Veggie Bites

A group of us were going to see the John Butler Trio and we needed to eat first, so we decided on this place! Martin and I eat their food a lot (mainly takeaway), so we were happy! The table shared the dishes and there was about half meat and half veggie dishes – one that Martin and I hadn’t had before. We had veggie pad thai, potato curry, bean curd with chilli and cashew nuts and satay bean curd. We haven’t had the satay bean curd before and it was really nice. Of course, we have eaten the other three many times and they were delicious as always! My only complaint about this place is the lack of veggie entrées – they have one – deep fried tofu pieces that come with satay dipping sauce, but that gets a little boring after a while! We’ll definitely keep eating here!

It was late, we were exhausted and starving, and this was the first place we came across that was open, so we decided to eat here. Having said that, I would go back here in a second – the food was fantastic! There were a decent number of veggie options, but nothing too unusual, and nothing that we hadn’t seen before, so we went with things we knew we liked. We ordered chilli and basil veggies, tofu penang curry and pad thai, along with a couple of glasses of New Zealand wine (a Church Road Merlot Cabernet and a Sanctuary Pinot Gris). The dishes were larger than we thought and we were not able to finish the pad thai, which was delicious – perfectly cooked noodles with a delicious sauce and no extra veggies! The chilli and basil veggies had the perfect amount of chilli and the veggies were perfectly cooked. The tofu penang curry was also great with a stack of extra veggie in there as well as tofu. The curry sauce was nicely spiced and smooth, coconutty and creamy. As I said, I would eat here again in a second – so if you are in Dunedin and want good Thai food – then check it out!

This was a quick lunch after a hair cut. It was a little strange because we were the only customers here, but the other restaurants close by were quite busy! Anyway, we had the red veggie curry and the stir fried tofu with chilli and basil. Both dishes were pretty good, and they are a little inventive with the sorts of veggies that they use – eggplant, pumpkin – I am sure that these are not traditionally used in Thai cooking! It is pretty good food, but it definitely is not my most favourite Thai restaurant!

I think it is fairly clear that we like this place! And, since there are so many veggie dishes on the menu, I have been making a conscious effort to try at least one different dish each time we eat here. This time we had the veggie mussamun curry (one of my favourites!), spicy fried beancurd with beans, zucchini, capsicum, basil and ka chai and the new one was steamed beancurd with chilli paste and coconut milk. I was a little disappointed with the beancurd with beans, zucchini etc – it seemed to have a slightly funny flavour this time, but I really enjoyed the new dish. It was spicy and had a great flavour. It wasn’t overly coconut milky, and I am not usually a fan of the soft and squishy steamed beancurd, but this was really nice. Definitely good for a change!

We had a bit of trouble finding a restaurant that was open on New Year’s Eve and, believe me, we tried. We had been painting all day, so we really wanted something that would be delivered, however, we had to make do with take away that we picked up. It didn’t matter that much – as long as I didn’t have to cook! We tried to order things that were quite different to what we ate here the other night, so we had the red curry, veggie pad thai and spicy fried tofu with capsicum, baby corn and carrot. As usual the food was great, I really liked the spicy fried tofu dish – it was something different to what we would normally order. The red curry was also good, but I find their pad thai a little bland… I think I will definitely continue to try some of the different dishes on the menu – they are proving to be worthwhile!

We always go out for dinner on Boxing Day, since it is our anniversary! We weren’t exactly in the mood for Thai food, but it seemed that a lot of other places were closed. As it turned out, the food was great, so we were definitely not disappointed! We had the Tawho Tod for entree and then vegetarian mussamun curry, stir fried bean curd with cashew nuts, and the vermicelli, shallots, egg and coriander. When we ate meat, mussamun curries used to be my favourite Thai dish – but I think it was actually more to do with the potato than the beef! So, it is always nice to see a veggie version – though they do vary greatly – some are far too meaty, but this one isn’t! The stir fried tofu with cashew nuts was also great – a little spicy – just the way I like it! The vermicelli dish was something we had never tried before, and it was different, but I don’t think it was something that I would order again – there were a lot of bean shoots in it, although they weren’t listed on the menu… Oh well, it is good to try new things!

