a casual restaurant in the outer suburbs. It was nice to see some Italian wine options as well!

First Impressions, without a booking we had been prepared for a bit of a wait given the popularity of this place, yet the moment we walk in we are immediately shown to our table. A waitress seats us and takes our drinks order, while me and my friend notice the couple next to us appear to be splitting up as a man consoles his female guest who is fighting back tears at the news he has just delivered. We have a quiet chuckle at the slight awkwardness of the situation and our drinks arrive in record time.

In General, we peruse the menu and I can see that prices have risen steadily since I was here many years ago, yet at the same time I thought it was almost too cheap back then when compared with other venues of this quality and am not surprised by the increase. Having been here before I knew a few dishes that I had deliberately come back to try so we start with the house special sushi rolls known as Volcano rolls as well as another house special known as “Number one Special”.

These two dishes perfectly show off what was once described as “Californian Japanese” as the sushi rolls are stacked like a mountain, sorry that should be volcano, and then topped with creamy scallops and the result could almost be described as Japanese comfort food. The Number one special is a crab meat salad that is wrapped in fish and baked with a cream sauce, yet another comfort dish that my dining buddy and I devour in no time.

We then move on to the far more traditional Japanese dish of Salmon sashimi which is perfectly fine and almost cleansing after the comfort dishes we have just enjoyed. We are, however, distracted as our Chicken Karaage arrives along with the Kobe Beef. The Kobe beef last time I was here arrived as perfectly cooked cubes of beef, but is now served as perfectly cubed pieces of raw Kobe Beef along with a square slab of hot volcanic rock in which we are to try our hand at cooking the beef ourselves at the table.

We are both impressed and start experimenting with cooking times with our little cubes and after a few being a tad underdone we soon begin to get it just right and the small personal satisfaction that went with this is a clever way to make your most expensive dish that comes uncooked appear like a great idea to all parties.

Oh and the Chicken Karaage that I explain to my friend is the Japanese version of KFC is delicious with the spicy mayonnaise sauce! What impressed and what didn’t: Everything impressed from the impeccable service, the zero waiting time on our meals and the simply brilliant food. On this particular occasion I cannot find even the smallest flaw and nit picking seems an exercise in futility. Well done Kobe Jones!

Upon reflection: Having both been to Kobe Jones over a year ago, my friend and I leave saying that we just had one of the more enjoyable meals we can remember. My friend is even calling his wife shortly after we leave to tell her what a great experience we had just had.

Would I return: Can hardly wait to return and will no doubt become a bit of a regular, although I am wary that to have too much of a good thing can sometimes spoil the appeal, but if they keep the service and food up to that standard its hard to see that becoming something worth worrying about!

Suitable For: Dinner with friends, business lunch or dinner, romantic evening.
Rating Category: Smart Casual Dining. Score in this Category: 9.5/10. Remember, My philosophy regarding rating restaurants is to rate them based on the category that a particular restaurant is trying to compete in. It is simply not fair to compare your local café or family run restaurant against the number of world class venue’s and high budget restaurants that exist throughout the country.

Mar 11, 2009

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Displaying: 1 - 8 of 8 reviews

