Red Opium

I love a good Thai restaurant and especially so when you can share it with family and friends. So I was so glad to discover this place through a fellow blogger, maybe you have heard of them? Perth Food Engineers. Since I went with M, I've been raving about it and recommending it to everyone who is up for a little twist in Thai food... So what and where is this place you ask? Well, it's called Red Opium and it's on Hill street opposite the Perth Mint. 

When we entered Red Opium it was like we stumbled upon some old Chinese opium lair with huge paintings of Chinese ladies lazing around in couches smoking, lots of red chiffon drapes, wooden chairs and tables, "antique" Chinese decorations and a traditional opium smoking "bed". It reflected the name of the restaurant brilliantly!

When we got to our seat, the booking name was under M and her name was placed in a wooden frame, which I thought was such a nice, personal touch. 

Lucky for me, M had looked at the menu and seeing as we have similar taste it was easy to agree. Before we get into what we ordered, I love how they can adjust the spiciness of the dishes and as M has almost no tolerance to spicy foods we ordered extra spice on the side, which meant fresh cut chilli (generous amount at that) in a bowl. I recommend for those who can't tolerant spicy foods to definitely ask for less spice for most of the dishes, as chilli seemed to be present in almost everything.

The menu at Red Opium is crafted by head chef Jak. It marries fresh Australian produce with Thai-inspired cooking and fare with the flavours of Thai and ole school favourite Thai dishes expressed in an exquisite style.

We started off with the small plates - Yin and Yang. It was presented in a cute wicker basket scale that held two different dips - a white dip that was a creamy prawn and minced coconut balanced on the other side is the red dip of minced pork and tomato. The dips were accompanied by papadum-styled crackers and lettuce.

Yin and Yang dips

Apart from the gorgeous presentation of the Yin and Yang, the dips were spectacular. The white dip was the perfect mix of coconut and cream with chopped pieces of prawn through it. The chilli helped cut through the richness of the cream. The minced pork and tomato had hints of spices and chilli through it and was oddly similar to my parent's version of "minced meat spaghetti Asian style". 

The next dish to come out was surprisingly yummy. Son in Law Eggs - The eggs are boiled then lightly fried to have a crispy exterior drizzled with tamarind and topped with dried chillies and fried sweet garlic. The sweet-tart flavour of the tamarind, the creamy texture of the egg with the hints of chilli flavour was just divine. Just make sure you DO NOT EAT THE DRIED chillies because they are HOT (unless of course you like it like that). 

Son-in-law eggs

To offset the creamy rich Thai-infused dishes that were coming out, we decided to cut through it by ordering the Crudo tuna. The Crudo tuna was served on Chinese spoons. The tuna was fresh and the flavours of lemongrass, lime and hint of chilli was refreshing on the palate and was almost like a palate cleanser.

Crudo Tuna

Crab Crawl

The last small plate we ordered was the crab crawls. Golden and crunchy on the outside with succulent crab meat on the inside.  

If the small plates left you wanting more there are larger plates that on offer and they are also perfect to share.

We ordered two very different larger dishes for sharing. The first is a twist on the traditional Thai Red Curry. It was called F-Duck. Roasted duck and veggies in red curry flavours with sweet lychees throughout the dish. We made the F-Duck mild in chilli, but if you think you can handle it go up the heat radar. It was so delicious, the curry needs to be soaked up, so make sure you grab yourself a side of steamed rice!

F-Duck

Then there was the Kiss of Death with lightly fried king prawns with fried lotus leaves on homemade corn chips tossed through chilli flakes and coriander leaves. The prawns were plump and juicy with the perfect amount of heat, it was a beautiful kiss of death. 

Kiss of Death

The dishes at the Red Opium are fabulous and I can't wait to try more of the menu. Price wise it's reasonable and it's currently on the Entertainment Card. The service? It's fabulous. Friendly, personal, cheerful and informative. The only downside is that they are a cash only venue. If you get a chance, check out Red Opium, it's a little twist on traditional Thai dishes, but the flavours are most definitely there. 

King and I - Thai Cuisine

On Sunday night I had a lovely, but quick catch up with the boys at one of JC's favourite Thai restaurants - King and I Thai Cuisine. I've eaten here on a previous occasion, and its won several gold plates, 2007, 2010, 2011 and 2012 (although only up to 2011 is printed on their napkins!) so I know it'd be pretty awesome.

The King and I is located in Guildford, opposite the Guildford train station, near Alfred's Kitchen. The restaurant can be recognised by it's massive, yellow, billboard-like sign on it's roof and because it's on a main road, parking is mainly street parking. Although, I'm glad the place has parking places at the back of the restaurant, even if it only fits about 10 cars or so. At least it tries.

