I feel I should apologise for not once in the last 4 weeks having had Cambodian food in Dunedin – when there are in fact a number of Cambodian restaurants in town.

I aim to put that right this week by sampling a couple this week along with Thai (again).

So starting on Monday at lunch time, I went to the New Satay Noodle House where I ordered the Spicy Vegetarian Tofu for $9.  There was actually a number of vegetarian items on the menu and most come in regular and large servings.  I chose regular and it was huge, way too much for me to finish in fact (which is saying something).

It was piping hot with heat but I couldn’t find any spicy in it.  It was more a tofu and vegetable stew or thick soup with carrots, onions, broccoli, cauliflower and tofu.  It was ok. I wouldn’t rush back for it but on a cold, grey Dunedin day, it hit the spot.

3/5 for this and I’d be keen to try some of their other items on their menu so I may yet be back for more.

Monday night was back to my old favourite Thai Hanoi.  I visited here right back in week 1.

This time from their menu I got the Gang Par with Tofu.  This wasn’t a dish I was familiar with, but sound intriguing as its essentially a red curry made without coconut milk and has vegetables, lime leaves and fresh basil.  I figured this was a reasonably healthy choice without the coconut cream, and lets face it, with all this eating out, I need to be sensible.

It was like a Tom Yum but with a red curry flavor.  Its not obvious form the picture but it had quite a lot of thin, soupy sauce.

And it was delicious!  I’d order it again in a heartbeat!

5/5 and I’m looking forward to going back to Thai Hanoi on Wednesday night to dine in with a friend. Oh and it was $18.50 and that’s about a half serving in the picture.

San Restaurant – Spring Rolls & Char Noodle

Tuesday night was back to Cambodian cuisine.  I found there is a newly opened Cambodian restaurant right near the office called San Restaurant.  They have a special deal on their website where you print a coupon and you can get an appetizer and a main for $20.

This seemed like a pretty good deal as most of the mains were $17-20 anyway.

I got the Spring Rolls (which are vegetarian) & Char Noodle vegetarian option.

Shown in the photo is about half the noodles and all the spring rolls.  The noodles were very much like Pad Thai and a really good Pad Thai at that.  Totally delicious and I was looking forward to the leftovers for lunch all Wednesday morning 🙂

The spring rolls were hot and crispy but I don’t think they were home made.  Next time, and I will be going back, I will order the San Rice Rolls (fresh spring rolls) instead.

Without a doubt 5/5.  Also nice to see Gluten Free items clearly noted on the menu.

Wednesday night, it was back to Thai Hanoi but this time to dine in… fancy.

I choose the Black Pepper Stir Fry with Tofu.  This was $18.50.  Again another amazing meal from Thai Hanoi.  I’m pretty sure that you can’t really go wrong and can probably just order randomly and you won’t go wrong.

Service was attentive, they took our drinks order quickly and gave us a few extra minutes to decide on the menu.

Its a nice atmosphere to sit and relax after your meal for a few minutes.

We declined desert but they had some interesting items on their desert menu, not especially Thai, the top one was chocolate brownie but I didn’t happen to read the rest of them.

5/5 definitely if you are wanting a good Thai meal, you really can’t go wrong here.

Last lunch of the week, I wandered into Sampan Khmer Satay Noodle House and ordered the Vegetarian Satay for $8.50.

I didn’t have high hopes, lets face it, it doesn’t look appetizing does it?  Mixed frozen vegetables and what looks like something the dog did.  But it was actually pretty tasty – but lets be real, satay sauce makes everything taste ok 😉

I give it 3.5/5 – I would go back and perhaps try some of their other items, they had a fairly extensive list of vegetarian items and service was quick and friendly.

So that concludes another week of Dunedin dining.

I’m running out of cuisines so any thoughts for next week?