Authentic Thai Taste is renowned for being one of the best Thai restaurants in Melbourne – the full house of Thai people on a weeknight is evidence of that. So where did we go wrong?
We’ve had two attempts at weekday takeway from Authentic Thai Taste now and neither of the experiences have really encouraged me to recommend it.
The first time: RM ordered chicken satays (4 sticks for $6.60), Cashew Pag ($9.90) and Panang Duck Curry ($15.90) and requested the dishes to be hot. Given our previous experience with ‘Thai hot’ at Mamanee Thai, we even readied ourselves with glasses of milk to temper the chilli burn.
Then…nothing. And it’s not because we’re chilli-mongers – honestly, not even a hint of heat in any of the dishes. Evidently ‘hot’ when requested by a Westerner still means ‘just spicy enough to be served to a Thai toddler’. RM even suspected that they had written up the bill with some sort of secret code telling the kitchen that he was a ‘gweilo’.
Other than the disappointing lack of heat, the dishes were only a little above average Thai – the curries were ok but the chicken satays were extremely stringy and overcooked.
The second time: We ordered a seafood pad thai ($11.90) and a red curry with chicken ($11.90), both requested at ‘Thai hot’. We were slightly concerned when we were told that the red curry had been pre-made, so they would just chuck some fresh chilli in it and that they would just add a heap of chilli flakes to the pad thai as well. I’m not sure whether that’s usual practice but talk of ‘pre-made’ didn’t give us any confidence in the quality of the food we’d be receiving. Anyway, the red curry was pretty good, but the pad thai was disappointing – the chilli flakes and the unevenly wok-fried rice noodles gave the dish an unpleasant charred flavour. Neither of the dishes had the wow factor of the pad thai or penang beef curry from Mamanee Thai.
We’re determined to find out why Authentic Thai Taste continues to get rave reviews, so we’re going to give it one last chance by dining in and hoping that there are different dishes on the menu. The Thai people of Melbourne can’t all be wrong…
- Authentic Thai Taste, 92-94 Johnston St, Collingwood +61 3 9495 6694
I have four words for you…
get the pork hock.
That is all.
Billy´s last blog ..Cheese kransky at Birdman Eating
Twitter: cloudcontrol
| November 26, 2009, 3:40 pm
Hi Billy
I tried to look for the pork hock, but no luck. That’s why I suspect they have a significantly different takeaway/dining out menu and that’s why we’ve been disappointed so far. Third time lucky!
Jetsetting Joyce
Shouldn’t “gweilo” be “farang” in this context?
Hi James
Hahah yes you’re right. So many different, slightly disparaging, ways to name-call Anglo-Saxons! RM takes it all in good humour, luckily.
Jetsetting Joyce
Sadly until the last few years “farang” didn’t have a negative overtone. But Western tourists in Thailand – a place I’ve visited numerous times over the last 15 years – have guaranteed the term is not one of endearment now.
So we finally did go back — it was good but not great. They do indeed have a very different dine-in menu. Actually, they have two dine-in menus — a more authentic Thai one and one for more Western-friendly Thai. The take-away menu veers heavily towards the latter, with quite a few dishes that don’t feature on either menu. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to sample much from the “real” menu because there wasn’t really anything vegetarian on it.
I had a good vego tom yum. Came with lots of mushrooms, and was strong and quite hot, with several whole chilli pods in it.
I also had a sweet basil and chilli tofu stir fry, which, despite claims it was “hot”, was very very mild. It was fine, but just your standard suburban Thai stir-fry. I do like that they use a good quality firm tofu, instead of the deep-fried crap most other places use.
James (above) also had the chicken skewers, which he pronounced good but nothing amazing (I sampled the satay sauce, for which I would give a similar assessment) and a BBQ chicken dish, which he said was delicious.
Given the large number of Thai diners in there, I’d guess the more authentic menu is, indeed, more authentic. The more westernised stuff, is, as you say, a little above average Thai.
So my heart still belongs to MaMaNee (who will happily do vegetarian versions of more authentic Thai dishes). BUT we were happy to discover Authentic Thai Taste delivers, and it will now replace Clifton Hill’s Regent Thai as our home delivery of choice, as it’s better AND cheaper AND closer.
Ruth´s last blog ..Family Portraits of all 56 ethnic groups in China
Twitter: rbbrown
| December 12, 2009, 9:40 pm
Hi Ruth
Thanks for your comments. Now I know there are several pitfalls with Authentic Thai Taste’s menu choices – avoid takeaway, avoid Western-friendly menu. Is the ‘real’ menu in English? Frankly, it all seems a bit too hard given that Mamanee is closer to our house and we don’t have to do a dance around the menu to make sure we get authentic Thai food. I’ll take note of the tom yum and BBQ chicken dish if we do decide to give Authentic Thai Taste a third try.
Jetsetting Joyce
It’s in both English and Thai. There is actually a THIRD menu with their recommended dishes and photos of them. Sounds complicated, but it’s actually fairly easy once you’re there and the service was excellent.
In fairness, MaMaNee also has several menus — the front part of the menu is more Western-friendly, then the second bit is more Southern Thai specific, then their take away menu is also different and much more Western than the eat-in one, AND they have a separate lunch menu. I’d say it’s worth giving it a shot if you can be bothered.
Ruth´s last blog ..Family Portraits of all 56 ethnic groups in China
Twitter: rbbrown
| December 14, 2009, 11:54 am