The King and I, was most likely to have been a house of some sort in its previous life because there are several different rooms, all of which have been turned into dining rooms. The decor is rather subdued, which I think is fine. Although the colour scheme of pale green, maroon with touches of metallic browns and golds may be slightly outdated. Nonetheless, it provides a cosy, homely vibe.

The waitstaff wear traditional Thai costume, and I really love that (and I love the costume!.. Wouldn't mind having the pants - it looks so comfortable - almost harem pants, but in a slight metallic colour). They were all very polite, quick to provide us with water and gave us ample time to look through the menu to decide. I must admit, however, that because we were in the back end of the restaurant, the amount of times the waitstaff visited is probably not as frequent as at the front of house. Granted, the back of the restaurant, wasn't particularly busy. Having said that, they did bring out our dishes very quickly after we ordered, and gave us fresh bottles of water when it ran out without having to be asked. They also checked up on us to make sure everything was ok and cleared our plates so quickly when we were done. Rather efficient.

As for the food? Well, there was only 3 of us for dinner, and one of us was on a massive health kick (safe to say it wasn't me!), so unfortunately I can't show you the full range of their menu. Nonetheless, we got an entree to share, one main for CR and two mains to share between me and JC.

We started the night with a serving of vegetarian spring roll (4 pieces). They also have satays and other delectable things (mainly coming in 4 pieces).

The spring rolls were packed with vegetable goodness and was crispy and crunchy on the outside without under cooking the stuffing. It's also good to know that the oil they used was not old oil (didn't have that old oil smell). Paired with the sweet chilli with a slight hint of lemon for the sour kick, it was a rather pleasant start to our meal.

CR had the vegetarian Pad Thai, which looked came out with a swirl of steam on top and looked rather appetizing. I saw lots of tofu, shallots, carrots, cabbage and beansprouts, along with the noodles, the crushed peanuts and slice of lime to balance out the sweetness of the Pad Thai sauce. CR thoroughly enjoyed the dish and loved the sauce that coated the noodles.

 

 

JR and I, had the prawn Pad Thai, with a decent amount of prawns, and large one at that, along with slices of tofu, beansprouts and shallots. Mixed well with the peanuts and a squeeze of the lime juices the dish was fantastically satisfying. Although, I have to admit, having the last bites of the dish, it was a tad sickly sweet (too much sugar added to the dish), thanks to the sauce. The lime is really needed to cut through that sweet flavour (unless of course you like that). OH I must add, the Pad Thai didn't taste too oily either, unlike some places where too much oil gets involved.

 

No visit to a Thai restaurant is complete without a Thai curry (whether it's red, green or penang curry). I felt like something with a decent dose of chilli kick and after CR helping me to decipher which one of the curry dishes is less likely to have an adverse effect on my hips and thighs, we decided green curry reign supreme (partly because coconut milk is likely to be less fattening than coconut cream.. although we did not any evidence on that matter). We settled to have it with chicken. The chicken green curry was absolutely delicious. The chicken was succulent and moist. It was not over cooked and it was not dry (trust me chicken can dry out even in a curry!). The sauce of the curry was creamy (without it been too much), it had a bit of kick from the chilli (without the chilli overpowering it too much) and it has the right dose of coconutty-ness through it. We ate the curry with the rice and the girl gave me a bit too much - more than what I have at home.. but I'm glad she did because the curry sauce was so good I wanted to just devour every last drop of it.

Although, having really tried only 2 of their mains this time around, I can safely say (combined with my previous experience) that King and I Thai Cuisine is one of the better Thai restaurants in Perth. You can understand why it won so many Gold Plate awards. It's worth the track to Guildford to check it out.

The Apple Daily Bar and Eating House

I haven't had a chance to catch up with many of my friends since I've come back fromholidays so last night, I arranged an intimate dining and drinks with a few of my bestest girlies. We decided to try new, exciting and somewhere we can dress up to and have a good laugh with good drinks and good eats. We ended up at the Apple Daily. It doesn't take bookings so we had an early dinner at 6:30pm (worth going early because it gets packed pretty quickly!).

The Apple Daily is located on the second floor of the Print Hall building on St. George's Tce in the city. Having explored the Print Hall on numerous occasions, I've been looking for an excuse to eat at the Apple Daily. It's decked out in "hawkers" styling of Shanghai and the grand ole days of Chinese eateries, with wooden styled booths and bar stands and seats, except instead of being all wooden they provide you with comfy leather seats and fancy bar stools. Authentic enough I guess.

To start of the night we tried their fancy sounding cocktails - our three choices were amazingly yummy. Loved it. Definitely a place to try their entire list as well as their hidden cocktail menu (as "secretly" told by our waiter - who was very pleasant, accommodating, friendly and chatty).

