Emerald Thai

156 Reid St, Wangaratta 3677
Date visited: 17th April 2013

I have realised something.  It is awfully hard to find reviews on places to eat in regional Victoria.  No blog posts, no food reviews, no websites for the restaurants - sometimes I even wonder if the so-called place still exists and stalkerishly look for it on street view in Google maps, knowing full well that Google maps are more often than not out of date.  

I was going out for dinner with a couple of friends up in Wangaratta and we were having a tough time deciding on a place to eat, seeing that we had already been to the town's most recommended hotspot, Rinaldo's (will do a post on it if I do return there, as my first visit was for a sponsored dinner and I don't think its fair to judge food or service on something I didn't pay for).  Lucky for me, one of the girls who also happens to be an avid Thai food eater, had gone to Emerald Thai before and liked the food there, so it was our venue of the day.

It was quiet on a weeknight with probably only 3 other tables of patrons so we were seated immediately.  Service was pleasant and quick.

My phone had run out of battery so I shamelessly stole the pics off one of my fellow diners :D

We had the Fried Rice with Pork.  It was my favourite dish of the night, simple and comforting with lots of flavour from the wok.  

Fried rice with pork

We also had the Pad Thai with chicken.  The phad thai was wetter and had more gravy than most I've had, but it was very tasty, topped off with crushed peanuts, garlic, bean sprouts and chicken.

Pad thai

Now, we ordered the next dish, Peking Pork, hoping it to perhaps be like Peking Duck but in pork form.  Unfortunately, it came to us more looking and tasting like sweet and sour pork.  Oh well.  At least the pork ribs were big and meaty.

Peking pork

Now, three of our dishes had come out but the last, which was Panang Curry with chicken was still a no show.  We were pretty sure by now we had over-ordered (hey, we all went straight from work and were starving) but still, we asked for our last dish.  We ordered the Panang Curry because none of us knew what it was exactly - now looking it up, it's a curry that's milder but thicker than most Thai curries.  In my opinion it was the least impressive of the lot.  The curry was soupy and watery.  They used chicken breasts which although was still tender, was not my favourite chicken cut in Asian cuisine because it doesn't hold as much flavour.

Panang curry

Overall, not bad Thai cuisine for regional Victoria I suppose, and prices were pretty reasonable as well.