Friday 6th August 2010

SAWADEE THAI RESTAURANT
279 Rokeby Road, Subiaco
Vince and I went across the street for lunch today. We've both been curious about this restaurant but I honestly thought that they had closed down for business because it always looks dark and I never see any hustle and bustle outside it during the day.

Firstly, if you were walking past it with no particular plans for dinner, you probably would walk right past it. There's just no attraction to draw customers to go inside. It didn't feel inviting in the slightest and the decor was terrible. The restaurant felt like a house that had its rooms turned into separate little dining rooms with tables. The rooms were bland except for the front room that we sat in. It's painted dark grey on the outside, and this colour is carried into the front room. It looks like they made an attempt to bring a bit of authenticity to the room and they have a nice tiled feature wall on one side. A few potted plants and perhaps Thai ornaments wouldn't go astray.

The service was lacking. No one was there to greet us - in fact, the front room was emtpy. We had to walk down the corridor before we found someone. If we had just seated ourselves, I don't think anyone would have noticed we were there for a while.

Vince had the Pad Thai

I had the Yellow Chicken Curry

Rice doesn't come with any of the dishes. I had to order a bowl separately. Not cheap. When my curry came out, my first impression was it looked really unappetising. The colour was a very bland brown colour. Not the usual vibrant yellow you would expect when you think of the delicious spices they're supposed to use in the curry. This is the most drab looking curry I have ever had in a restaurant.

Despite its appearance, the curry tasted alright. A bit on the sweet side for me though. I don't really think it's worth the cost.

Vince's pad thai looked much better than my curry and he enjoyed it.

Not a restaurant we would recommend or return to.


DINNER AT LING AND SHALLEN'S
After work, I rushed home and packed a bag of groceries to take to Ling and Shallen's place to make dinner. We're going to use the little piece of truffle I bought from the Mundaring Truffle Festival.

For starters, I sliced up a crusty baguette from Jean Claude Patisserie and we gobbled it up with cheese and cold meats. I bought Roasted Porcetta and German Beef from Bella Gourmet in Centro Maddington.

Sheep Blanchette from Ringwould.

I bought this "scrubbed brie" and we were all bit turned off with its pungent odour, but it actually tasted okay. I think I will just stick with the regular brie next time.


Roasted Rosemary Chicken with a drizzle of Truffle Oil & Truffle shavings
served with Roasted Vegetables


Ling got the munchies later and piled a bit of everything onto the slices of baguette we had left.

A great day of food!