 

The menu at the Apple Daily is very much catered to share - almost tapas styles, except that the size of the dishes is bigger, allowing people to have more than just a bite of the dish. We had a lot of trouble choosing because a lot of the dishes sounded very appetizing or at least interesting because we had no clue as to what it contained. 

So...

After much deliberation and "hmmm.. umm... ahh.. oo.." we had the following dishes to share.

SL and I had freshly shuckled oysters (one of Print Hall's pride and joy) - oysters from Coffs Harbour may I add. It was accommpanied by a wedge of lime, lemon, a pot of vinegar and a pot of sweet chilli sauce. I placed a squirt of lime, a slight drizzle of vinegar and a fair amount of sweet chilli to my oyster and washed it down a little too quickly. It was delicious, it was fresh and I wanted more, but at $4/oyster, I had to be satisfied with one.

The oysters were followed by the Som Tum, which was a papaya salad - one of my favourites, especially when my grandma makes it! It's refreshing, zesty and with a dash of chilli sauce, it just one of the best summer salads around. However, the Som Tum at The Apple Daily gave us a shock. It was zesty and it was refreshing, until you get this massive HIT OF CHILLI. It was HOT. All three of us were coughing. Needless to say we did not finish it. It would have been so good, if only the chef could have controlled just a teensy bit of the chilli.

Our Som Tum chilli scare was made bit when the BBQ Beef salad came out. Although it had cut fresh chilli through it, it wasn't as hot and the beef was tender, juicy and the whole dish was refreshingly good. A nod to the thai cuisine.

An asian style night isn't complete without having fried rice - The Apple Daily fried rice had smoked trout through it and the rice grain they used was one with a bite, which I like (I don't really like really soft sticky rice, unless you are having sticky rice!). It had a smokey taste and smell through it, simple and yet delicious.

Then there was the soft shell crab. The crab was fairly meaty and we got 4 decent sized crabs on the plate and drizzled with the sweet, sour chilli sauce it was an enjoyable dish. Crispy, juicy and delicious crabs.

 

The last dish of the night was the grilled chicken with satay sauce. The chicken wasn't dry it was juicy but luckily there was the satay sauce otherwise I felt as though the chicken would be a little flavourless. Definitely needed more marinating time. But there was a fair portion of chicken on the plate.

Overall, the Apple Daily Bar and Eating House is an awesome place for a nice casual night out with a great drinks list and a menu that gives a nod to South East Asia, in particular flavours of Thai (from the dishes we had anyway) - lots of sour, zesty chilli flavours. They do have a disclaimer that there are lots of nuts in their dishes so those with allergies need to inform the waitstaff, but they should also have little chilli symbols to also indicate how hot and spicy their dishes are as well! Because I can assure you that, although I'm a lover of spice, a few of my friends would have struggled to find any dishes they could have eaten at the Apple Daily.

As for the service at the Apple Daily, our waiter, Pal(? spelling?) was funny, accommodating, friendly and was always concerned about what we thought of the food and if we were enjoying ourselves. This is a stark contrast to the Assistant Manager (whom I believe is called Annie/Anne) who was rude, took away our drinks menu that we were still looking at (didn't even ask if we still needed it..) but rather just snatched it off the side of SM's plate and she kept walking. Then she came and ask us if we were ready to order dessert straight after she dumped far too many desserts menu into my hand - and SL wasn't even at the table yet so how could we have been ready? To top it off when we paid the bill there was no politeness of "how was your meal?" but more running to another waitstaff and telling her what to do? All I can say is that they need to get another assistant manager, because really how can you get an assistant manager with no idea of service? If they can't provide and uphold service at a place how can the manager expect their staff to? Pity really because our waiter was awesome and that lady, assistant manager needs to learn a thing or to from her staff!

- So a part from that HUGE hiccup - I enjoyed the Apple Daily with its interesting menu, chilled vibe and amazing cocktails. I'll be back for more tastings of the food and drinks and will be perfectly content as long I never ever have to deal with that Anne/Annie assistant manager lady - so damn rude!

S & T Thai gourmet cafe Northbridge

Situated on William street in between Newcastle and Brisbane street and next door to Viet Hoa, sits this tiny, blink and you will miss, Thai restaurant.

It does nothing to bring attention to itself and doesn't need to, because it's all by word of mouth, which really is the best form of advertising.

It's deco is plain and simple with paneled photos of food against white painted walls. The restaurant doesn't have that many sets available, maybe around 30, but it does fill up quick, so on Friday and weekends it's best to book.

The prices were very reasonable and looking around the restaurant before we ordered, the portions were generous.

We ordered three dishes between the two of us with a small bowl to share, along with Thai iced coffee. The small bowl was a massive bowl and the food and drinks came out so quickly! Efficiency yay!

