Mai Thai could be your Thai

 1 September 2023

 

MAI THAI SUSHI GARDENS

Corner of Mill Street and St Quintons Road, Cape Town

 

The elder goddaughter had a sleepover with us and it seemed an opportune time to pop in at Mai Thai, seeing as how it’s two minutes’ walk from our dwelling. The wife and I haven’t been on the premises since it changed from Chef Pon’s Asian Kitchen to Mai Thai though we’ve often ordered take away.  It was time to make a personal appearance.

 

I suppose the current owners simply took over the entire contents of the restaurant from Chef Pon (a very striking painting that we recall fondly, is still on the wall) but the ambience seems considerably more downmarket than we remember it. The physical menu is different, with lots of beautifully styled, full-colour photographs of some of the food on offer and I think the dishes are also somewhat different from what Chef Pon’s used to offer but many of the old favourites are still present and correct, and Asian fusion is still the concept.

 

Our starter was the 22-piece sushi “best platter” (R189) 

 and the goddaughter also ordered the 3-piece pan fried pork dumplings (R52,00).

 

The sushi was good but the dough of the dumplings was too thick and the filling was bland.

 

The wife’s main course was the aromatic crispy duck, with pancakes (R189) (probably her top favourite Chinese dish) and it was as good as it should be, a quiet smile of huge contentment graced her face as she tucked in.

 

The goddaughter opted for the Thai sesame chicken stir fry (R129) and was equally happy. I tasted a bite and it was delicious with a milder flavour than my own choice.

 

My choice, predictably, was the phad Thai with chicken (R109), a dish I hadn’t eaten in yonks. It had been my entry level dish into Thai cuisine in the late-Nineties. Allegedly, there’s more to Thai cuisine than phad Thai but call me a peasant; I like it. 

To say that I was mildly astonished at the quantity of food, is, obviously, an understatement.  Even if  I hadn’t eaten the sushi starter, that mountain of phad Thai would’ve been hard to climb; it’s plenty enough for two hungry critters.

 

It was very good too, with flavourful chicken, lots of noodles and some vegetables and that characteristic taste of peanut and lemon.

 

Neither the goddaughter or I managed to finish our main courses and took the surplus home. Saturday lunch was sorted.

 

One of the nice things about Mai Thai is that it offers both Singha and Tsingtao beer (if one eats Asian food, one wants Asian beer), and the goddaughter and I had two each of the latter while the wife stuck to sparkling water.

 

The dessert options were variations on ice cream.  We said “naah=,” went home for sugar free en gluten free cookies and decaff. 

 

The bill came to R890,00 before tip. 

 

Mai Thai is atmosphere challenged and I don’t think it’ll ever replace Saigon on our affections but the nosh is decent, the service good, they have Asian beer, the prices are reasonable and it’s on our doorstep. Now that we know what we’ll get there, we’ll pop in more often, especially when aromatic crispy duck calls.