Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Your Thai Rice and Noodle Bar, Melbourne CBD by Big Fil

It's cheap, it's popular, but I just don't get it and it's not for me.



Admittedly it isn't always fair to generalise on a single visit to a restaurant or café, but our visit to Your Thai was so disappointing I doubt either Bureaucrat or I will give it another go.



It's a bit of a pity really, because I'd always thought this place looked nice from the outside with its green walls and brown furniture (an underrated colour combination), and the photos of the food posted on the walls looked very good. The lunchtime meals are good value - based on price anyway - it really should have been a winner.



Unfortunately though neither of our meals were really up to scratch, below expectations even on Swanston Street (which to me is full of mediocre places to dine). Bureaucrat didn't even finish half of hers, and to be honest I didn't blame her. It sounded so promising that I'd thought about ordering it myself, grilled chicken on rice with vegetable dumpling and a basil seed with green jelly drink. But when it arrived I felt a bit guilty about being glad she had ordered it and not me. Both the yolk of the egg and the dumpling were an unfortunate greyish colour and neither appeared to be fresh. Bureaucrat wasn't game to try either but I can confirm that the texture of the dumpling was consistent with it having being frozen and reheated. However, not even I was game to try the egg. The drink looked interesting but turned out to be fairly tasteless.



My meal was better but still not really good enough, even at these prices. A Thai salad - which was 80% cabbage served with a sweet but moderately tasty dressing - and a beef noodle soup which looked reasonable when served but which turned out to be fairly tasteless even when the provided sauce was added for flavour. The noodles themselves were pretty ordinary but the one good thing about my meal, the nicely rare beef. And the coconut and green jelly drink, strong flavour of coconut and the jelly tasteless.





Overall
Both of us were unhappy with our meals. It is possible that we chose poorly from the menu as some of the dishes being delivered to other tables looked much better. As it is one of those cheap and cheerful lunchtime places you expect service to be brisk, but even so was a little surprised when the bill hit the table at the same moment we were lifting our last mouthfuls. Prices are fair enough and I do like the way it is set out, but not enough to give it a second chance.

Verdict
Food - 5
Service - 5.5
Ambience - 7.5
Price - 7

Address
255 Swanston Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
Tel: (03) 9663 8010

Your Thai Rice and Noodle Bar on Urbanspoon

5 comments:

  1. never EVER again. this place was such a let down. i'm surprised i didn't get a queasy stomach afterwards.

    it's such a pity - the place looks good when you walk past.

    ReplyDelete
  2. the last time i went there, the food was good, but that was a couple of years ago. I ordered the mi goreng there.
    according to your account things might have changed. did they really?
    xo: Sally

    ReplyDelete
  3. yeah, have to agree that food used to be good. We used to go there for a meal whenever we're in the CBD. The grilled chicken on rice dish that you ordered used to look amazing. Beautiful presentation, and the pieces of chicken were delicious. We have been pretty disappointed lately. And that dish on your photo does not look appetizing at all. The prawns on the prawn salad have also been changed to the supermarket Vannemei prawns. Not good. Won't be returning anymore.

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  4. I think you guys just ordered the crappy dishes. I've eaten there a number of times, some of the dishes are not very good but there are many that are. But the drinks are always nice.

    ReplyDelete
  5. hm - crappy dishes can only explain so much. to me, being served a blackened egg and grey dumplings raises questions of the cleanliness of this place.

    ReplyDelete

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