Pad Thai Food #279

You have to come to Phad Thai Food even if you dislike Thai food just to have the water.

An odd statement but nevertheless true.  The silver glass vessels do not have flat bottoms so roll around the table in an alarming manner.  Also, the water is served in medicine bottles which are probably rather trendy but are mildly unsettling as you wonder what medication has been added to it. 

First impressions of  Phad Thai were a little concerning.  The light shades take your breath away; massive big Christmas bells hanging and reflecting in mirrors.  We are seated next to a water feature that was lambasted by the judges in The Block.  The phone is ringing and ringing and ringing.  There is no front wall and I regret not bringing a cardie.  I take a deep breath and vow to enjoy my night out with Mark .................and the ringing phone.

We are handed a big menu.  I mean BIG, literally.  At least 40 cm high and orange.  They stand out nicely from the lime green banquets we are sitting on.  The background ambiance is "women screaming in the kitchen".  I take another deep breath and look around some more and notice that the heater that is hanging from the wall (and features in one of the photos that we took) is exactly like the heaters found in St Patricks Cathedral in Ballarat.  I was always cold in that cathedral.

The food comes.  Actually, that is not the correct way of describing how we got our food.  It was offered to us and I found that authentic and charming; they were proud of their food, respectful of their customers and it all came out in a very unconscious act of offering us our food before they put it on the table.  For entree, we had the deep fried chicken wrapped in pandaman leaves.  A bit dry and I really don't do deep fried food as a rule; it does not treat me well.

Then the car alarm begins and it goes on and on and on and on; a drawback from having no front wall on a busy street.  I then have my first soft shell crab dish ever.  I know, where have I been?  Given the aforesaid aversion to deep fried food, I enjoyed the accompanying vegies more; crisp and glorious. 

All this fabulous theatre set us back $51 so not too bad. 

And the final act featured all of the many young wait staff downing all tools, sitting at a banquet near Mark and I and staring at their screens until we asked for the bill.

Go for the water, stay for the theatre.