Lemongrass Restaurant on Francis St, Northbridge

I don't 'go out' to eat Thai food. In fact, prior to this outing with my friends, I think I've only ever been to one Thai restaurant and that was more than four years ago. There's nothing wrong with Thai food - I guess it just seems so ordinary. Thailand is Malaysia's other neighbour hence Thai food tend to be quite similar to Malaysian food, and I grew up eating that sort of food. Malaysian cuisine has more variety than Thai food though, due to the fact that Malaysians comprise of three distinct races (Malays, Chinese and Indians) and hence different cultures and types of food available. Naturally, if I had to pick between Malaysian or Thai food, I'd go for Malaysian.

Coriander features in a lot of Thai food. It's okay in small amounts, but I find that coriander is never used 'sparingly' in Thai food. And I'm not a big fan of coriander. Maybe that's why I subconsciously avoid Thai restaurants?

Lemongrass Restaurant has a nice decor and presentation. It is quite spacious so you can fit large groups in here. This restaurant is targeted towards people who likes pretty things and have money to spend, although the prices are still quite reasonable. Obviously you can get authentic pad thai for half the price at food courts, but here you're also paying for the effort that goes into presenting the food. I'd give this restaurant a 10 for presentation. Service at the restaurant is good and the waitresses and manager are friendly and quick to attend to your needs.

Taste-wise, well, the food tastes like Thai food. I'm pretty sure the cooks are Thai (confirmed when I peeped into the kitchen on my way to the ladies'), so the food is authentically prepared. Like I said, I'm not big on coriander, so my rating of 7 for the food is biased towards that. Overall, since the taste of the food is much more important to me than how it is presented, I'd say that you can probably get the same quality of food for much cheaper elsewhere. If presentation of the food is important to you (e.g. trying to impress a date), and you like Thai food, then this is the place for you.

Lemongrass Chicken ($16.90) - I remembered thinking that this was yummy, although the sauce that went with it wasn't too memorable - if it was, I'd remember it, right? It was a mild dish.




Grilled Pork ($15.90) - we thought this was beef! We're pretty sure we got beef, although we ordered pork. Oh well, guess we will never know! Quite nice, although for the price of the dish, I'd expect more meat in the dish.




Pineapple Fried Rice ($15.90) - look at the presentation of this dish! The fried rice itself was okay, but probably not worth the price on its own.




Tom Yum Red Soup Prawn ($18.90) - coriander overload! This tomyum soup was quite a bit sweeter than the tomyum soups that I'm used to. Spicy, but not sour enough to be called tomyum.




Tamarind Prawn ($17.90) - this had thick sauce that was probably a bit too sweet to use in a main dish. It was still nice though.




Steamed Fish Fillets - Lemon ($26.90) - quite sour - more so than the tomyum soup. And I thought that the coriander was overpowering in this dish.




Pad Thai Chicken ($14.90) - the fried noodles were served with a layer of omelette wrapped around it. Presentation was good, but the noodles on its own would probably be not worth the price on its own.




As always, the company was good, and I had a great time catching up with my friends.