Our last visit to Patsara wasn’t the best. The food did not live up to the high expectations we have come to expect here. So it was with a little trepidation we decided on dinner here tonight.

Have you ever wondered why every Thai food restaurant you’ve been in seems to have the same food? If you don’t know anything about the government in Thailand’s “gastrodiplomacy” program that financed thousands of Thai restaurants around the world it really is an interesting read.

As I often like to do, my goal tonight is to try at least one dish we haven’t had before. Tonight we are trying two new ones.

First up, Tod Mun Pla, or fish cakes.

When we ordered this we had something akin to crab cakes on our brain. Ya we weren’t even close.

The flavour was good. But the texture was another story. Spongy. Rubbery even. The texture, to be honest, was a bit unsettling. Add the peanut chili sauce and then we have something more pleasant. The crunchy peanuts helped hide the squishinous, but did not completely mask it. Perhaps Thai fish cakes are an acquired taste? One which tonight we did not acquire.

My usual, my benchmark for Thai restaurants, Crispy shrimp wontons.

Really good as usual. But you have to eat them hot. Served with a sweet chili sauce, these are deep fried, crunchy goodness.

The Pandanus chicken also looks really good.

Chicken cooked in pandus leaves, with garlic, cilantro, soy sauce, coconut milk and ginger.

Moist Chicken thighs with all those amazing southeast Asian flavours were enhanced by the smokey pandus leaves.

I haven’t been to Thailand, but Pandanus Chicken gives me an idea of what eating there might really be like.

Ok, so I doubt very much we will ever order Thai fish cakes again. Otherwise a very nice meal.

8/10

The post Patsara Thai appeared first on Gregs Food Blog.

Round two at Patsara Thai tonight.

Let’s see if it’s as good as last time.

As usual, crispy shrimp wontons. I try these at every Thai restaurant ti go to as a bassline metric.

Yes, just as good as the last time. Crispy, flavourful and lots of shrimp.

I normally lean towards a regular curry. Red, green yellow, doesn’t matter.We went with Khao Soi Gai tonight though.

This is a traditional Northern Thailand dish with egg noodles in a yellow curry sauce with shallots, green onions, pickled vegetables and a choice of meat. In our case, chicken

While the flavour was very nice, it’s a yellow curry after all, I found the vegetables lacking and the noodles excessive. A larger portion of the very delicious chicken would go a long way too.

Ultimately for me the balance of the dish was off. Not in flavour, but in portion of ingredients.

Reports from the others regarding the spring rolls; excellent, the fried rice; good and the yellow curry with chicken; excellent.

The iced Thai coffee was really nice as well. A little sweeter than I’d like but the strength of the coffee offset that. I’ll order that again.

Maybe not the Khao Soi Gai though.

The service was very good, zero complaints.

Sor our second time I here I would say mixed results. Bu the quality overall is such that this will be my go to for Thai food going forward. I will probably stick with my usual yellow curry though and not experiment any more with unfamiliar dishes.

Overall, 8/10

The post Patsara Thai appeared first on Gregs Food Blog.

Honestly I’m not even sure how I ever found the place. I happen to be walking by on my way to the chocolate shop and found this place completely by accident.

It really doesn’t look like much from the outside does it?

But inside you will find it a comfortable and warm atmosphere that’s very well appointed when you compare it to the outside of the building.

While it is a very nice spot though, we are here for the food.

One thing I have at every Thai restaurant I go to is Crispy Shrimp Wontons. It’s my baseline. Is it weird that every Thai restaurant I’ve ever been to has had crispy shrimp wontons?

These were about as good as they get.

Hot and crispy right out of the fryer, served with a sweet chili sauce. The marinated shrimp had a really beautiful flavor and that crunch is fantastic.

Here we have Tom Yum soup. This is a new dish for me.

When you try new things sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

Well we all lost on this one.

Not only were the prawns overcooked and chewy, the hot and sour soup base didn’t appeal to us at all.

The upfront sour taste was there, but there wasn’t that subtle sweetness you’d expect.

We did win with another new dish to us, Massaman chicken curry.

This curry is a little different than other Thai curries I’ve had.

There’s a warmth from spices in this curry, more similar to Indian curries that the yellow, red and green Thai curries I’m more familiar with. Like the other Thai curries it does have slight sweetness that coconut milk imparts. As is the custom, it is served with Jasmine rice.

Our last dish tonight was Fried rice with chicken.

A very mild flavour, but more flavourful than most Chinese fried rice dishes I’ve had. Lots of yummy vegetables and a good portion of chicken in there. Solid dish. Didn’t blow me away though.

Overall, a very nice meal in a very nice spot, quite unexpected. We will be back for sure.

8/10

The post Patsara Thai appeared first on Gregs Food Blog.