I went to Thailand a few years back, got food poisoning and spent a week of my holiday being looked after by a nurse called Tai. Ha ha. My photo album of Thailand consisted of one photo of me having dinner in a restaurant and another photo of me being fed through a drip. I made countless bad jokes blaming my severe poisoning on eating a ‘Pad Thai’ and when asked how I was feeling, I said I was ‘Thai’d.’ While hours of fun for me and no one else, I had nothing to show for my holiday but a bruise from the drip and an innate fear of Thai food and severely small people.
My faith in Thai food, however, was fully restored when I visited the new branch of Simply Asia in Randpark Ridge. Not a fan of chain restaurants, I was on guard for the usual branch mentality and the feeling of being in the same place, just in a different area.
Not the case. The restaurant is simple, small yet spacious and you get the impression that they’ve taken the best parts of Thai restaurants, left behind the food poisoning and hammocks, and combined them all to form Simply Asia.
I’m going to use an overused phrase, but this is truly your value for money restaurant. The menu is endless and for lovers of raw fish, please do yourself a favour and order the sushi. I’ve never tasted sushi that fresh. If I had seen a wise Japanese man fishing in a pond in the back, I wouldn’t have been surprised.
Impressive and reasonable
Those familiar with Simply Asia know the menu is impressive and incredibly reasonable. If it’s leaning towards the end of the month and you’ve asked the car guard to lend you a few bucks, you can quite easily get away with ordering just a starter. The menu groups the items according to price, so if you’re broke there’s no need to slip the waitress a post-it asking how much the food is.
The wonderfully attentive and friendly waitrons and manager know their stuff. Incidentally, some of the dishes are unpronounceable, and so are some of the ingredients, so if you’re feeling brave, test them on the food. But you will lose, trust me. A word of warning though – if you don’t want to offend your dining partner, order the number of the meal rather than the Thai name. Pad-Mee Phuket Thaley comes out as something completely different when said aloud. Unless you’re of Asian persuasion, it’s number 614 to you.
Grab a couple of friends or take your partner for a great evening without having a coronary when you look at the prices. Or better yet, practise your Thai accent beforehand and order with confidence and impress. Whatever you do, don’t tell your partner your ‘dying in Thailand’ story. It won’t do you any favours.
Simply Asia (Honeydew) was reviewed by Baglett. Read her tea-snortingly funny blog here.