Grasshopper, Teneriffe

Restaurants, Asian, Thai, Vietnamese, Good For Groups

Overall 7.4 13

10 Highly Recommended

Food 10 Ambience 10 Service 10 Value 10

May 16, 2010

Pink Salt, Double Bay

Restaurants, Bars, Modern Australian, Has Bar, Serves Dinner

Overall 6.5 124

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4 Below Average

Food 4 Ambience 5 Service 4 Value 3

May 05, 2009

Hungry Duck, Berry

Restaurants, Asian, Modern Australian, BYO, Child Friendly

Overall 8 41

7.5 Recommended

Food 8 Ambience 7 Service 7 Value 8

May 05, 2009

Wildfire Sydney, Sydney

Restaurants, Bars, Function Venues, American, Brazilian

Overall 5.7 153

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

6.5 Recommended

Food 5 Ambience 8 Service 7 Value 6

Mar 11, 2009

Kobe Jones Sydney, Sydney

Restaurants, Asian, Japanese, Modern Australian, Good For Groups

Overall 6.2 389

8.5 Highly Recommended

Food 9 Ambience 8 Service 9 Value 8

Mar 11, 2009

Biviano's, Dural

Restaurants, Italian, Pizza, Seafood, Vegetarian

Overall 5.5 42

5.5 Average

Food 5 Ambience 6 Service 5 Value 6

Price Guide, affordable, dinner for five adults and two kids with entrees and desserts as well as alcoholic drinks came to $342, drinks totalled $90 so food alone was $252. Entrée’s - $9 - $16.50. Mains - $18 - $43. Desserts - $7 - $10
Wine List: Reasonable for a casual restaurant in the outer suburbs. It was nice to see some Italian wine options as well!

First Impressions, as we enter the restaurant we pass a waitress smoking right out the front of the restaurant, which is never a good look! We are greeted by another waiter and are shown to our table promptly and ask if we would like to start with drinks which I always like! The menu is rather extensive though and while people who like choice will not be disappointed, I find an overly large menu complicates things a little as I simply have too much to choose from and my two nephews find themselves in the same predicament, which for the seven year old, left him frustrated and grumpy.

In General, having ordered bread and Garlic Pizza as a starter and with a total of four tables of people with three wait staff and three kitchen staff it really shouldn’t have taken the rather lengthy time it did for such basic items to be brought to our table. Once they do arrive though our entrées are followed close behind them and my deep fried camembert is not quite fried enough to melt all of the cheese in the way it is supposed to and the cranberry sauce it comes with is obviously purchased by the jar at the local supermarket.

My sister is not overly impressed with her Antipasto plate either, yet her boyfriend seems content with his oysters Kilpatrick. Drink orders are taken regularly and fulfilled instantly, and after starters the mains are brought out in just the right time. My rolled chicken stuffed with Artichoke, provolone cheese and proscuitto appears to have been made in bulk or, perhaps, even made off-site. The chicken is dry and the gorgonzola and cream sauce has little flavour.

I started to wish I had order the veal spaghetti my mother is enjoying and upon trying a sample agree it would have been the better dish to have, although just a tad less cream would of made it even more enjoyable. My fathers lamb cutlets appear to be cooked perfectly and he indicates his total satisfaction with them. My nephews’ pizza looks good and he confirms that it is at least as good as it looks.

Feedback from other family members at the table are mixed with a chicken and avocado dish appearing flavourless, while there is no complaints about the cordon bleu, despite looking slightly over cooked to me. A few have ordered desserts and these come with a welcome surprise. I assist the seven year old with his stick date pudding that am pleasantly surprised. It’s light in texture and married with the perfect amounts of butterscotch sauce, cream and ice-cream.

Meanwhile the chocolate gelato looks rich and creamy and the crème caramel also appears to have been given the thumbs up. What impressed and what didn’t: The simpler dishes such as the lamb cutlets and pizza were enjoyable, which makes me think this restaurant could hit two birds with one stone by reducing the number of items on the menu, saving it clients from having too much choice as well as removing the not so enjoyable dishes that sound great, but fail to live up to expectations.

During our entire time at Biavano’s it was also evident that no senior staff appeared to be on duty to keep the staff in-line. One at least three occasions one or two of the waitresses would go outside (in view of most of the restaurant) for a smoke break and on many occasions certain staff members would disappear and then reappear, all the while leaving one busy worker to do the majority of the work. I cannot blame the staff entirely for this and all were courteous with us, but management at this place was non-existent on that particular evening and it showed.

Upon reflection: I walked away rather disappointed, perhaps, because I had heard good things about this restaurant and my dishes in particular were far from impressive, yet other dishes order at my table showed potential for a better experience had I choose differently. Service was okay in the scheme of things but given the number of staff for only a handful of tables it should have been better and it concerns me what would happen on a busy night!

