Wednesday 6 October 2010

Restaurant Review: Spice I Am, Surry Hills

When I want Thai food in Sydney I find it hard to look past Chat Thai. However, having only visited Chat last Sunday I thought I should try somewhere different and visited Spice I Am in Surry Hills this weekend instead.

I'll cut straight to the chase and say that I won't be walking past Chat Thai again, at least not to visit Spice I Am at any rate. Ever since yesterday lunchtime I've had an unpleasant taste in my stomach / back of my throat. It's the taste that you get when your food has been cooked in rancid oil. Those of you that have had the misfortune to experience the same taste will know what I mean.

Perhaps it's a little harsh to slate a restaurant on one bad experience, but there were two further nails in the coffin for me. The first was value for money. The two dishes below cost $30, while last week at Chat Thai $30 bought three dishes and two drinks. Our food also arrived within 30 seconds of ordering meaning there was no chance it had been freshly cooked.

Anyway the photos look nice.......


Yum Pla Tod was a crispy fish salad. It wasn't a bad dish, but a bit salty and the flavour was quite one dimensional.


Moo Pa was effectively a dry pork curry. My goodness it was spicy! Our waitress warned us that it was medium for Thai people and they we might find it hot, but I wasn't prepared for the chilli assault that followed. The chilli prevented too many flavours from coming through, although there were some nice hints of lemongrass.

Spice I Am on Urbanspoon

5 comments:

  1. This is another popular spot I haven't been to! But reading your post I'm not sure if I'd be able to cope with the heat anyway (In fact, I'm sure I couldn't!)

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  2. You finally made it. Shame it wasn't the best experience and I swear they've put the prices up. This place used to be cheap!

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  3. @Maria - yes I'm afraid you might find it too hot.

    @John - it certainly wasn't cheap any more. But when they are as popular as they are I don't really blame them for raising the prices.

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  4. I haven't been to the one in Surry Hills, but I've been to Spice I Am in Darlinghurst a couple of times and it was great. It's a different experience to Chat...more like a Sailors Thai type thing (bit more upmarket) but the food was always good there. So interesting to hear that the Surry Hills one wasn't as good.

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  5. Nice pics - I think the Thai have a pretty different heat scale ;)

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