Chat Thai

My friends and I decided to come here for lunch after hearing one friend tell us how good the food was here :).   Located in "ThaiTown" -- Campbell St, facing Capitol Theatre (and it's near ChinaTown too), Chat Thai has had many great reviews on restaurant review sites.  And out of all the Chat Thai restaurants, this one offers the best prices!!

My friends and I --> including C's Reverie and Lights Guiding

pad thai

stir fried thin rice noodles with chicken, dried shrimps, bean sprouts, garlic and chives in a tamarind and palm sugar sauce.

**includes peanuts**
$9.90 at ThaiTown ($12.50 at Westfield Sydney CBD) 

the beef version

I think this dish was
padt si-ew

stir fried wide rice noodles with chicken and chinese kale in dark soy sauce (the noodles can't be seen here though, because of the kale)
$9.90 at ThaiTown ($12.50 at Westfield Sydney CBD)

khao ka mhu

caramelised smoked pork hock in five spice reduction with chinese kale and cabbage and rice.
$9.90 at ThaiTown ($12.50 at Westfield Sydney CBD)

khao kh mhu up close - succulent pork hock

Yummm :)

*Sorry that the lighting of the pictures is a bit off :(

My friend's advice for Chat Thai was to stick to the safe option and go for "padt thai".  I must say, she was right.  They sure know how to make their padt thai.  The sauce is flavourful and intense and just right :)   

But knowing me and my tendencies, I never go for the safe option, and I always like to try new things, whether or nor I actually know what's in that dish.  I've tasted padt thai before, and I believe it's quite similar to eating pho noodles (without the stock) with a sauce (I've done that heaps at home - the special peanut sauce that you eat with summer rolls? Yeah that goes nice with pho noodles...(actually, that sauce can go well with anything:)).  The khao ka mhu description sounded good though, and the dish does taste nice.  According to the Chat Thai byline "The leading Sydney Thai restaurant. Authentic Thai cuisine. Street food favourites", this dish is definitely street food.  Street food in the sense that it's a normal dish you'd often find in Asian households (hence why I didn't choose padt thai).  Even though my dish tasted decent, it wasn't a standout, and I guess I never really liked the concept of going outdoors to buy rice for lunch, knowing that I eat it almost every day at home! But yes, quality-wise and serving-size-wise, it was definitely worth the $9.90. The padt si ew was nice too, similar to another home-made dish I know of.  

The serving sizes were very decent, I reckon if we got about 80% of the servings we had on that outing, then that would've filled us already. Nevertheless, talk about value for money :) 

My Verdict:

Atmosphere: Quite lively actually, with nice and comfortable setting - the lights were a bit dim so I needed to turn my camera flash on - (9/10)

Pricing: Value for money indeed, and it's hard these days to find a restaurant with a $10 dish that could fill you up! (besides buffets) (10/10)

Food and Taste: Decent taste, but the dishes weren't really standouts for me, the padt thai was very good though. (8/10)

Service: Usual nice service :) Came and served us on time, friendly smiling staff. (10/10)

Overall = 9.25/10

Chat Thai Details:

http://www.chatthai.com.au/ 

Trading hours vary for each store, but are in the range between 10am and 10pm.

(Blogpost edited 29/12/12)