Monday, October 17, 2011

Red Spoon Thai, Castle Hill

The end of the uni semester is approaching (much to my delight!), but I find it hard to believe that it's already almost been a year of uni! It was only this time last year that I was studying madly for the final exams! (maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration....)

I'm quite glad that I don't ever have to go through the pressure of those exams again (although uni exams can be just as stressful!), especially in the lovely weather that comes during these months. But I guess my experience doesn't quite compare to that of my friend, who was unfortunate enough to have the exams start on the day after her birthday!!  We did celebrate it after the exams, though by the time we got around to that I was ....overseas *ahem*

To celebrate her birthday this year, she took us to Red Spoon Thai in Castle Hill, which I was quite excited about, not only because I like thai food but because it's been quite a while since I last met up with my group of high school friends!
 
fishcakes2
Thai Fishcakes 

We start off with a couple of entrees, and I excitedly whip my camera out as the food comes. I rarely take my (big) camera out to restaurants with me, so I'm quite inexperienced when it comes to restaurants with low lighting and when plates of food just come raining down onto your table....so excuse the blurry photos! :)

skewers
Petite Chicken Satay

The chicken satay is a cute, bite-sized portion of 8 skewers, perfect for sharing. The chicken is grilled nicely, and the chicken pieces are tender and tasty, especially when dipped with the sweet, nutty peanut sauce or cucumber relish it is accompanied by.

curry puff
Curry Puffs

Interestingly enough, the curry puffs don't have much of a curry flavour, but are still quite tasty, especially with the sweet chilli sauce. The vegetable filling, consisting of mainly carrots (no doubt the frozen ones of course!), are a little too soft and overcooked for my liking but the beautifully pleated wrapping of pastry is deep fried until perfectly light and makes the puffs very enjoyable.

bbqchicken
Barbecued Chicken 
I would have left this picture out of the post (because it's so blurry!), but the barbecued chicken was very tasty, and definitely one of the highlights of the dinner. Like the entree of satay skewers, this grilled chicken thigh was very tender but was even more tasty, with its slightly sweet and flavoursome marinade/sauce.

green curry
Green Curry with Chicken 

My first observation of the green chicken curry is that it is quite green, with all the peas and beans, but interestingly, lacking in the vegetables I usually like with my green curries, like corn and eggplant.Whilst the curry is pleasantly creamy and fragrant from the coconut milk, I find that it lacks a little in spices (it isn't even hot!) and doesn't really make me want to go back for more.

red curry
Red Curry with Chicken 

The Red Curry was a more popular on our table, with its heavier use of spices, bringing out a more interesting depth of flavour. 


pad thai
Pad Thai 
 The Pad Thai is a generous serving of stir fried thin rice noodles which aren't too sticky or overly sweet. We ordered both chicken and prawn pad thai's, both of which were enjoyable, but pretty average.

 rice
Thai Fried Rice 
The menu promises that the fried rice is not boring- and I think they kept their promise pretty well! Whilst the rice is a little too oily for my liking, the fried rice carries strong Thai flavours (especially basil) and was very tasty.


cake

When we finished eating, the table was quickly cleared (which wasn't actually an easy job, as the table was quite packed and there were a lot of dishes on the table). The birthday girl brought her own cake, so we were sort of expecting it to be brought out afterwards. What we weren't expecting was for the lights to be turned off and birthday music to start playing- a lovely surprise! :)


Red Spoon Castle Hill on Urbanspoon

13 Comments:

Quay Po Cooks said...

That is quite a feast for a birthday celebration!

Anonymous said...

What a delicious birthday dinner!

Juliana said...

Wow, what a nice dinner to celebrate a birthday...everything looks delicious, I love Thai food.
Hope you have a great week ahead Von :-)

sugarpuffi said...

nawww the mini skewers are so cute!

Nic@diningwithastud said...

Seems a little hit and miss but overall reasonably enjoyable. Strange that the curry isnt hot?
The cake looks delish!

Anonymous said...

LOU, you're kidding! I can't believe you found that pad thai 'pretty average'- it was so YUM! next time- YOU are recommending a place since apparently there are better pad thai's out there :D lol also, yeh I found that the curries weren't particularly hot either :\ (might be because jono requested 'mild') but also, i think we ...well I ordered too many chicken dishes? perhaps next time you can recommend some others? but awwwwwwww....thankyou vonne :) made my day :):)

p.s. I was not kidding about the going out again thing...soon! :P

betty said...

how good is redspoon thai!

Vivian - vxdollface said...

haha the green curry sounds perfect for me since i can't hack too much spice ^^"

XQ said...

Hi von! I'm a first time reader of your blog and just wanted to let you know that I really like your blog!

I'm guessing your final exams are pretty soon? Good luck for those! I'm in my final year at Sydney Uni after a torturous 5 years so really looking forward to my last exams ever.

Now maybe I should stop procrastinating and get some work done...

Rita (mademoiselle délicieuse) said...

Isn't it lovely when a place actually goes out of their way to make you feel special? Seriously, some places just dump the cake on your table and let you serve yourselves...

muppy said...

Thats so lovely they turned the lights off!
you took awesome photos of the food, looks so appetising.

JasmyneTea said...

I've been to the branch at Top Ryde, it was pretty decent! Normally I remain unimpressed with thai restaurants, so it was a surprise, lol. Great review!

Jennifer (Delicieux) said...

Wow, that's quite a birthday feast. Yum!

Love those neatly pleated curry puffs.

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