Nakhon Thai (North Shore City, New Zealand)

I went here quite some time ago and was happy that now Thai is represented in the Link drive area of North Shore. Before there where Japanese, Vietnamese, Indian, Malaysian and now there is a Thai restaurant. I came here on an early lunch time probably around 11:30 – 11:45 am so there were a few diners.

Like most Thai restaurants the place is well designed with all of the batiks, statues and cutleries it feels really like a Thai restaurant, the menu was quite straightforward as well offering Thais most popular dishes.

I started with the mixed entree ($8.50) which consists of spring rolls, cari puff, chicken satay and golden bag, it’s mostly deep fried so I guess this will be hard to mess up. They all taste great especially that chicken satay, it’s creamy with a bit of spice.

Then off to have some noodles and one way to test a good Tahi restaurant is to try their Pad Thai ($12.50), it is offered in different meats but I chose the chicken one. With tender chicken pieces served on rice noodles with Pad Thai sauce, eggs, bean sprouts and topped with ground peanut, it was a good dish. The rice noodles was perfectly cooked, still have that chewy texture and the sauce was a perfect blend of sweet, savoury and spicy flavours.

Finally I had this Gang Massaman ($10.00) which is a massaman curry with beef served with potato, onion and tomato. Like most Thai fast food restaurants this comes with a precooked meat with I guess a ready to cook sauce. I guess this is a real challenge for dishes like this especially when you want to prepare them freshly cooked, curries take a long time to make so precooking them separately will be the only best option.

Having said that even though this was the case, the pre beef was thinly sliced drenching it in the sauce will give it enough flavour. IT was a good dish taking into consideration the limitations. I think I had more than enough rice.

Overall the place was great especially for a fast food style Thai restaurant where they prepare it as you order. Food was seasoned really well, the place was clean and the staff were friendly.

Nakhon Thai Restaurant
Address: 31 Link Dr, Wairau Valley, Auckland 0627
Phone: +64 9-442 2084