Well, I said that I wanted to try more food from this restaurant so, after a really hard day in the garden, I was leafing through the take away menus trying to find something that I felt like eating and that did home delivery and I came across their menu. And guess what – they deliver – well to some areas which luckily includes mine! We had spring rolls, a green veggie curry, the mixed veggies with garlic, chilli and basil and the spicy noodles. I actually ordered the tofu with garlic, chilli and basil, but wasn’t too disappointed with the veggies. The green curry was great – nice and spicy, but it did however contain peas (which I picked out!). The veggies were also good, and also quite spicy. In comparison to the two previous dishes – the spicy noodles were actually quite mild! Although it could be that our palates were already over-spiced and couldn’t cope with any more! Considering how good this food is – and it seems to be very consistent too, along with the fact that they deliver – this may well become the new favourite Thai restaurant!!

Since I am on the look out for a new favourite Thai restaurant, I suggested that we try this place when we were organising dinner with some friends. We have eaten here a few times, and the food is always good, but for some reason, we haven’t really made it a regular haunt for Thai food. This time, however, I was particularly impressed with the food. Since our friends eat meat, they ordered their own meals and Martin and I shared, as usual. We started with the veggie spring rolls and they came out super hot (temperature wise, not chilli wise!). And they tasted good too. There were a number of mains that I wanted to try, but we managed to restrict ourselves to just two, and leave some to tempt us to return again soon! We ordered the red veggie curry and the tofu with chilli and basil. A red curry is pretty standard in Thai restaurants and therefore is a pretty good comparison tool… and this one was great – it was pretty spicy, had a good variety of non-soggy veggies (including peas unfortunately!), was the perfect creamy consistency and had all the appropriate curry and lime leaves to indicate that it was freshly made! The tofu with chilli and basil is a favourite of ours and is a dish that we order on a regular basis. And I have to say, this was a pretty good version! Lovely sauce and lots of lovely fresh basil. One of our friends ordered the meaty pad thai and it looked pretty good, so I am waiting to try the veggie version. They also had a dish called chilli noodles on the menu which I am also keen to try. We finished with my favourite Thai dessert, bananas in coconut milk – which was divine! Needless to say, we’ll be returning in the future… this place is definitely in the running for the title of my favourite Thai restaurant!

I think I was a little disappointed by the food from here this time – it didn’t seem up to its usual standard. However, I was sick with the flu so, it is possible that I was not up to my usual standard! We had curry puffs (picking out the peas!), a red veggie curry, tofu with chilli and cashew nuts, and pad thai. The tofu with chilli and cashew nuts was the stand out dish this time. I am not a huge fan of their pad thai – they put a lot of extra veggies etc in it, whereas I prefer my pad thai to be mainly noodles and a lot of taste! I was also a little freaked out, because some of the egg in the pad thai looked a lot like bits of chicken – it was definitely egg though, I spent a bit of time double checking! In fact, it is possible that I might admire someone who can cook egg and make it look like chicken – that is quite a feat! As I said, it wasn’t bad, but I am still looking for a new favourite Thai restaurant!

We weren’t sure that we were going to be able to eat in Nelson Bay, but we figured Thai had to be a good option. They did have a reasonable selection of veggie dishes on the menu and from those we chose spring rolls, green curry and tofu with cashew nuts. Martin loved the green curry – which surprised me a little because it was incredibly creamy. The tofu with cashew nuts was just great – a great blend of flavours and turned out to be quite a large serving… The Cockfighters Ghost chardonnay that we drank with the meal was also fantastic and complimented all the food wonderfully… We were so full we couldn’t fit in any dessert – not a bad sign!