Saffron Thai, George & Grosvenor Sts, The Rocks

Saffron Thai (Brooklyn Hotel), George & Grosvenor Sts, The Rocks
Wednesday 5 July, 2006

Saffron Thai is located inside the Brooklyn Hotel. During the hours of 12 - 4pm you can order Thai food from the makeshift counter to the left of the bar. It's a simple set up - you order food from this counter and you can visit any of the bars for your drinks.

The website describes the food as, 'Featuring mouth-watering delicacies like Tom Yum Goong, Beef Salad and Green Curry, our menu will excite and tantalise your senses.' The menu is largely Thai with all the usual offerings - wok-tossed dishes, noodles, curries etc but it is the daily specials that fascinated me. Today they were offering chicken schnitzel & chips and steak & wedges. I don't know about you but if I am going to a Thai restaurant I plan to order Thai.

Today my former work buddy and I arrived for an early-ish lunch and managed to secure a table easily. I went to order a drink at the bar and asked for sparkling mineral water with no ice in the glass. The very young, brash bar tender took off to fulfill the order and had a conversation with a colleague that distracted him, so when he came back to me he delivered a glass full of ice. I politely explained that I wanted no ice in the glass and he turned away but started chatting again. Another glass of ice was delivered but this time he realised his mistake just as he was about to put the glass on the counter. Third time lucky ...he succeeded. Gee - imagine this performance during happy hour!

We both ordered our meals at the makeshift counter - I went with the green curry chicken and my lunch buddy ordered the chicken with cashew nuts. Both come with rice. Within minutes the chicken with cashews arrived. This sat at the table for another 3-4 minutes before the green curry arrived. Surely they could have delivered the meals together....

The food was surprisingly good and much better than my last visit in April. The green curry had a fantastic kick to it and a fair amount of chicken strips and vegetables. The sauce was delicious over the rice. The chicken with cashews was equally good with lots of chicken strips and vegetables.

The service is a little hit & miss. One of my pet peeves is for plates to be cleared from the table before each person has finished their meals. As my lunch buddy and I had been talking so much during lunch one of us finished our meal before the other........it wasn't me. The staff swept by and cleared my lunch buddies plates while I was still eating.

The meals are between $12 - $16.

Saffron Thai (Brooklyn Hotel) - George & Grosvenor Sts, The Rocks - (02) 9247 6744

http://www.brooklynhotel.com.au/