Sunday 26 August 2012

All Thai Restaurant, Sandy Bay

All Thai is a newly opened, casual Thai restaurant in Russell Crescent, Sandy Bay across the road from Coles, and a few doors up from Wings.

I dinnered there the other night with friends amongst plenty of noise, bustle, customers, takeaway dealings and general busy-ness. In other words they were humming, and, interestingly, with the majority of customers being Asian – a good sign.

The prices are reasonable and the service good – but – be warned – the chilli-ness of the dishes is horrendous!

They grade the hotness of their dishes by the number of chillies depicted next to each menu item, so, logically, a one-chilli dish shouldn’t be too hot – not so!

I’m not afraid of chilli hotness, but, man!!!....their dishes are indeed hot. At the moment my body won’t tolerate too much heat, so rule me out of the equation, but others whose chilli judgements I trust, and know from past experience, have deemed the All Thai dishes as being mega hot.

Four of us decided to order a variety of dishes, which were placed in the middle of the table for all to help themselves. My selection was a one-chilli notated Pla Goong (steamed prawns with fresh herb and chilli lime dressing, $17 from memory). My first mouthful, one prawn, in my mouth caused the roof of my mouth to explode out the top of my head as my mouth itself imploded and my lips melted off my face like molten lava! OK – slight exaggeration but you get my drift!

We also had, for entrees, chicken satays, vegetarian spring rolls and Thai fish cakes – all averagely good but not outrstanding.

The other mains were Pad Thai (sweetish but good), Chicken Med Ma Maung (stir fried chicken, vegetables, cashew nuts and chilli jam – delicious, but only because they forgot to add any chilli factor to it – it was marked as a one-chilli dish) and Yum Talay combination of seafood with Thai fresh herb salad and chilli lime dressing, also a one-chilli dish, and the same as my prawn salad but with additional seafood, so I resisted sampling it.

My Thai girlfriends will absolutely love this place, as whenever we eat out, they request more chilli to be added to whatever they order, so this will suit them perfectly, but for us ‘falangs’, I think we need it watered down a bit, and concession made for our more European tastebuds.

I’ll definitely return, but will be wiser in my selections next time.

All Thai Restaurant
Shop 12 Mayfair Plaza
Sandy Bay
(Main entry off Russell Crescent)
Ph: 6223 2929

Posted on by Rita
9 comments

9 comments:

sir grumpy said...

We've got a new Thai place at Kingston Rita. Opened at the weekend.
Nicely done out (it's in the centre of Channel Court shopping).
Will try it but I am not a fan of Thai really.

Anonymous said...

Hey Sir Grumpy

I went with my family to the new Thai place in Kingston on Thursday night, and was one of the 4 people dining with Rita, at the Allthai Restaurant from which she wrote this review.

Our collective views are, that there is no comparison between the two.

The food served at the Thai restaurant in Kingston was just terrible. We had 8 dishes, and the standouts were the prawn dumplings (entree), and the Pad Thai (main), however they were very plain.

The remaining dishes was just disasters.

I think that the worst dish was the beef salad (which I could hardly eat any of), and our young fella ordered a Thai seafood salad, which was also disappointing.

They are obviously just starting out and need to improve. We will give them another try in the future, and hope their other dishes are better. If things remain the same though, we won’t be back.

Good luck for when you visit.

sir grumpy said...

Well, Thanks, anon
Thai ain't my favourite Asian cuisine but we are desperate for any sort of thing down Kingston way!
So this is disappointing news.
But I don't think anyone should open a place unless the cook is good.
He or she won't simply get better overnight.
You need a proper cook from the start and all else CAN follow.
It should be a case, at worst, of great food, shame about service/ price/ decor etc! Not the other way around. Ah well.

Anonymous said...

The more I listen to Roger McShane and Sue Dyson on local ABC weekends the more I believe they live in another world to the rest of us

Anonymous said...

Basically Mcshane and Dyson are the few paid to write. We are not. Sometimes we pay an unjustifiable price for our insatiable search for taste and flavour.

Stack said...

"Discovered" Allthai yesterday for lunch, was very good, really good. We had 2 & 3 'chilli score' dishes, & yes it hit the fire levels one would expect of a genuine Thai.Only one man on the floor, but the service was adequate, and the wait not too long at all. Limited wine list so best to BYO.
Also see 'Written on Tea' has much improved its decore, 'bout time too, food still pretty good though has dropped off compared to when first opened.

Anonymous said...

I had the beef salad in kingston. It was pretty authentic - compared to the same dish type (Nam Tok) that we ate a lot in Northern Thailand. Likewise the Laap Gai. So, maybe you had a bad batch or it wasn't what you were expecting?
The sticky rice, on the other hand, was poor - overcooked and probably reheated after it's initial steaming.
I thought it was a bit too expensive for what was provided.

Anonymous said...

Rita, we are actually "farangs" haha ...

All Thai was enjoyable for me, agree about the chilli though. At least we knew to ask for it mild.

I've been to the new Kingston Thai restaurant a few times now. It's pretty good, without being excellent. It's good food, price fairly and very consistent. Each dish freshly prepared to suit your tastes so if you love or hate chilli - just tell them! :)

Anonymous said...

Popped back into All Thai in Sandy Bay today -
Excellent food, friendly service and I love the interior.
Priced cheap compared to Suwan etc... Very enjoyable