AmyHuang
Jason KingOceanic Thai
June 26th 2006 08:35
Oceanic Thai really is a mixed bag; I'm not too sure what to say. On paper it looks so promising - Max Mullins, former head chef of Sailors Thai (of David Thompson fame) opening a small Thai place in Clovelly. In my head I'm imagining a local Thai takeaway place done with care and quality, instead of out of the bottle like so many corner Thai places.
So we rock up and find instead it's a pretty swank formal restaurant, with prices ranging from $17-$25. Right...
Which is normally fine with me, if it's inventive, quality food; but not if it's what I can get at any other (decent) Thai place.
So we give it a try. The owners and chefs are all very nice, and more then happy for us to look over the bar into the kitchen, and watch what's going on. Impressed with the giant wok-burners (which looks like a tandoori oven with a wok over it), we take home our food.
And it's not bad. But it's not fantastic either. It's no Spice I Am. I would pay $10-$15 for it, but probably not $17-$25. That said, it shows promise, I appreciate the home made curry pastes and hand made coconut milk, we did only try the take away menu (there's a different one for eating in) and maybe it doesn't travel well. So I'm willing to give it another go, another time.
Chicken curry with sweet potato and cucumber relish grows on you. At first bite it seems slightly boring, but the quality of the curry paste and coconut milk makes it flavourful, and after a couple more goes I'm fighting the others for it.
On the other hand, duck soup is seriously lacking in salt. It has a good base of flavours, which when you take a mouthful shows instantly, but there's nothing to back it up after the first half second. The flavours are to delicate, and there's definitely not enough salt. (The best duck soup is at Ploy Thai, by the way).
Stir fried vegetables are pretty good, flash fried with palm sugar, fish sauce, pepper, garlic, but it's a bit steep at $18. Still, flavours are all there.
And the beef salad with hot and sour dressing is once again quality, but nothing outstanding flavour wise. Solid, but not a revelation. The beef fillet is perfectly cooked rare (as it should for a salad) and top notch, but the roasted rice that was promised turns out to be more of a white powder. It too is very small, much of the box taken up by huge chunks of iceberg lettuce, which are either a space-filler-garnish or an unnessary part of the salad. Having said that, the lemongrass lime corriander salad and dressing is very good.
So on one hand, Oceanic Thai shows lots of promise, and for $5-$10 less per dish it would be a fantastic hit. But at that price I expect something more, and it isn't delivering. Further, at that price, no dish should be off the mark, yet some were heading in that direction. But maybe the in restaurant menu is better. Maybe they need some time to settle in. I'm happy to reserve judgement and I'll meet you back here in the future to try again.
Pictures coming soon.
So we rock up and find instead it's a pretty swank formal restaurant, with prices ranging from $17-$25. Right...
Which is normally fine with me, if it's inventive, quality food; but not if it's what I can get at any other (decent) Thai place.
And it's not bad. But it's not fantastic either. It's no Spice I Am. I would pay $10-$15 for it, but probably not $17-$25. That said, it shows promise, I appreciate the home made curry pastes and hand made coconut milk, we did only try the take away menu (there's a different one for eating in) and maybe it doesn't travel well. So I'm willing to give it another go, another time.
Chicken curry with sweet potato and cucumber relish grows on you. At first bite it seems slightly boring, but the quality of the curry paste and coconut milk makes it flavourful, and after a couple more goes I'm fighting the others for it.
On the other hand, duck soup is seriously lacking in salt. It has a good base of flavours, which when you take a mouthful shows instantly, but there's nothing to back it up after the first half second. The flavours are to delicate, and there's definitely not enough salt. (The best duck soup is at Ploy Thai, by the way).
Stir fried vegetables are pretty good, flash fried with palm sugar, fish sauce, pepper, garlic, but it's a bit steep at $18. Still, flavours are all there.
And the beef salad with hot and sour dressing is once again quality, but nothing outstanding flavour wise. Solid, but not a revelation. The beef fillet is perfectly cooked rare (as it should for a salad) and top notch, but the roasted rice that was promised turns out to be more of a white powder. It too is very small, much of the box taken up by huge chunks of iceberg lettuce, which are either a space-filler-garnish or an unnessary part of the salad. Having said that, the lemongrass lime corriander salad and dressing is very good.
So on one hand, Oceanic Thai shows lots of promise, and for $5-$10 less per dish it would be a fantastic hit. But at that price I expect something more, and it isn't delivering. Further, at that price, no dish should be off the mark, yet some were heading in that direction. But maybe the in restaurant menu is better. Maybe they need some time to settle in. I'm happy to reserve judgement and I'll meet you back here in the future to try again.
Pictures coming soon.
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Comment by Sisi
I've never been to Thai outside of Newtown but I wanna try this place
Loving your blog
Comment by Cibbuano
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this place sounds a bit bland...
Comment by edward
Rocky's Running Diary
Cheers Sisi, yeah there are some good oens in the city too!
And I'm glad you like it Cibby, it really is good. But it only really does stir fries and noodles. But you're right, this place can try harder.