Authentic flavours from the land of smiles
At Thai
Where: Westville Country Club, 1 Link Road, Westville
Open: Daily 11am to 8pm, 9pm Fridays
Call: 067 085 6038
Food writer Ingrid Shevlin asked me to join her on a trip to Westville to try At Thai, a little eatery and takeaway she had heard good reports of. And they were opening for the first time on Sundays, so our little Sunday lunch group jumped at the opportunity.
At Thai is a simple kitchen and hatch that spills out onto a covered deck amid the squash courts at the Westville Country Club. It’s basic but comfortable. We’re welcomed warmly.
Local lad Ashley was travelling in South East Asia where he met Mali in Thailand. On their return to South Africa, the couple opened At Thai (it was originally @Thai, but Google didn’t like the @ sign) to create the tastes they missed from Thailand. On their Facebook page they tell of serving food that’s “tasty, spicy and healthy using original Thai ingredients bringing you all the flavours of the land of smiles”.
We were told when booking that this being the first Sunday they were opened, the bar would not be available, but that didn’t matter. It was only when we got there that we realised that it included soft drinks. The bar is a hatch next to the kitchen run by the country club itself, and this would be open in the future. It’s there to serve the squash players. It was not a problem as we just walked across the car park to get a couple of beers from the Olive and Oil.
The menu is super simple. It’s 12 items that can all be served with a selection of five proteins, chicken, crispy chicken, pork, tofu and veg or prawns. Ashley takes us through it.
There’s a green and red curry and a kao-soi or yellow curry. Noodle dishes take in pad-Thai, or glass noodles or egg noodles with cashew nuts. Rice dishes take in pad-kra-prao, a simple Thai fried rice or a hellfire fried rice (spelt he’ll fire). Spring rolls complete the Thai style dishes while crispy chicken strips and chips and a crispy chicken burger and chips take in the more Euro options.
We ordered starters of prawn and chicken spring rolls (R60) which are lovely, crisp and well loaded. They’re also fresh fresh fresh and come with an excellent spicy and peanut loaded dipping sauce. We were impressed.
The Fat Frog Lady scored the dish of the day, the chicken kao-soi curry (R105) which was wonderfully rich and deeply flavourful, without being overtly hot. She had asked for it medium. It was topped with a bunch of crispy noodles to add to the crunch.
Ingrid’s prawn phad-kra-pao (R95), a rice based stirfry which features holy basil and chillies along with garlic onions, fish sauce, oyster sauce and dark soy was enjoyable if a little sweet. We both felt it might be better with chicken or even crispy chicken than prawns, and as she had asked for it mild, for me it needed a touch more heat. It was topped with a perfect soft fried egg.
I enjoyed my pad-Thai (R120) topped with five large prawns. This stir-fried rice noodle dish with fish and oyster sauce unusually did not have the egg scrambled through the noodle mix, but was instead served as an omelette around the stir fried noodles. Ordered medium, it could have had a little more chilli presence for me, and certainly more nuts, but it was spiced up with that leftover dipping sauce from the spring rolls. It had that suitably fish sauce funk one expects of a good pad-Thai, that makes it so moorish.
Desserts were not an option - although we were offered a packet of their crisp coconut biscuits (R20). These were delicious and would be great to scoop up a dollop of ice-cream.. The two ladies each took a pack home with them.
Will definitely pop in again.
Food: 3 ½
Service: 3
Ambiance: 3
The Bill: R559 for 3, excluding drinks