I dread the loud noise, bright lights, overcrowding and general raucousness during weekend evenings anywhere close to the CBD, but we reluctantly made do when we were outnumbered by D’s study group who wanted to eat at Thai Pothong on a busy Saturday evening.
Thai Pothong has been in Newtown for over 20 years and is known for providing an authentic Thai experience in terms of food, service and ambience. The walls are lined endlessly with Thai decorations that all for sale in their gift shop.
Their drinks menu is extensive with many Thai-inspired cocktails and a few mocktails. This is the Pothong Passion ($10.00) with passionfruit, lychee, lime juice, syrup and crushed ice.
The sweet and tangy flavours of passionfruit and lime dominate this drink, with 3-4 whole canned lychees. That said, more than two-thirds of the glass was filled with crushed ice, making it hardly worth the price.
Onto the mains, this is the Red Duck Curry ($23.00, + steamed jasmine rice $3.00) with boneless duck, lychees, pineapple, tomato, basil and coconut milk.
This is one of the more interesting curries with the addition of lychees being the main drawcard. The (canned) lychees and (fresh) pineapple add a pleasant sweetness to the dish that balances well with the coconut milk base for the curry. The duck pieces were generous and tender. Overall, this was a surprisingly enjoyable curry, although again, the portion size for the price left a lot to be desired.
D goes for the Pad Thai ($19.90) with rice noodles, shrimps, egg, bean sprouts, peanut, chicken and prawns.
He enjoys the mix of savoury, sweet and sour flavours as well as the different textures that make a good pad thai. It’s one of the tastiest he’s enjoyed, but it’s also again, he’s received comparably tasty pad thai in much larger portions for much less elsewhere.
Fifteen percent of the total bill is ‘refunded’ to you in Thai Pothong Dollars, which you can only use at their gift shop. Personally, I’d rather receive 15% off my bill rather than having to exchange it for something I’d don’t want. Items like this ‘green jade style’ elephant are $750.00, while the chipped candle holder is $34.00 each.
Thai Pothong has been in Newtown for over 20 years and is known for providing an authentic Thai experience in terms of food, service and ambience. While the food is tasty, the portion sizes at those prices leave a lot to be desired. For those wanting to catch up with friends, this is also not the ideal place unless you enjoy yelling at each other all night just to be heard. When birthday cakes come out – and there were at least six over 2.5 hours – give up trying to talk as the staff join in for a super loud rendition of the song.
Thai Pothong is located at 294 King St, Newtown NSW 2042.