In a tiny back lane in Bangkok, we had a delightful dinner which could only be described as Thai Western Fusion (but not French as their name would suggest).

Sweet Corn & Parsley Cream Soup : a light starter with an delicate zucchini tempura which stole the show. The soup was served lukewarm which I found slightly off putting.

Scallop & Thai Lemon Balm: Delicious combination of flavours: lemon balm (sublime), complementing the richness of the poached quail eggs and scallop, and textures: softness of the egg and balm contrasted with the tempura zuchini and crispy bacon spring roll.

Pickled Ginger Risotto: This was a delicious seafood risotto with squid, river prawns and muscles with the tiniest hint of ginger which hid the buttery tone of the risotto. Delicious – this was one of the highlights of the meal.

Piglet & Lime: Excellent pork flavour (I had a small taste of this one) but no obvious lime flvour

Duck & Garlic: I chose this dish because I love duck and I was interested to see how a duck and garlic combination would taste like. Gorgeous combination of perfectly pan seared buck breast with strong flavour of field mushrooms but minimal garlic (as the name would otherwise suggest).

Mangosteen Creme Brulee: Amazing delights. Vanilla bean ice-cream with wild plum and raisin crumble was the highlight! The creme brulee was average.

Fruit Jellies & Peanut Macaroons: Delicious citrus flavours with a light crispy macaroon ended an excellent meal.

There is a set menu for 900B (with choice between 2 mains and entree). The menu, according to the website is changed weekly. Quirky things: I found the dish names rarely reflected the actual dish but the dish description is slightly more accurate eg: Duck & Garlic – no garlic, but ample mushroom flavour, Pickled Ginger risotto – realistically a seafood risotto with hardly any ginger. Service was delightful and attentive.

While in Sydney, I made an internet booking requesting a baby chair but informed they could happily to accommodate our child by providing us a table with a couch. Our baby sat between us on the couch during our dinner, amply amused by his videos and snacking on some of our food. It’s not an ideal kid friendly restaurant which is not the target audience. As the menu is only in English, most of the other patrons were expats/embassy staff (given the number of foreign embassies in the area), foodie tourists (like me) & wealthy locals.

It’s a tough life in Thailand. Delicious breakfast with mango “sushi”! Fusion at it’s very best!

Quick lunch snack today – katsu don with egg – delicious comfort food but nothing fancy ! This came with miso, cabbage and green tea ice cream all for 290 Baht ($9.50AUD)

An excellent $5 all day snack in Thai-town! This is the boat noodle soup with beef (there is also a pork option)! Delicious thick meaty broth with a hint of 5 spice powder and chilli – just cooked thinly slices of beef with thin linguini thickness rice noodles hiding a bed of crunchy Gai Larn veggies.

Wonderful value and warms the soul on a wintery Sydney day!

Fig, Goats Cheese and Parma Ham Salad

Lingini with Chilli, Lemon, Garlic & Pangrattato

We had 2 quick and easy “assemble” dishes with minimal cooking (depends on if you consider dunking pasta in hot water real cooking). The most rewarding was the salad which was delicious simple and light. It was topped off by a delicious Giuseppe Giusti Balsamic Vinegar – total indulgence: rich, sweet and thick. The pasta dish I made was simple to assemble but seemed a little bland probably (as you can see from the following pictures that I mixed up the salad and pasta toppings … Oops!!!).

Simply delicious! They serve the freshest (baby) Gai Larn with Garlic. And after an Italian overdose in Griffith, a good Asian meal is a welcome relief – I am craving rice and always order the excellent Chicken and Lettuce Fried Rice with Salted Fish and my husband alternates orders between Egg Omelette with King Prawns and Rice or Black Pepper Beef with Udon Noodles.

Egg Omelette with King Prawns 

Chicken Fried Rice with Salted Fish

Baby Gai Larn with Garlic

This restaurant came with high praise from a local patron but, with the over abundant red salty tomato sauce on everything, it was truly awful! To add insult to gastronomical injury, this meal cost over $100 for two adults (which included one glass of wine). Seriously!

8 o’clock on a Friday night we pulled up at The Kidman Way Inn and made our way through reception to arrive at the restaurant’s bar. It wasn’t busy except for a bunch of young kids hanging around the bar and sitting down watching TV. I realised that the “young kids” were actually our wait staff and one of them scrambled to greet us.

“Hello. Do you have a reservation?” the young man asked. I looked around the restaurant and there were only three other tables occupied leaving the majority of the restaurant empty.

“Sorry, no we don’t.” my husband replied. The young man looked at a sheet of A4 paper which had the table layouts printed on them and tapped his chin … 30 seconds later he was still tapping his chin and looking confused when a young lady walked up and told him to sit us in the corner.

After we were seated and got our son into his high chair I looked at the menu in anticipation and I ordered a glass of wine from the young man.

“Sure, no problem.” the young man said as he walked off only to walk back a few minutes later asking “It was the white wine you wanted, right?”

“I think they left the kids in charge for the evening.” my husband remarked with a smirk on his face.

And so the dining horror began …

An eggplant wrap, full of a indescribable salty breadcrumb horror covered in a woody red sauce!

Plain toppo with a dry pizza base and average tomato topping and sprinkling of oregano … Actually, this was without a doubt the best thing we ordered throughout the evening!

God awful king prawns with real “boiled” rice (you know when they don’t steam the rice and they actually boil and drain the rice). This was topped with an 70′s garnish style orange slice with lettuce and … the red sauce!

An even worse chicken breast with no taste except for … the same red sauce!

So, if you like spending $100 for a two course meal and enjoy having the same woody red sauce splashed on every dish then we recommend eating here.

If, on the other hand, you enjoy great tasting food at a reasonable price then we’d recommend eating somewhere else!

The Clock is the best place to eat in Griffith.

The minor downside is we have been ordering from the same menu for past 15 months as the owners are trying to sell the business so are not planning on changing the menu any time soon.

On the upside, we have identified the best on the menu… Make sure you start with Braised Scallops on Pork Belly, choose the salmon or duck main and skip the dessert.

Salmon with Risotto

Pan fried duck breast with potato spring rolls and asian style vegies

Chicken Curry with Roti

Look this is a lovely place for lunch – the produce is locally grown and organic whenever possible. There is a small vegie stall in the dinning room … Order the chicken risotto and steak sandwich but give the chicken curry with roti a miss.