My review on Sat Dinner at Oceania Thai

Felt like a little spice for dinner tonight. So I settled for Thai food as my preferred choice of cusine for the night.

After pouring through my Sydney good food guide, I decided on Oceania@ Clovelly which is about 10-15mins drive away. Dinner was booked for 8.30pm while I busied away at the usual chores and laundry first.

When I arrived at the destination, I missed the place the first time because the signage wasnt prominent. Had to detour backthe road again before it was finally spotted. Luckily I am having dinner late so free parking by the side wasnt an issue.

Oceania Thai is a kinda small set up kitchen with a typical street side cafe size. Mind you, the dinner place was jam pack with customers, though ALL caucasians. I am about the only chinese there that night even if i include the chefs and the serving staff. The tables were packed close together but everyone seem to be relaxed and having a good time with their wine, while the kitchen is humming with steady activity and confidence.

Even though I was on time with a reservations, my table wasnt ready and so I just waited for another 10mins for the couple to clear their bill. Tonight was REALLY cold at about 10degrees with wind blowing so i stayed indoor at the narrow door corridor, awaiting for my seat.

My initial impression was an "O-oh". No Thai or chinese in sight. Not a good start for a thai place. I looked through the menu and well, it was relatively interesting. Definitely not an authentic local thai feed.

When it was time to place my order, I quickly settled on 2 entrees and 3 mains
- Mahor (caramelised pork, prawn & chicken on pineapple) = $8
- Fresh Oysters with some thai sauce, 4 pc = $14
- Jungle curry (pork belly, thai eggplants, beans and pachi ferang) = $25
- Lon of prawns (fresh prawns simmered in coconut cream, served with sweet porks & greens) = $26
- Asian stir fry veg = $15

In about 15mins wait, my first entree Mahor was served. Ok, it was tiny portions. I had expected something more substantial and i didnt know what to make out of the "pile". When i pop it into my mouth, it was abit crunchy and sticky kind of texture. Thankfully the pineapple was sweet and leaves the mouth refreshed after the bite. It was a strange mix but it worked and I like it. Except you wont want too many of it or your jaw will be left tired from chewing.

My oysters came next swifty. Oysters are good which is nothing new in Australia the land of freshness. However, I was unimpressed because the sauce did nothing to ehance the flavour. Really. The Thai sauce or whatever it was in green was redundant and I might as well have it plain. So no credit to the cook really for this.

The first main took a while to arrive. i think it was a good 20mins interval. When my pork belly arrive, I was a little disappointed, of no fault of the chef. I was expecting curry but it ended up in tumeric kinda watery sauce. And the pork belly looks fatty which is to be expected in all honesty. I had a taste of it and it was alright. Canx say i am "wow". The next main which is my prawn came in the next 3 mins and now that definitely look more promising.

The prawn had a creamy tantalising look though the prawns are cut up into small pieces which wasnt expected. I was kinda expected full or at least half size prawn (for the price). The way to eat it was to scoop the prawn and sauce into the greens, line it with the big strip of cucumber and top it with the caramelised pork bits. First bite was goodness. I like it alot. The prawn was fresh and the sauce was good and light. Yummy.

Dinner took about 1.5hours (without wine consumption) and there wasnt much dessert to choose from. It simply said "a platter of thai dessert" with no further descriptions, and hence i passed. I think I would like something more "ordinary" for my dessert and more sinful. ha. That is if i can still find it at 10pm onwards in the land of early close shops.