Toptai

Hello everyone,

I hope that you're all well and excited for a day dedicated to the most important women in our lives today - Mother's Day! Wishing all the beautiful mothers out there an extra special day and that your children spoil you even more than usual!
Last night, my family decided to have an early celebration with my godparents.

We decided on Toptai, located in the heart of North Adelaide; in the North Adelaide Village on O'Connell Street.

I had quite high expectations of this place because I'd dined here for a birthday dinner at the end of last year and the dishes we ordered were delicious. Also, Toptai was awarded the 'Best Thai Restaurant SA 2012'.

{Apologies for lack of menu descriptions - I didn't think that I needed to take any pictures of the menu itself when I was there, but I haven't been able to find any of their updated menus online!}

Definitely good to know!

 Pork Belly $17.50

The menu description stated: "Tender pork belly with sweet herbal dressing". Now, this was anything but sweet! However, it was still very rich in flavour and went very nicely with the jasmine rice. The meaty part of the pork was definitely tender which, in conjunction with the rich sauce, made it a very hearty dish. We didn't end up finishing it though because it became too much after a few mouthfuls.

 Happy Duck Salad $25
[GF]

I loved this salad! Very refreshing and the touch of heat in the dressing really packed a punch. Though, I do think that there could've been less dressing as this resulted in soggy salad vegetables swimming in a pool of dressing. I think the duck could have been placed on top of the veggies rather than underneath it, because it lost the crunchy texture of the meat surface after a very short amount of time. When it first arrived though, the meat was cooked perfectly and was complimented very nicely by the crunchy, tangy salad.

Grilled pepper fillet $19.50

[GF]

This was a bit of a disappointment. It just didn't stand out among the other dishes. I have to say, it definitely wasn't bland - it had a nice peppery sauce, but all the different ingredients were blurred together because they all had very similar textures. Definitely wouldn't recommend ordering this!

Choo Chee Prawn Curry $21

[GF]

This might have been the dish of the night! We all thoroughly enjoyed it. The prawns were cooked perfectly and the sauce was delicious - not too heavy or overpowered by the coconut cream. I would definitely recommend this!

Basil Fried Rice $9.50

[GF]

I really liked the flavour of the basil with the rice in this dish. Props to the chef for cooking the rice perfectly - it wasn't too grainy or mushy. I've had some pretty terrible attempts at fried rice in my life, but this one definitely doesn't fit in that category!

Salt and pepper squid $18.50

This is what you would expect of salt and pepper squid - a crunchy, well spiced batter coating a piece of tender squid! To be honest though, I would've expected more squid for $18.50.

Seasonal vegetable stir fry in cashew nut sauce $14.50

[GF]

I didn't hate this, but I didn't love it either. I liked the fact that there was a huge variety of vegetables, but half of them were overcooked! The flavour of the cashew nut sauce added a very nice nuttiness, but there was way too much of it. However, I guess it did do it's job - being a source of veggies for the meal.

Fried icecream with chocolate sauce $6

Boy was this a disappointment. For me, the perfect fried icecream is a dense ball of icecream coated in a piping hot, crunchy, thin layer of batter. This was anything but. The batter was so thick and the shredded coconut pieces were way too large. Also, it was cold when it arrived at the table so was lacking the crunch. At least the vanilla icecream centre was nice and dense? Not enough to make up for the horrid batter though. 

Overall, we really enjoyed the dinner. The staff were friendly and attentive (except one waitress who spilt my drink while pouring it into my glass and didn't apologise), and the food didn't take too long to come out once we had ordered. The rest of the party really enjoyed all the food, which I'm glad of because they put me in charge of ordering! Most of the dishes were reasonably priced and very tasty. Definitely not completely authentic Thai food, but it was still very enjoyable! 

Overall, 8.5/10.

Once again, Happy Mother's day and I hope everyone enjoys the remainder of the weekend :)

Vy

xo