Would I return: Maybe, not in a hurry though. Suitable For: Family outing. Rating Category: Casual Dining. Score in this Category: 6/10. Remember, my philosophy regarding rating restaurants is to rate them based on the category that a particular restaurant is trying to compete in. It is simply not fair to compare your local café or family run restaurant against the number of world class venue’s and high budget restaurants that exist throughout the country.

Mar 11, 2009

Rockpool, The Rocks

Restaurants, Modern Australian, Seafood, Fine Dining, Licensed

Overall 7.5 102

7.3 Recommended

Food 8 Ambience 6 Service 8 Value 7

Price Guide – Expensive, but not over-the-top. Three courses for two people came to $194 for food only. Entrées - $19-$39. Mains - $25 - $60 + live crayfish and Abalone starting at $100. The options south of $40 are mainly pasta dishes and a vegetarian option, so expect to pay $40-$50 for most dishes and keep in mind that salad and sides are all additional extras.

Deserts - $16. Note: Meringues with crème fresh are complimentary and you can also opt for caramels, marshmallows and truffles for $10. Wine List: Very extensive, with plenty of by-the-glass options. A vast array of both local and international (but mainly French) wines by the bottle with a great price spread.

First Impressions – Not the best I’m afraid. A friend and I arrived dead on time for the second sitting of the evening only to be told that our table was not ready. What made it worse was that after announcing that it would be a further 10-15 minutes wait, the host awkwardly pointed out a lack of seating in the waiting area which left us no choice but to familiarise ourselves with the local streets and the cool autumn evening.

In General – After perusing the menu for longer than usual due to the wide selection of tempting offerings/options: entrées including hot and cold options, mains split into a vast array of categories - pasta, plain fish, crayfish, abalone and a small selection of non-seafood options and the “Classic Rockpool” menu, from which my friend and I decided to choose our entrees and mains.

My Tuna Tataki, which was my chosen entree looked impressive and seemed to dissolve in my mouth, while my friend’s Blue eye Ceviche (salad) also received a nod of approval. In like style the mains arrived very swiftly, perhaps, a tad too swiftly. However, my snapper with “Elbulli” crust was fantastic, the crust was beautiful, the fish perfectly cooked and the roasted tomato base, a perfect compliment.

According to my friend, the tuna steak, served medium rare with a Moroccan spice crust was also delectable. Our side of minted Kipfler potatoes were nice despite their waxy texture. For dessert complimentary meringues with crème fresh preceded my companion’s choice of soufflé and my salty peanut butter ice-cream with Pilsner granita. While my salty peanut butter ice-cream was beautiful, the combination with what tasted like frozen beer crystals was rather bizarre and I regretted the decision to have coffee with my dessert, perhaps, a pint of ale would have been more appropriate.

My dining companion raved about her soufflé and upon trying it I had to agree that was one of the lightest soufflés I have had. Throughout the evening the staff were attentive without being intrusive and the bill arrived promptly upon request. What impressed and what didn’t: Atmosphere, service and most importantly the food impressed us both. The wait for a table combined with nowhere (except for the street) for us to wait didn’t impress, nor the lack of eftpos as a payment option. And make sure you watch your step on the way out.

Upon reflection: All in all a very enjoyable evening made up by a combination of a great menu, fantastic food, classy décor and professional staff! Would I return: Definitely! Suitable For: Business lunch or dinner, second date or beyond (as I can think of many better places for that all-important first date) or when, as I was, just in the mood for great seafood and don’t mind paying a premium to get it.

Rating Category: Fine Dining+. Score in this Category: 8/10

Nov 29, 2008

Chalio's Thai Restaurant, Beecroft

Restaurants, Thai, Serves Dinner, Serves Lunch

Overall 7.1 25

4 Below Average

Food 2 Ambience 6 Service 6 Value 2

Date Dined: November 2008 (Thursday night).

Price Guide – Average to high (given it is Thai food in the suburbs). Two Entrées and three mains came to $77.50 and this was with no drinks included as we took advantage of BYO. Entrée’s - $7.50+. Mains - $16+. Wine is BYO.

