Thai Garn - Summer Hill

I'm always on the look for great local restaurants. Something cosy with great food, and hopefully at a reasonable price. I've walked past Thai Garn at Summer Hill quite a few times at night, and they're always packed out. I made a date with a friend to go there for dinner one night to check out what the fuss was about.

The minute we sat down, they presented us with a plate of complimentry prawn crackers. Except these weren't your standard coloured prawn crackers you get at the local chinese restaurants. They were crunchy, prawny and plenty of chilli! These crackers told you that they're PRAWN crackers. Prawn crackers with a kick! I actually wanted to take the rest of the crackers home at the end of the night......

One thing I liked about Thai Garn is that it doesn't have your bog standard thai menu. They have a standard menu and a chef speciality menu which gets updated frequently. This means there's always something new to try!

One of my favourite thai dishes is Chicken Cashew Nuts, which along with a Pad Thai and a Tom Yum Goong is used to judge how good a Thai restaurant is!

Chicken stir fry with chilli jam and cashew nuts

This was really really good. I loved the broccoli in this dish, its soaks up all the sauce! (Which happens to be spicy with a touch of sweet caramelised flavour). I scooped as much sauce as I could onto my plate to mix with my rice. The rice, which by the way, is always served by the waitress. You'll usually see them roaming through the restaurant with a huge silver pot offering more boiled rice.

Roast duck stir fried with red curry, pineapples and vegetables

I was really hoping to get a roast duck curry, but a curry stir fry was the next best thing. And this was actually really good as you don't have a huge bowl of curry sauce at the end of the night. not that it's a bad thing, but I love my sauce! Which means I usually eat so much rice and sauce, that I feel sick at the end of the night! lol I am just too greedy :P

Combination seafood tamarine curry with spinach and morning glory

I was actually a bit worried that this curry will be too sour. I am actually not a fan of anything sour combined with coconut milk. One of the main reasons that I am against lime juice in laksas. Surprisingly, this was really nice. It had a slight tang that went well with the seafood, but it never once screamed "SOUR!!!" to me. It really helped to lightened the curry up and went really well with the green leafy veggies. Probably why I was practically drinking the sauce!

Total cost was $55 for 3 dishes and rice. The restaurant was dark and cosy, making it extremely easy just to sit there all night chatting away. My only complaint would be that the tables can be quite small if you're unlucky. In the first 10mins we were there, 2 seperate groups of peoples had requested to move to a bigger table. If you're to go, try to get there early to score a table for 4, for 2 people. You'll be a lot more comfortable! Trust me! Besides, you'll want to order more and more dishes, and you'll need the room for it! hehe

Thai Garn
14 Lackey St
Summer Hill NSW 2130
Phone (02) 9716 7012