Sailors Thai, George St, Sydney

Sailors Thai, George St, Sydney
Monday 6 March, 2006

David Thompson has returned! I was a fan for a long time and then he high-tailed it to London to open Nahm (which is the only Thai restaurant to ever be awarded a Michelin star). Since it first opened just over 10 years ago Sailors Thai has become known for it's fresh, authentic thai food - it's no ordinary thai restaurant (don't go their thinking thai decor and stir fries by the dozen).

The decor in the restaurant and canteen is minimal - you wouldn't know it was thai food but for the restaurant name. The canteen doesn't accept bookings and offers long communal tables for about 40 people - personally, I'm not a fan of the communal table but it does ensure quick turnover. If you are lucky enough and the night is pleasant try to score one of the balcony tables (yes, tables for 2,3, or 4).

The canteen is a quick meal location as opposed to the restaurant. Colin Nelson has come on board as Restaurant manager after a stint at Est and should raise the service stakes, sadly this hasn't reached the Canteen.....yet.

We arrived at the canteen early, just after 6pm, and headed straight for the balcony. The view was directly out onto the Overseas Passenger Terminal and there was an ocean liner in dock so there were throngs of people milling around Cruise bar.

Menus were literally thrown at us as the wait staff tried to cope with three tables sitting down at the same time. Drinks were eventually ordered and then we had to seek out their attention to order food.

Tonight my interstate buddy and I decided to go with their special entree of deep fried prawn spring rolls. Did someone say prawn? They tasted very much like samosas (i.e. potato and curry powder) and we had to pull them apart to find the prawns.

For mains we really enjoyed the Spicy salad of green papaya, peanuts, dried prawns, coconut rice and sweet & salty pork plus the Red curry with golden char (fish). The sweet & salty pork was good however it looked and tasted like it had been cooked for too long. The best dish by far was the Red curry - with a side of boiled rice I could have eaten this all night - it had a good kick to it but I could have enjoyed a bit more.

The biggest surprise of the night came with the bill - for an entree, two mains, rice and a couple of glasses of wine - the damage was $100............the main dishes have definitely gone up since my last visit.

Sailors Thai - 106 George St, Sydney - (02) 9251-2466

http://sydney.citysearch.com.au/E/V/SYDNE/0052/00/21/1.html