Sunday, 17 June 2007

Gin Khao Thai Food

We had Thai food again today for lunch. When Turtle suggested Thai food, I initially wanted something else, but decided what the heck. I don't know about San and my sis, but for me I just want like GOOD Thai Basil Chicken. The five of us (plus Sis' visiting best friend HW) went to a Thai restaurant on Swanston St., a relatively new place called Gin Khao Thai Food. Not the first time we've been there, we like the place a lot, hence going back for the...fourth time I think, this year.

Me, San and Sis are both big fans of their Pad Thai, so HW decided to order that, and Sis, too - Pad Thai with Chicken ($11.90).

Wooo at the extremely long spring onion! (no one ate that)

Sis as I had mentioned loves it, so thumbs up from her. HW seemed to like it as well. My own personal opinion on it (as I have had it before) that it's really one of the better pad thai I have tasted. The noodles used especially are special and so suitable. There's lots of chicken and chunky bits of peanuts, along with dried prawns (xia mi) to round off everything. The spices and spiciness all adds up in the dish. It's really great.

I wanted Thai Basil Chicken but there's something called Chiang Mai Noodles ($10.50) on the June Specials and it looked really tasty so I couldn't resist!

Even the picture looks good enough to eat. Either that or I am just overly greedy.

It was great! The coconut-based soup was tasty and fragrant without being overly coconut-y or overly spiced with chilli, the amount of chilli was just right for a cold winter's day. The chicken pieces were plentiful and generous and went really well with the curry soup. The noodles were the best part - soaked thoroughly with the curry at the bottom and crispy at the top. The contrasting textures when I bit into a mouthful of noodles, chicken and soup was wow. What a great combination! I really hope they'll make it a permanant item on the menu, I will definitely go back for that.

San had the Chicken with Cashew Nuts ($10.90).

San's chicken with nuts.

Artistic San's artistic chicken with artistic nuts.

She was really satisfied with it. The sauce was good - although some people might find it salty by itself, hence it had to go with rice, and went really well indeed. She found the chicken tasty with the sauce, and the vegetables were fresh and really crunchy, adding the bite to the dish. She loved it, and would go back for that as well.

Turtle had the Red Duck Curry ($14.90).

Even the rice is shaped like the curry bowl.

He enjoyed his meal as well - loving the tender duck meat that was cooked just right to his tastebuds. Vegetables were a good compliment and the curry sauce, according to him, was yummy and hot. He even found a lychee in the curry and was really amused by that. I had a taste of that and it was definitely more successful than Lemon Bistro's version - by far.

Turtle didn't have enough cos he was greedy so we ordered dessert to share. First, we had the Banana and Sticky Rice ($4.90).

The banana is in the rice and I just feel the need to say that.

That's a favourite of San's - she really liked that one. Turtle found it so-so though, and thought the banana in the rice rather resembled salmon (he's weird, yes). I liked it myself - the spiced banana was a good compliment with the sticky rice.

All of us liked the other dessert, Coconut Dessert ($4.90).

So small and cute and so not enough for five!

It's a really really small portion - but so so so yummy! It was wonderfully fragrant and the coconut pudding texture on the top went really well with the bottom layer of...I think it was something similar to sticky rice but I couldn't be sure. Let's just say it went really well together and Turtle would've polished off the whole thing in 2 seconds if the little blue plate didn't burn him (go plate go!!).

Overall - a wonderful food experience. None of us were disappointed with the food - everything was tasty and yummy and just right. The dining environment wasn't bad either, it was a nicely furnished cafe-like place. It's good for a quick lunch AND a long lunch if you plan to stay there and chat. :D

(And no, this still isn't the favourite Thai place of ours that I mentioned in the Lemon Bistro post. That is yet to come, but we do like Gin Khao a lot!)

- Mouse

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Gin Khao Thai Food
242 Swanston Street
Melbourne 3000
Phone: (03) 9663 3345

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

nice pictures! the food there are quite good =)