bigideasjust4u: Lai Thai Restaurant (Auckland)

Lai Thai Restaurant

Thailand is one of my favourite holiday destinations and without saying I am a BIG fan of Thai food. I love spicy food, Thai food is well known for being spicy.It is also known for its balance of the five fundamental taste senses in each dish or the overall meal: hot (spicy), sour, sweet, salty, and (optional) bitter.

Lai Thai Restaurant is about 10mins drive from where I stayed. We will go there at least twice a month or even more. When the weather is cold, my craving for hot and spicy food will stronger and we will frequent the restaurant more often.

Lai Thai is owned by a Kiwi-Gavin and his Thai wife-Pog. Gavin is very friendly and jovial man, he will go around the tables to talk to the diners which make us feel welcomed and relaxed. Till date, we did not have that opportunity to meet up Pog as she is the woman behind the kitchen whipping up delicious dishes for the diners.

The restaurant is located at:

3076 Great North Rd

New Lynn(In front of Mac Donald Restaurant)

Auckland
Telephone: 827 8266

It is a small restaurant in which the tables are placed closely together, nonetheless, it has a simple and yet cosy setup.

The restaurant offers lunch and dinner service. The set meal is reasonably prices at less than NZ$18 that comes with an Entree, Main Course and a coffee/tea. They do offer takeaways, all you have to do is give them a call and pick up later.

Entree-A mixed entree of Chefs Choice

Lai Thai's food is declicious and freshly prepared and had never fail us. The service is excellent.

Usually, Tony and I like to order a mixed entree to share as it comes with a money bag, Thai fish cake, Spring roll and Puffed Pastry.

Stir-fried Duck with Vegetables

Tony is a duck lover. Lai Thai serves Duck too though it is not reflected in their menu. You can have the duck stir-fried with vegetables or to be cooked with curries.

Geang Deang-Thai Red Curry

Lai Thai has a varieties of Curries in their menu.Green Curry, Red Curry, Peanut Curry, Thai Red Curry, Thai Green Curry, Special Thai Curry....I have tried both Thai Green and Red curries, however I preferred the latter. Thai Red Curry - Geang Deang is cooked with coconut milk/cream with gives the curry a rich taste and nice aroma.Coconut milk/cream is a common ingredient in many tropical cuisines, especially in Southeast Asia. Being a Singaporean, I grow up eating alot of dishes that are cooked with Coconut milk/cream and have a liking toward this ingredient due to aromatic compunds in coconut. Coconut milk/cream has about 17% of fat content so you have eat moderately. Too much is no good.

I love to order this Thai Red Curry in Thai Hot to go with rice. Their Thai Hot is considered very mild to me so it was unable to satisfy me. Usually, I would request for some freshly cut Thai chillies-they are known for their spiciness, sometimes I need to ask for 2nd serving to complete my meal.

Popular Thai Dessert-Khao Niao Mamuang
(Picture extracted from Internet)

Thai meals finish with fresh fruit but sometimes a sweet snack will be served as a dessert. Lai Thai has a limited dessert selection if you are a dessert lover.

Khao Niao Mamuang - sticky rice cooked in sweetened thick coconut milk/cream, served with slices of ripe mango is a popular dessert in and is available everywhere in Thailand is not available in Lai Thai Restaurant. This is my favourite Thai dessert.

During one of our visits, we tried their Dessert of the Day - Kapiti Ice-cream with Black Glutinous Rice and pudding in Coconut milk/cream. The black glutinous was nicely cooked. Mixing with the warm coconut milk/cream, it gave the bland glutionous rice a rich and creamy taste along with that nice aromatic flavor of coconut. Overall, this dessert was not too sweet (Thai's Dessert is well-known for their sweetness in their Dessert) and would recommend to share it as it will be too fulfilling/much for one to finish all after a meal.