First Impressions – I had made a booking earlier in the day and had already been informed that if I wanted to dine at 6:30 pm I would need to be out by 8 pm. Given it was local (and Thai) I didn’t really have a problem with this and was at least given the option of a later time or could have gone elsewhere if this didn’t suit. Upon walking in we were told that they were booked out and we kindly informed the waitress that we had a booking.

She finally found us in her booking sheet and then reminded us that we will have to be out by 8 pm as they are busy. I found all of this a tad rude, even if the waitress personally wasn’t rude. The interior space is small but the owners appear to have done the best of what they can with the space. As a lot of people are suggesting, the tables are close together but to make the space a commercially viable one for a restaurant I can understand why owners would forgo just a tad on leg room in order to seat a few more heads. Being seated by the window reduced our personal discomfort compared to those who were sat in the middle of the floor.

As I am seated my dining partner and I are impressed with the cutlery, its funny how sometimes such small things can stick in your mind and aid in ones impression of a venue, pity it didn’t last. In General – The menu appears to be full of attractive options and we are also given a specials menu that has a few items that catch our eye. We order swiftly and the waitress graciously pours our wine into our glasses.

Our starter of duck rolls and vegetable spring rolls arrive promptly and thus begin the problems. The duck rolls are basically a much poorer version of peeking duck, which I wasn’t aware was Thai. There is little duck and I have a faint memory of seeing carrot in amongst a green vegetable, which I can only assume was cucumber or shallot. I move onto the spring rolls and things aren’t getting any better.

The spring rolls are obviously not made on site and have a very thick outer layer to get through before you get to the filling. Even cutting through them with a knife takes some effort and once the effort has been made you instantly realise it was not worth the trouble. The filling was largely glass noodles with indeterminable vegetables amongst some sort of spicy sauce that my dining partner complains about.

Our first main arrives of prawns and asparagus and for $23.50 I am instantly disappointed in the number of prawns on the plate (five!). We asked them to hold off on the mushrooms and for this they seemed to just add more asparagus, leading to a dish that was a sea of green asparagus end stubs (2 stalk heads only) with a prawn thrown in here and there. The taste was okay at best and had no real discernable appeal.

Now things started to get really bad with the arrival of our two other mains, the Garlic and Pepper beef and the pork bellie (that is how it was spelt on the menu!). The beef had a rather odd taste to it to which my company says made her gag and likens it to the taste meat gets when it has freezer burns! While I try the dish gag free, the colour of the meat does suggest something is not quite right. I am not saying the meat was off but I’d be surprised if it was brought that day and not frozen at some point.

I quickly move onto the pork belly but before I have even put it in my mouth I can see a problem. The pork has been sliced very thin and has been cooked to the point of a crunch in the meat, honestly it is one of the most disappointing dishes I have ever had at any Asian restaurant and instantly puts me off my meal entirely. The sauce it is covered in also lacks any true definitive flavour or bite from the chilli it supposedly possesses.

Our waitress then clears our table and asks if I want to take the remaining pork dish home and the answer was a very quick and simple “No thanks!” We are asked if we want dessert or tea and coffee and when we decline are instantly given the bill as it is about 5 minutes to 8 pm. I couldn’t even bring myself to tip even a dollar after food like that and we pay in exact change for one of the first times I can remember.

What impressed and what didn’t: Not a lot impressed, the staff were fine and seemed attentive, then again I wonder if this was just to ensure we were out on time! The ambience was fine and décor also brings no complaints. Simple but pleasant with a few classy touches such as the nice cutlery and table wear.

However, none of this excuses the fact that the food was simply terrible. Not one of the five dishes we tried impressed or even met average expectations of Thai food. None gave me the impression that the other dishes may be better so as to warrant any concept of returning.

Upon reflection: I wish I had gone to our other local Thai restaurant which is not only cheaper but up amongst the best Thai food I have ever tried. Shame on me for venturing off to a competing venue with the hope of similar quality! Would I return: Never

Suitable For: Proving me wrong that it’s hard to do Thai food badly, as it turns out you certainly can! Rating Category: Casual to Smart Casual dining. Score in this Category: 2/10