Parade Thai
Yet another review on The Parade in Norwood, this time at the fittingly named Parade Thai. We were actually supposed to visit this place before Danny’s Thai bistro but the were fully booked, so I assumed that this place was a pretty popular place to eat at and in my mind that means the food has to be good! Directly opposite Danny’s Thai Bistro also means it’s going to be some tough competition, as you could easily hop across if the line up is too long! Last week’s service was pretty average, so I am hoping that this place can set the record straight!
Final Score:
Chicken Green Thai Curry
Yup, don’t be mistaken by the rather washed out photo that my phone takes, the curry is actually this fluorescent green in colour! It was like someone had added some extra green food colouring, but in fact (or I presume) that it is just a blend of green herbs and curry leaves. In fact, the photo doesn’t do justice to just how green it was!
This is the first time I have had a green curry outside of home, and I have been waiting on a place to recommend it as a good dish. Between this and red curries, I would prefer the red, but maybe that’s because I am unfamiliar with this part of town (green curry town!). To be honest, the fluoro green colour didn’t put me off at all as I knew it would be full of curry flavour! The chicken was very tender, and there was a very strong presence of chili in the sauce, and upon further research it is a fact that green curries are the only one out of the three colours (red, green yellow curries) that use fresh chilis – all the others use dried chili! There is your usual salty and sweet combination going on as well, perhaps a touch of lemongrass and coriander, and it wasn’t too hot to be unbearable. In addition to the chicken, it had some nicely fashioned wedges of zucchini which were a little soft, but still very tasty … so a good Thai curry really is down to the base curry paste you use! As a first timer, I would have to rate this quite enjoyable! Definitely on par with a good red curry which I have been favouring.
So after some weeks of bad service in our previous reviews, I was getting a bit fed up with wasting my life away whilst being hungry. So how did Parade Thai fare in the quest for good service? Well, a couple of good points can be awarded for friendliness, and promptness and decisiveness when taking our orders … but I think the buck stops there. Are my standards getting too high, or is service being a major problem on my Thai reviews? We waited a very long time for our food, almost 40 minutes is not good enough especially with a small table of only 7 this week. Furthermore, when we ran out of rice halfway through, it took a lot of hand-waving to get one of the five waitress’ attentions. Food orders were not an issue unlike Danny’s from last week, and overall I think a little bit better.
The decor was very homely, very warming and although not trendy and modern like Danny’s, I was still impressed. As you can see from the first image above, they had some Thai ornaments and masks hung up around the place, and I found out later that the proprietor was a Thai lady. The walls were painted warm red colours, and lighting was very fitting for a relaxing after work dinner. Very popular for takeaway I have heard too!
So, would I come here again? well … I dunno, I think it’s a bit early on in this game to tell, but I wouldn’t have any objections if someone organized a function here … and is this place better than Danny’s Thai Bistro across the road? Food-wise I am rating about the same, but service was a lot better in comparison (even though it could be improved). Go to Danny’s if you like a modern interior, and go to Parade Thai if you like it homely.
- Service [6.6/10] : Better than last week, but why so slow?!
- Quality [7.9/10] : I guess there’s not heaps you can do with a bowl of green chicken!
- Venue [8.4/10] : Thai ornaments add a great authentic touch to the place.
- Value [7.4/10] : Reasonable serving size, but again I hate paying for slow service.
Images
Leave a Reply