We visited the Naga Thai early one evening after shopping. We had visited a couple of times for lunch and enjoyed it but had never tried their evening menu.
The restaurant itself is pleasant and comfortable with nice woodblock walls adding texture to the dining room.
We decided to try the fixed seafood menu, but changed the dessert to banana fritters with vanilla ice cream.
The wine list is short but sufficient, and we selected a bottle of Graves, which was nice and reasonable value. The restaurant also will supply tap water to the table which is very good, and to be welcomed.
The meal itself started with a mixed selection of Stuffed Crab with minced prawns, fried toast with sesame seeds and chicken in pandanus leaves. These were OK, but the Stuffed Crab with minced prawns was a really a big dough ball with traces of shredded crab sticks and prawn through it.
The soup was pleasant and suitably spicy for a Thai dish. Nearly all the other dishes had minimal chilli heat, but this is what you expect in Thai restaurants that have a strong Chinese influence.
The main courses comprised,
Stir fried lobster with yellow powder and onion,
Deep Fried Sea Bream (deboned) with Thai eggplant, pea-eggplant, basil leaves and chilli peppers in red curry,
Stir Fried Chinese Broccoli with garlic in oyster sauce
Piquant prawns salad with cucumber, tomato and celery in spicy chilli dressing.
Fried Rice.
In reverse order the Fried Rice was fine and came in a bowl big enough bowl to feed a family of four,
The prawn salad was refreshing but the spicy chilli dressing was fairly thin and bland.
The Stir Fried Chinese Broccoli was a chinese dish and felt out of place in a Thai restaurant.
The Sea Bream was very pleasant and I would have it again, but then again I am a big fan of Thai red and green curry sauces.
Finally we come to the “Stir Fried Lobster”. What can I say? The description makes you think of lobster meat quickly sir fried in wok with some light spices and sauces served quickly to your table.
The reality is a dish of chopped up lobster served in a platter covered in what was the most revolting separated yellow sauce I have seen in many a year. The slimy sauce made it next to impossible to pick up pieces of lobster and remove the meat. If you did eventually manage to remove some lobster meat it was overcooked and so rubbery I am sure it would have bounced . This revolting sauce was also used to hide that the main carcass and most of the lobster meat was missing. The main claws were served up but the rest contained little if any edible lobster meat.
This Lobster dish is misleading in its description, very poor in concept, deceitful in content and breathtakingly incompetent in its execution.
We did mention to the waitress that the lobster dish was very poor, but she just smilled and wandered on.
Finally we had the banana fritter with vanilla ice cream which was OK.
While getting over my Lobster shock I checked out what other dimners were eating and some of the food looked good especially the grilled langoutines, and we have enjoyed lunch here previously. I wouldn't say don't go. But should you venture into this establishment remember this warning : “BEWARE OF THE LOBSTER”.
For 2 the bill came to 125 Euros, and a memory that I am afraid will live with me for a long time. |
Uitstekend
Matig