Thai style

Contrary to my previous post about disliking weekend crowds, I happened to head out on the town last night for a nice dinner with friends, and didn't actually mind how busy the restaurant was... perhaps it was because we already had a booking, and because I was drinking cocktails.

It was meant to be one of those "group of people from work" type of dinners, but true to form, most of the participants pulled out over the course of the several weeks between the origin of the dinner idea, and the actual "turn up to dinner" part.

That's how I found myself last night standing alone at the bar, sipping on a fantastic pear-flavoured cocktail, at Longrain in Little Bourke St, waiting for what turned out to be my three dinner companions.

The initial impressions of Longrain are great... fitted out warehouse vibe, bustling atmosphere, amazing green fish-scale feature wall, and a great cocktail menu. Oh, and the food menu wasn't half bad either. After I finished my pear cocktail, my dinner companions turned up, and we waited for our table, sipping on our next round of drinks (sour apple martini this time for me).

Dining is a communal affair at Longrain; either large parties on the larger round tables, or smaller parties on the long bench-style tables. We were positively ravenous by the time we sat down to eat (it was probably 9.30pm or so by this stage). We ended up taking the democratic approach to food selection - one dish each. (I just realised, up until this point I had failed to mention that Longrain serves Thai food. Very tasty, very good, very expensive Thai food). Thus, sooner than we were expecting, our meals suddenly appeared in front of us; lamb mussaman red curry, green curry with pork, jungle curry with duck and caramelised pork hock.

The food was amazing. The pork hock was so good that it immediately gets added to my list of amazing pork dishes I've eaten in the past few months. The lamb just melted in your mouth. The green curry and jungle curry generated a constant tingle on my lips. Even though we were hungry, the four of us couldn't quite finish the four dishes. But of course, we still had to go for dessert. I chose the coconut caramel custard with grilled banana because (i) I love caramel, (ii) I love custard and (iii) it's been ages since I've had any million-dollar fruit (banana). The dessert was insane... very tasty, and a nice experience having banana again, but oh my god, the custard was about as dense as a black hole, and as rich as anything I've ever eaten. The caramel oozed like some sort of industrial strength maple syrup. I love dessert... but even I couldn't finish this.

Thus, I found myself staggering through the city at midnight last night, feeling many kilograms heavier and liable to explode if I bumped into anything sharp. It was a great Thai meal, and heartily recommended. Just remember to take your wallet. And loosen your belt.