Flavours of India, Woden Plaza 27 July 2016

Entrees:

1st   :   Prawns with the chilli pesto sauce.  Liked the mild pesto
sauce with the hotness and firm texture of the prawns.
2nd  :   Chat.   Nice and crunchy.
3rd   :   Golgappa (?). The glass vials of cumin, tamarind and mint
sauce added to the novelty and entertainment value of this dish.
Together with the 'all in the mouth' experience


Mains

1st   Lamb in coconut.  I like the sauce and the meatiness.
2nd  Butter chicken.      Good standard,
3rd   Can't remember name.  Bland but OK.

The mains were all very acceptable.  But no dish achieved the
exceptional rating.


Dessert

You missed out of the highlight dish of the evening.

Chilli panna cotta with spring rolls having sweet carrot (definite
orange sweetness as well ?)  filling.    Brilliant and innovative.









Karen's comments:

This restaurant serves great Indian food but is often very quiet so it was nice to see it quite crowded and noisy when we arrived.  The recently updated menu might explain the renewed interest -  Less extensive than before but with some really innovative Indian dishes which we were keen to try.

The chaat is a favourite staple for us but this version had an interesting twist - using sweet potato which combined well with the tamarind chutney dressing. The dish still had a nice crunch (presumably from the wheat crisps - whatever these are).

The third dish was the shahi kofta (which Andrew couldn't remember). It was described as having dry fruits, cheese and potatoes in a cashew nut and almond sauce which sounded really nice but as Andrew noted below was actually a bit bland.

Garran Kitchen 10-8-16

 

  Date:             10  August 2016
Location:                    Garran shops
Attendees:               Ron, Jim, Karen, John, Andrew 

Cuisine style:           Asian Malaysian
Entrée:
Karen selected the short soup for everyone.  A good choice indeed.

  Comments:
  A workmanlike offering      - Andrew
  Ideal for a Winter night       - Jim or John (?).  Very true
  Unpretentious start              - John


 Mains:  Four selected :-

    1 . Char Kway Teow.                               

  Comments:- One of the best tasted         - Karen
  Very hot chilli kick
  Very nice / great                    - Jim
 2.Rock Salt Eggplant.
  Eggplant battered then deep fried. Contains chicken mince.  
  Comments:
  A hit
  Delicious
  Winner
  Similar in style to Victorian potato scallops - Andrew
3. Shantung Chicken.            Comments
 Very nice
  Very good
 4. Mango Prawns
   Battered Prawns in mango creamy sauce with cucumber. Strong presence of French Mustard   (  Karen).  A fusion dish (Andrew).  
  Comments :-
  Similar to  honey prawns but with the sickly sweetness sometimes found with honey prawns toned     down - Ron
  Beautiful big prawns             - Jim
  One person commented that the dish too creamy for their taste.
  French mustard inclusion made the dish delicious and very interesting         - Andrew

 Desserts
Standard fare.  Banana fritters, fried ice cream, etc.
Servings were generous and the cost inexpensive.

Wine
 Jim supplied a superb red for this dinner.  Ron has label photo with details.

Summary

The printed menu just looks like a standard unexciting suburban Asian restaurant.  But the mains were very good and interesting (Andrew).   There were nice surprises at this restaurant (Karen).
Serving sizes for the mains were very generous.
The cost of the dinner very reasonable.

Garran Kitchen Wednesday 10 August 2016

Date:             10  August 2016
Location:                    Garran shops
Attendees:               Ron, Jim, Karen, John, Andrew 

Cuisine style:           Asian Malaysian

Entrée:

Karen selected the short soup for everyone.  A good choice indeed.

Comments:
A workmanlike offering      - Andrew
Ideal for a Winter night       - Jim or John (?).  Very true
Unpretentious start              - John


Mains:  Four selected :-

1. Char Kway Teow.                                Comments:-

 One of the best tasted         - Karen
Very hot chilli kick
Very nice / great                    - Jim

2.Rock Salt Eggplant.
Eggplant battered then deep fried. Contains chicken mince.  
Comments:
A hit
Delicious
Winner
Similar in style to Victorian potato scallops - Andrew



3. Shantung Chicken.            Comments

Very nice
Very good






4. Mango Prawns
Battered Prawns in mango creamy sauce with cucumber. Strong presence of French Mustard (Karen).  A fusion dish (Andrew). 

