Thanon Khaosan, Haymarket

We're a bit wary after we buying coupon deal for Thanon Khaosan and then reading reviews online which were pretty terrible. Lesson learnt: read reviews before buying vouchers!

Nevertheless, we're quite excited once we arrive, as there is a big spread of desserts for take away outside, (most of which I had no idea what they were), a fancy tuk-tuk in the restaurant and quite a quirky fit out too!

Watermelon Blend $3.90

Luckily for us, we didn't encounter any mishaps during booking or through the meal, and we quite enjoyed it too- perhaps because our expectations aren't high, or maybe we're just so used to using these group buy vouchers!

The meal comes with wine, but we're not big fans so we don't take advantage of it. Instead, we're quite interested in the selection of drinks available, with several fruit blends which sound quite exciting. We end up going for the watermelon blend, for some nice cooling down on a warm day. The blended watermelon is nice and refreshing, though it tastes a tad dilute, perhaps because of the hint of lemon which we're not too fond of.

Tod Man Goong (Thai Prawn Cakes) $8.90

For entrees, we start off with the prawn cakes- cute little cakes of bouncy prawn paste, coated with a light crumbed exterior which gives a satisfying crunch when you bite through. The go well with the light plum sauce, though we find the sauce to be a bit more like a sweet sugar syrup than a plum sauce.

Tod Man Pla (Thai Fish Cakes) $8.90

The fish cakes are as expected- spicy (a little too much for me) and very tasty. The sweet chilli sauce didn't help with the spiciness either- it was just as spicy!

Tao Hoo Tod (Fried Tofu) $7.90

And for something a little more different than the usual Thai entrees, we also order the fried tofu. Chunky triangles of tofu are deep fried beautifully, with (again) a satisfying crunch, accompanied by a soft, smooth interior.

Choo Chee Pla (Fried Fish with Red Curry) $22.90

And because we love our fried foods so much, we order fried fish for mains. It is fried beautifully, the row of pointy bones lined up neatly and curved until they're pointing back towards its head. It's so beautiful and mesmerising, we almost don't want to dig in- luckily, the meat has already been removed from the bone, so the it remains largely intact until the end of the meal (:

As with most Thai fried fishes we've had in the past, the crunch is a little too intense for us, we prefer a lighter batter, but that's just our personal preference. The combination of crunchy fish pieces with red curry sauce is new and interesting for us too- we can't say we're huge fans of the two together, but the red curry is done beautifully we can't stop ourselves from spooning sauce onto our rice!

Ped Nam Buoy (Roast Duck with Shitake Mushrooms) $25.90

We're big fans of roast duck so we knew we had to order the Ped Nam Buoy when we saw it on the menu. A generous serve of succulent roasted duck in a sweet plum sauce with big plump mushrooms- what's not to love? The roast duck is quite similar to the version we'd had previously at Thai Lemongrass, and is equally as delicious. 

Ka Prao Moo Krob (Pork Belly with Chilli Basil) $14.90

We're also fans of chilli basil, and to spice things up a bit we decided to have it stir fried with pork belly instead of the usual chicken, beef or seafood. It's quite an interesting combination, as the crackling on the roasted pork belly is still slightly crispy, adding an extra crunch, though we prefer the usual meats in this stir fry. 

Desserts are quite exciting as we haven't a clue as to what they are. Unfortunately, eating them doesn't get us much closer to figuring out either (time to work on those tasting skills eh?)!

The green ones are a little easier to identify, the darker one being a chewy glutinous rice pudding/cake-like dessert. The other one is a pandan sago pudding with a soft coconut jelly on the top which is easily our favourite for the night!