Monday, September 6, 2010

PhuThai Esarn, Wellington

You might have seen me running a rather off-beat competition a week or so ago - for the chance to dine with Mr Cake and I. I had won a $100 voucher from Positively Wellington Tourism/Wellington on a Plate and we needed company. The lovely Joanna from Wellingtonista won and so last night she and her friend Kim dined with us. It was a very gusty evening - we were almost blown along the road - and the restaurant door was locked when we arrived to keep the wind out. However, we were quickly admitted and we were pleased not to have the door gusting open through our meal!



We ordered some appetisers to start; chicken satay; Thai fish cakes; and fresh spring rolls. The satay chicken was nicely cooked - four portions of sufficiently moist chicken on kebab sticks, and a dipping bowl of sauce. The sauce was nice but I can't really describe it other than it was satay! Definitely a winner, though. The fish cakes were appealingly knobbly and piping hot, with a good, substantial and nicely seasoned filling. And the spring rolls were fresh, with nicely balanced fillings, plenty of crunchy veges and balanced the fried fish cakes nicely.



The mains were all looked and smelt delicious. Joanna's Kang Phet Ped Yang - roasted duck in red curry - was apparently very rich and smelt divine. The pieces of duck were generous - always nice to discover such big chunks in a curry. Kim had (I think - correct me if I'm wrong, Kim!) Larb Ped - minced duck with fresh herbs, lime leaves and lime juice. It was perhaps the least appealing looking of the meals but was still enjoyed for it's flavour. Mr Cake's Basil Chicken was a mound of deliciously seasoned veges and chicken. He also enjoyed a roti - not so much with his meal as separately but it came with satay sauce anyway (and he would happily have eaten it on its own!).


I ordered the Lamb Ka-ta Ron, a hot plate dish. The dish was delicious, warming and slightly spicy, with a generous amount of black pepper throughout - so good that I brought what I couldn't eat home and had it for lunch today. However, the one drawback of the meal was that my dish took quite a while to arrive after everyone else's - so much so that even after I had taken photos, and everyone had politely waited for a while for my dinner to get to me, and then eventually started on my bidding, they were still a good way through their dinners before mine landed on the table. I attribute the extremely sloppy photo to my hunger, intensified by smelling the delicious food all around me! However, the meal was good enough to wait for (though I'd prefer not having to!) and we will definitely go back to PhuThai Esarn, as its just around the corner from us - and in the Entertainment Book!

Thanks to Joanna and Kim for putting up with my photo taking - and thanks for the great company. We hope you enjoyed your meal as much as we did!




PhuThai Esarn is located at 35-38 Cambridge Terrace, Wellington, ph 04 801 5006, www.phuthaiesarn.co.nz

6 comments:

  1. Dinner was delicious and the company was fab. It was a shame about the delay in your meal - food seemed to come out of the kitchen a bit haphazardly, judging by its arrival at other tables as well, and I wish they didn't feel the need to cram in quite so many tables, but the food was really tasty and the service was great so I will definitely be going back. And definitely asking youse out on another dinner date sometime soon!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yay, dinner dates! Woop woop! They could definitely have pared back the furniture, would have made their lives much easier I'd have thought - and I doubt they could keep up with a full house with that many chairs! But yummy and worth adding to the approved list all the same...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dinner for 4 for $100? Impressive! Did you drink anything?

    Sounds like they either a) forgot your meal, and only realised when they got everything to the table and realised you didn't have anything or b) expected you all to share, so it wouldn't matter if one dish was a bit late.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Well, it was $120, including a ginger beer and corkage on a BYO bottle. But still, pretty sweet we thought. :-) Sharing would have fixed the issue but the gap was still pretty significant, more than I'd expect even so. Funny, I didn't even think of sharing at the time.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Lucky Joanna and Kim!

    Looks and sounds like a delicious dinner Rosa, yay :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. It was yummy, definitely lives on the restaurants-I-frequent list now. :-)

    ReplyDelete

Theme Design by Quentin de Manson Web Design