@Bangkok- Haymarket

#@Sydney’s @Bangkok!

In Sydney we’re spoiled by all the good authentic Thai food we can choose from! I’d say almost every Sydney suburb has its own local Thai restaurant and if you’re in Thai-natown in the city (Campbell Street and surrounds) you may be left debilitated by all the choice!

So with all the choice out there, why @Bangkok? It’s been a moment since we’d last dropped in on Capitol Square; and we were curious to see if anything had changed down there. And since we were in the mood for Thai, and we hadn’t tried @Bangkok before, we chose it for those simple reasons.

My wife was pleased to see that her favourite Thai dish was on offer (Yen Ta Fo- $14.00); while I ordered the Kway Teow Ped- $15.00, purely because I hadn’t heard of it before; and we ordered a Yakult smoothie with Pipo jelly- $7.90  to share.

Although the restaurant is located inside Capitol Square, oddly it felt like dining alfresco- due to all the sounds bouncing around. Considering it was 2pm on a Sunday, all the tables were occupied, and when admiring the restaurant’s ambiance the light bulbs spelling out the restaurant’s name was the most eye catching interior detail.

In no time our food arrived (less than 5 minutes), the first time our food has ever beaten out the arrival of our drinks.

My Kway Teow Ped was a soup noodle, consisting of a clear thin noodle, roast duck, blood jelly, with herbs and beansprouts in a sweet soup base. Every element of the dish was perfect! The duck was cooked perfectly, tender thick sliced pieces and they were very generous in their portioning; the clear noodles was something I’d never had before, really thin and perfectly squared off, with a delicate texture to them; the blood jelly is an acquired taste which we like, just like an iron-laden tofu; the herbs and sprouts were super fresh; and the soup was sweet, it could be too sweet for some but I didn’t mind it. All in all a perfect dish in my opinion.

My wife’s favourite dish (Yen Ta Fo) is also a soup noodle; in theory our dishes were similar- but very different at the same time. Where my soup was dark brown, her soup broth was pink in colour; instead of thin noodles she had large sheet noodles; instead of roast duck she had an assortment of fishballs, squid and fried tofu; we both had greens but her herbs were a different selection of fresh greens to mine; while the only same same ingredient was the blood jelly. My wife’s opinion of the dish compared to all the others she had in the past? Also Perfect! 3 from 3!

And our drink? It was served in a jam jar mug, with a thick layer of blended ice on top (like a slushy); underneath the ice was the Yakult, and the pipo jelly. There must have been another unnamed juice mixed into the drink, perhaps fresh tamarin juice as it was pretty sour. I mean really sour. But the drink was interesting, sucking through the thick straw, it was like taking core samples- getting a hit of ice first, before the sour liquids came gushing up, and followed by the pipo jelly (little balls which were sour as well). It was actually so sour that when I was trying to finish the final inch of ice and liquid, my jaw seized up from a combo of sourness and iciness. I had to keep exercising my jaw for the next 20 mins to free it from it’s aversion to ice and sour (the 6th book in George R. R. Martin’s series).

Our end verdict, 4.5 Stars from 5! (3 from 3 for Food, it was perfect we couldn’t fault it, and even with the locked jaw, I’d still give them perfect marks for the food/beverage offering; 0.5 from 0.5 for Service (the staff were all polite and really efficient); 0.5 from 0.5 for Atmosphere (as the place was modern, they played a Thai pop playlist which I liked); and 0.5 from 1 for Value for Money (@Bangkok was good, but we really do reserve 5 Star ratings for the Best restaurants, so we had to look for marks to deduct and Value was probably the only weak-point of today’s experience)).

Would we be back? You can stamp my dining-passport now as I’ve been to Bangkok, been there, done that. Unfortunately the next time we have a craving for Thai food, we’ll just try the next Thai place we haven’t tried before. Call us dis-loyal, but there are just too many Thai options out there!

@Bangkok- Sunday 14 April (4.5 Stars)

https://www.facebook.com/atbangkok.syd/

PH: (02) 9211 5232

Shop G11, Capitol Square, 730-742 George Street, Haymarket

Mon-Sun 10am – 4.30pm, 5.30pm – 12 midnight.