The Thai iced coffee was similar with that of Hawkers, but with double the sweetness. I wasn't a huge fan, mainly because I can't stand too sweet-a-thing, but CL seemed to have loved hers.

 

The choice of meals we ended up ordering was the Soft boned pork Tom Saab, which reminded us of our parents cooking, albeit with a twist. The dish had a hint of sourness and if you taste the soup it was salty sour goodness (whereas mum dish it is plain and refreshing). The pork wasn't fatty and it was cooked to tender precision that it fell of the cartilage, which really could have been eaten too, but I've never been a huge fan of eating bones. CL devoured hers, cartilage and all. Overall, it was a good choice as all our other orders were spicy.

Our second main was the Spicy Thai Beef salad. The beef was lean and was a little hard, because of either the cut of beef they used or more than likely slightly overcooked. Nonetheless, the beef was aplenty on the dish and in big cuts, just the way I like it! The flavours were amazing! The hotness of the chilli carefully balanced with the sourness of lemon and lime! Absolutely refreshing salad. Although putting a couple more slices of tomatoes would be nice.

 

The last and final dish was the prawn Pad Thai. Boy was this dish a punch of spice. It had all my favorite Asian touches, with dried shrimp, balachon mix and a hint of sambal with chilli flakes and paste. Then there was of course the hint of lemon flavour. The only disappointing factor was that the dish had only 5 prawns, granted they were king sized prawns, but I wish they gave us more!

The other thing about this place is it's innovative. They have a button on the table that says the most asked for things; service, water and bill. So unlike other small sized causal dining places it strives to provide service with it's small parade of waitstaff. I didn't personally tried it out because there always seems to be someone around to lend a hand.

Overall a Thai delight! Cheap but flavorsome authentic dishes, with a fast efficient friendly service with a smile to boot! Just the way I like it!

Lanna Thai Cuisine

Monday nights aren't exactly the best time to eat out, mainly because half of Perth's restaurants are closed. However, the good thing is that, the ones that are open shouldn't be too busy or loud. AL, Liv and I decided to head to Subiaco picking up Liv at her work. We ventured into Subicao Hotel (only to find that it was full and had a 30 minutes waiting list... and this was a Monday night..), then AL wanted Thai food, in particular, the Thai Apple salad, hence we ended up at Lanna Thai (which made awesome Thai Apple Salad, and bonus that it was on the Entertainment Card - 25% off value of $25).

Lanna Thai Cuisine is located on Hay street, in a little square filled with restaurants - Indian, Noodle Bar, newly established Hippos Creek. The interior of the place is decked out in traditional Thailand momuments and colours of gold and black, like most Thai restaurants. The waiters are friendly and accommodating, and even for a Monday there was a large group having dinner and several couples, as well as numerous take-away orders, but of course it wasn't too busy.

I must say I was quite impressed by Lanna Thai, it was fast service (maybe because it wasn't too busy?), the price was alright, and the food was delicious and rather authentic, and for a change I don't feel as though mum could have made it ( I usually have that impression about eating curry foods like Indian and Thai, I always feel as though mum could have made it and that I was getting ripped off, except this time).

We ordered brown rice - which was fantastic, it had a texture to it, had a bite to it, kind of "chewy"?, it was just this different texture of rice which I've never had before and I loved it, and it's supposedly a lot healthy than your normal "white" rice.

Brown Rice and Beef Panag Curry

 

Our brown rice went very nicely with our Beef Panang Curry - which has the right amount of coconut and peanut flavours. I love it.

Chicken Pad Kiew Wan

 

We also got a stir-fry dish called Pad Kiew Wan (Chicken) - which had a slight hint of spicy-ness due to the cut up fresh chilli in the dish with green beans, bamboo shoots and mushrooms.

Yum Apple

and of course the Yum Apple - Apple salad with prawns with chilli through it. It was the perfect mixture of sweet, sour and a kick of spice. Sorry the photos are a little dodgey, taken by my phone camera - I really need to invest in a good phone with a good camera - seeing as I seem to forget to take my camera to places these days.

Overall, I think the food is delicious, I don't usually rate curry dishes very highly, but this place is rather authentic thai cuisine, the service is resonably good (although I don't know how they would fare on a busier night), the price is also resonable, in fact it's more than resonable, with the Entertainment Card it was considered cheap - considering that we paid about $18 each for our meal (this was including two freshly cut chillis with soy sauce, which were additional sauce orders), and although the servings don't look like it's a lot, it acually is a fair bit, even for three big eaters. In fact we were stuffed and satisfied.

I would be taking my usual restauranters out to try this place so they can compare to Thai Orchid located in Mt Lawley (which isn't bad, but I HATE the service there). Personally I rate this place higher than Thai Orchid in South Perth and Mt Lawley.