Friday night I was invited along to the ‘Quicksilver has been sold let’s have a dinner to say buh-bye’ dinner, which happened to be at Mithai on the corner of Hobson & Victoria Streets.
It’s an interesting Thai place, the interest comes in the form of the apparently organic expansion they appear to have done over a period of years (though it’s possible that it was a publishing company that did the expansion, or some other restaurant, who knows) where they now take the top floor of a row of maybe 5 shops, with steps making the difference between the level splits.
We took the entirety of the floor closest to the kitchen, with a group of nearly 40, we needed the space – which, while it was set up for large groups, it wasn’t set up for this large a group, so we were distributed around a bunch of large tables.
Starters came out and were freaking great, particularly the sesame and pork toast… things… delicious.
Then came the soup, which was thankfully a tom kha gai, which is probably my favourite of all soups. Unfortunately, the chicken was crap, and the creaminess from the coconut was unbalanced with the tang of the lemon grass, kaffir lime leaf, and ginger. So it tasted sort of smooth and creamy – which is great sometimes, but in tom kha gai, not so much. Tsz really liked it, but he’d never had tom kha gai before – he’s in for a wonderful surprised when he orders it somewhere that makes it really well.
Mains were yellow chicken curry, fish curry, pork & something, and a dark savoury beef thing (served the way it all was, I didn’t see exactly what was being served, so *shrug*) which were all very good. Topped off with fruit & ice cream & a slightly unusual rice pudding, it was all really very nice.
We stayed very late, finally being kicked out long after the place probably would have liked to close – but they knew what side their bread was buttered on, and (former) Quicksilver owner Matt was picking up the tab. Some of us tried to find a nice bar, but didn’t have much luck – we tried the sky city bars and they were all horribly loud and dark, and full of young people. People trying to find sex, rather than people wanting to enjoy a nice drink and some conversation, so we ended up at Esquires again. (We went after Thursday Night Curry, which I’m not going to go into as it was more or less the same as every other Thursday Night Curry – far too many dorks, it’s fallen a long way since it was instituded years ago, when normal cool people would go along. Arkady breaking his chair was a highlight of the evening.)
Saturday was time for Monsoon Poon. We met up with Amanda & Darren, had a couple of drinks in the bar (I had time for a couple of ginger beers, Claire started sharing a bottle of vino with Amanda, and Darren was on the Macs Gold), then they finally managed to find us a table. (The place must be absolutely printing money, it’s quite big, and totally full. And sure, they have to pay for a really nice fit-out and lots of staff, but still!)
We ordered the starter combo platter, it was just about perfect, piled up with squid rings, Vietnamese rolls, Krishna pakora, shishkebab rolls, deep fried chilli wings (delicious) and it was all superb. Just about the right size for 4 as well, so the price isn’t too bad.
I had a ginger ale.
Amanda had a hard time choosing a main (we were sharing, so the pressure wasn’t too high, but it seems the pressure of the large selection causes her some trouble). But eventually we ordered a Mee Goreng Ayam, Bang Bang Chicken, Phoenix & Dragon (chicken and prawns), and Golden Lemon Chicken. Added to this we had a cone of coconut rice, a cone of saffron rice, and a couple of garlic naan.
The girls also had another bottle of wine, I had another ginger beer, and Darren had another Gold.
The food, as it arrived, was fantastic, the Bang Bang Chicken especially was superb, very spicy, very delicious, the chicken was perfect – and a perfect match with the delightful coconut rice. The mee goreng was great as well, I didn’t have much of the Phoenix & Dragon or Golden Lemon Chicken, but everything I tasted was good.
It was dessert time, I order the chocolate and caramelised ginger brulee (Amanda had the same), Claire had Lao Mandarin Panacotta, and Darren had handmade chilli chocolates. About this time I realised that I’d had four ginger drinks, and was now eating a ginger dessert, so I started to wonder if I had a problem, deciding that the only was out was through, I scoffed the lot and then helped Claire a bit with hers. The panacotta & brulee were both good but somewhat unbalanced, needing something to make them more interesting than the fruit they came with, though I’m not sure what would do it.
After dessert, Amanda, who had been drinking a bit faster than Claire, and getting instant refills from the (perhaps over) attentive waiter, didn’t realise quite how much she’d had to drink, and then she managed to break her glass on the table (very lucky not to cut her hands).
It was a great night out. I strongly recommend Monsoon Poon to anyone, but beware that it’s quite spendy.
Sunday was felt Yorkshire Puddingish, so that’s what I had. With lots of plum sauce and well seasoned italian sausage. Hell yeah!
Now you’ll have to excuse me, but the groceries are here, and I have to go and get the dog off the delivery guys. (Maybe he can smell the chorizo – none for you George!)