Christmas Eve Dinner at Zen Yai, Canberra City Centre

24/12/2008 - Christmas Eve dinner at Zen Yai - Thai Restaurant

12 of us dined at this Thai Restaurant on Christmas Eve. We opted for the dinner banquet which comprises of entree, main and dessert.

Entree
Curry puffs and spring rolls.

Main
Beef Red Curry
Marinated Grilled Fillet Chicken and Salad
Stir fry prawn with chilly and basil
Rice

Dessert
Green tea ice cream
Coffee

Cost = $24 per head excluding red wine.

Ratings

Food quality = 7/10

Ambience and cleanliness = 7/10

Value for money = 8/10

Service = 7/10.

Lily's comment: Good. This is one of a better Thai restaurant in Canberra. Service is good. My only complain is the green tea ice cream, which wasn't authentic as it was just vanilla ice cream with green colored toppings.

Crocodile Thai Senior, George Street

21/06/2008 - Dinner at Crocodile Thai Senior, China Town, George Street

Entree - curry puff and chicken staty
Main – Mom had the seafood stir fry in basil sauce with steam rice and cooked medium hot. I had the seafood tomyum with vermicilli noodle.
Beverage - We had just water.
Take away = Seafood fried rice and Chicken Pad Thai

Total cost for 2 plus takeaway = $65.

Ratings
Food quality = 9/10
Ambience and cleanliness = 6/10
Value for money = 8/10.
Service = 7/10.

Lily's comment: Good. Okay, because I like Thai food I may be biased with my comments. However, this is really one of the better Thai restaurants that I've been. The food is authentic (not the usual typical cooking to sweeten the dish in order to cater for Aussie taste buds!). My tom yum soup was really rich and I can see how much herbs like galangal, etc that they have used. The chicken satay was delicious and the portion of chicken breast meat is huge. This place have charming waitresses, they are nice and polite but because it's such a busy eatery, they are probably trained to get your orders quickly and make sure you're out as soon as you've finished your meal in order to accommodate the next customer in line of the long queue. The place gets busy the later it is in the night. Definitely no baby prams allowed in as each table is arranged so closely to another. We had to leave Charlene's pram outside when we dined there once. I highly recommend this place to those Thai cuisine lovers.

Rabbien Thai, Sylvania

14/06/2008 – Dinner at Rabbien Thai Restaurant, Sylvania
4 people – Kevin, myself, mom and Nick.
BYO.
Entree - We had chicken satay and curry puffs.
Main = lamb dish, green curry chicken, choo chee fish and fried tofu with vegetables in basil sauce.
Beverage - BYO, lemonade.
Total cost for 4 = $80.

Ratings
Food quality = 2/10
Ambience and cleanliness = 5/10
Value for money = 2/10
Service = 1/10.

Lily's comment: Poor. Very disappointing, the second and last time for us.