Comments :-
Similar to  honey prawns but with the sickly sweetness sometimes found with honey prawns toned down - Ron
Beautiful big prawns             - Jim
One person commented that the dish too creamy for their taste.
French mustard inclusion made the dish delicious and very interesting         - Andrew

 
Desserts

Standard fare.  Banana fritters, fried ice cream, etc.
Servings were generous and the cost inexpensive.

Wine

Jim supplied a superb red for this dinner.  Ron has label photo with details.

Summary

The printed menu just looks like a standard unexciting suburban Asian restaurant.  But the mains were very good and interesting (Andrew).

  There were nice surprises at this restaurant (Karen).

Serving sizes for the mains were very generous.

The cost of the dinner very reasonable.

Chairman and Yip 13 July 2016

Five Rivers, Swinger Hill Shops 29 June 2016

Diners:
John, Megan, Karen, Andrew and Kim
Entrees:
Delhi Chat Papdi (crispy potato, onion, chutney) – Delicious. The accompanying mint yoghurt sauce was also nice.
Vegetable Pakoras – ok.  Also served with the same mint yoghurt sauce. 

Mains:

Aloo Baingan Masala (eggplant and potatoes cooked in cumin, tomato gravy flavoured with fresh herbs) – delicious.
Murg Tikka (Tandoor oven boneless chicken marinated in yoghurt and spices.  Served with mint and yoghurt sauce and chutney) – tasty. 
Shahi Panir (combination of spinach and golden fried homemade cottage cheese finished with fresh herbs) - delicious.
Gosht Saagwala (lean lamb cooked with fresh spinach, herbs and spices) – tasty.

Dessert:

No room for dessert.

Accompaniments:

Rice (generous serve), pappadams (crispy and not oily) and naan (just OK – while they weren't oily they were a bit chewy).

Additional comments:

We ordered 3 serves of each entrée.  The waiter recommended that we order 3 serves of each (we must have looked hungry). We could have managed with 2 serves. It was OK though because we got to take home left overs. 

The servings of the mains were also generous (we got to take home left overs of these too). 

Reasonably priced.

There weren't many people in the restaurant, which meant it was not noisy at all and very pleasant.

Urban Thai 15 June Kambah Shops

 

 

 

Diners:

Jim, Ron, John, Megan, Karen, Lara and Kim

Entrees:

Zucchini Beef Rolls (BBQ beef wrapped in slices of zucchini with a Thai spicy sauce) – Fresh flavours.  The beef was very tender.  A couple of us thought that the beef had more of that beautiful charred BBQ flavour on our last visit on 1 June 2016.  The sauce was still delicious. 

Thai Bites (Betel leaves filled with lime, ginger, deep fried shallots, peanuts, coconut, prawns and chilli topped with a palm sugar sauce) – still good.  Lovely combination of fresh flavours especially the fresh lime and chilli.  Most of us removed the fresh green chilli in the parcel because the sauce provided sufficient spiciness for our palates!

Mains:

Jim's Sweet Pork Belly (with onion jam and spices) – tasty and tender.  A couple of us thought that this dish was much better than the version that we had at our last visit on 1 June 2016.  There seemed to be more meaty portions this time.

Phad Thai with Prawns – tasty but not as nice as our last visit on 1 June.  This time the dish seemed to have less of a charred flavour and it was a bit sweeter. 
Sweet Chilli Fish – battered fish (not oily) with sweet Thai chilli sauce on the side. Tasty dish.
Red Duck Curry with lychees, pineapples, tomato and sweet basil – delicious.
Thai BBQ chicken – delicious charred BBQ flavour.  It was our favourite dish of the night.
Massaman Beef Curry – tasty.
Coconut rice and steamed rice – The last time we visited on 1 June we had 2 small rice bowls of rice. This time we must have quadrupled the amount of rice but pretty much finished it all! 

Dessert:

Roti Fried Banana – unusual dish but well done. The roti had the right texture and the banana was not over cooked.

Black sticky rice with Thai Custard – generous serve with lots of the rich Thai coconut custard on the top