Thai Ayutthaya Restaurant — Restaurant in District of Belconnen

After coming back from a trip to Thailand not too long ago, we craved for some Thai meals again. We decided to go to this restaurant because of its location at the lake. Immediately at the door it should have been clear that this restaurant may not be authentic, as it looked like only one certain demographic was there in an almost full restaurant - it almost looked like they all belonged together for a large gathering (they didn’t). We ordered their curry puff, fish cake, papaya salad, green curry with steamed rice and Thai basil stir fried. Unfortunately, none of the dishes could be classified as authentic. All of them were rather sweet. The fishcake felt like rubber, the curry puffs were also certainly not made there but bought frozen. Both came with a very sweet sauce. The green curry didn’t taste like a coconut cream sauce or anything else - rather watery and sweet. It had peas in it which was new (not in a good way as it probably made it even sweeter). The Thai green curry is usually my go to for a comparative analysis across Thai restaurants. This didn’t convince us. The other two dishes were okayish, but also too sweet. I wouldn’t...

Stir-fried basil veggies smelled like sausages but were kind of ok. The Tom Yum Soup and Coconut Milk Lemon Soup were absolutely awful. Tom Yum was very bland. No ginger, no lemongrass, no lime leaf... no flavor at all. Just the flavor of chicken broth, carrots and msg. Lemon coconut milk soup tasted like water from the boiled broccoli mixed with msg, coconut milk and lemon juice. Disgusting.

It seems that they are skimming on all the flavorsome ingredients and are just using chicken broth and msg for flavor.

And btw... Sweet n sour pork... seriously? You can't even make proper Thai food so you thought you'll have better luck with...

What a delightful little find in Belconnen. Friends introduced us to this place and I'd say it is one of the better Thai restaurants on this side of town. The food was really love, tasty and well presented. We had the standards: curry puff and satay stick starters both of which were delicious. Then we had the Siam Chicken (with cashews) and Beef Massaman as mains - also really good. It is tucked away a little and not easily seen from the street because it faces out onto the water. It was dark when we were there but I imagine the views in daylight would be quite good. We'll put this place on our regular rotation and...