@Thailand

Oh yehh, IT'S THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!! I MEAN, IT’S THE LAST DAY OF TERM :) Hahaha, almost feels like the end of school already.  It’s kinda exciting and nerve-racking, but also a bit sad to know that my friends and I have only got around 6 months left until Year 12 finishes.  Hmm… maybe it’s too early to think about all that reminisce-y stuff, I’ll just take things as they come, and that means YAYYYYYY END OF TERM FOOD COME AT ME :)

It’s become pretty much a tradition that my train-ship crew and I dine out at the end of every term.  Whoever started this going, I salute you.  You are GENIUS.  It’s now my 4^th time, and after a whole dilemma of trying to choose between suburbs, Italian cuisine and Crust Pizza, the six of us finally pinned the tack on @Thailand at Bankstown yesterday arvo…mainly due to the fact that it is positioned right outside Bankstown station.  Hahaha, under 18s, going out at night in the streets of Bankstown? Apparently not a good idea, according to one of my friend’s older siblings. 

I’ve been here with my family one time, and the service was great, although we did have to wait a while for our food to come.  On that night, the restaurant was less than half full with customers, and the lights are a bit dim, so with this Canon PowerShot A480 that I use (seriously can't wait to get my hands on a DSLR, or be the successor of my dad's Canon EOS 60D!), the pictures were still a bit grainy.  But yeah, most of the pics in this blog were taken using this cam, it's actually quite handy to carry around, much lighter than the huge but pro DSLRs.

Dinner starts at 4.30pm, so we started straight away :) Individual plates with prettily folded napkins.  Because sharing (food) is caring!!

Entree: Spring Rolls (Vegetarian) - Ever-So-Popular springrtolls Thai style. ($5.90)

A tad expensive, I'd say, to have each spring roll stand at around $1.50 each, they were as good as a vegie spring roll could go - not limp vegies and thin glass noodles soaked full in oil with a very crunchy pastry shell, but the oiliness was just right, and the crunch was slight but still there.  But I prefer the Viet homemade spring rolls more :)

Drinks:
Coconut juice ($3.90)

 Jasmine Tea ($2.90)

Dinner dishes:

Chef’s Suggestion: Papaya Pad Thai - Stir Fried Green papaya in Pad Thai Sauce - “@ Chicken” ($14.90)

To be honest, I don't know why this dish is part of the chef's suggestion.  I was expecting more noodle and chicken.  But the focus of this dish was definitely the papaya, not the soft and yum pad thai noodles.  There was a whole entire pool of sauce left on the bottom, but it was nice sauce.  I like that some dishes can pull this off.  It's like immersing "bánh bột lộc" with a whole load of nước mắm, mmmmm :).  For me, I reckon it's not the same if you only take the small amount of nước mắm that you need, because it's all about this dressing collaborating with the bánh bột lộc every step of the way.  But I definitely wanted more chicken.  It was soft, yes, and seasoned well; everything a typical pad thai dish would need, I just didn't expect half the dish to be papaya :\ 

And I have to say, the lemon juice makes all the difference.  I like to save my lemon wedge all the way throughout the dish, spooning small servings of pad thai onto my plate, and squeezing some lemon juice onto these servings individually.  Gotta love that tangy kick! 

At the end of the day though, I do have to commend this dish, it is a stand out due to the crunchy papaya shreds, but it just wasn't what I was looking for.

@Thai Noodle Bar: Chicken Pad Thai

There is a choice of the type of dish, the type of noodle, and the type of meat, but Michael just ordered Chicken Pad Thai, and it was the classic pad thai noodle – the small flat rice noodle type, and gosh it was DELISH!!!  I reckon this dish was better than the chef suggestion, since I wanted more noodle than papaya in my dish.

Stir Fries: Garlic & Pepper Thai Style, Roast Duck Choice ($16.90)

The duck was tender, and not dense in oiliness.  The salad was quite nice and refreshing - crunchy square pieces of onion? I approve! :)   

Stir Fries: Tasty Oyster Sauce – with mixed vegetable in a tasty sauce – Beef ($13.90)

I didn’t get to taste this dish, but the few friends who did said the beef has a homely feel to it.

Rice is $2.20 per head (for my friends who ate the stir-fries), and quite a generous amount of rice they gave us.  There's about 7 rice bowls worth in there! But yeah, I don't intend on going out to restaurants to eat rice - cheers to Tiger rice cookers at home! :)

@Thai Noodle Soup: Laksa – Curry Noodle in Thai Style – Chicken choice ($13.90)

WHAT A GENNNNEROUS amount of chicken they had, I ate more than 5 pieces of chicken from her bowl!  And gosh, you could soooooo taste that creamy curry-infused coconut cream in the laksa.  

Also, you get to choose the degree of chilli you want, they offer mild, medium and hot.  And this mild laksa is very mild indeed!  And they used the same noodles as in the pad-thai, soft and yummm :)

@Thai Noodle Soup: Noodle Soup with Stewed Beef in Thai Style ($12.90)

I am seriously lovely this.  Generous servings of meat is EXACTLY WHAT I WANT! :) I wish I got to taste this dish, but it was a pretty hot afternoon/evening, so I didn’t get a chance to.  

All the dinner servings were very generous, We were so full, we didn’t even have stomachs for desserts!   

My verdict:

Atmosphere (and location): Located so close to Bankstown station, so it's very convenient.  There weren't many people dining around our time, so I can't say it's lively, and the lights are a bit dim.  But maybe that adds to an authentic Thai experience.  And the interior design is awesome, neat and spacious.  9/10

Price: Dinner price range is between $12-18 for most dishes, desserts and entrees are around the $7 mark, and drinks are around $5. Besides the seafood dishes (around the $30 mark), the price range is really decent.  Not very cheap for Bankstown folk, but still a decent price range.  9/10

Food and Taste: A range of mixed responses here.  I got to taste 5 out of the 7 dishes, and I liked all of them a lot, except my own one, I wanted more chicken and noodles!! ;(  But thumbs up to the authentic and lovely flavours.  Gotta give this one a 9/10

Service: Awesome service, the waitress was always there when we needed here, and yesterday, food came out 5 minutes after we ordered, even though it was still the beginning of their dinner hours.  10/10

Overall = 9.25/10 
Would I come back? Yep of course :) I would really recommend dining here, because great service is such a winner for me, and it's the only Thai restaurant I've been to so far that ticks all the criteria in my verdict (I haven't blogged about the others, but I remember waiting close to 20 minutes for my "Grandma Grand Master 'Nam Prik Ong'" dish at Le Lerd, despite the reviews. And it was also a chef's special, and it wasn't even outstanding.  Half the dish was vegie sticks and a meaty-tomato-y dip...not really apparent in its description on the menu, and not really the dinner I was looking for.)

www.atthailand.com.au
Haha, the colour of the website is the same as the colour of their walls :)

@Thailand

24 Bankstown City Plaza, (Saigon Place) 

Bankstown 2200

Contact Tel : 9793 9292. Tel / Fax : 9793 9282

No BYO

 

(Blogpost edited 5/2/13)