Baywok
61 Majors Bay Rd
Concord, Sydney
In a busy little eating district in Concord, Baywok has managed to transform itself from many years as a good solid local Thai restaurant into what is now a unique and very good modern Asian restaurant. Owners Rob and Dan Galati and chef Ubon Arnold have created something special here - it's a new modern Asian fusion sensation.
We started with one of the specials of the day from the Dinner Specials board just inside the front door. The crispy Barramundi with shredded apple, pomelo and pomegranate salad.
They came in a serving of three and after having one each we almost fought over who got the third one - they were that nice! They were lightly cooked so the moisture in the fish was retained. They were actually a decent size for an entrée item as well and only $18.00.
Our next entrée was the Thai fish cakes. Yes, we've all had Thai fish cakes and we kind of know what to expect every time as there isn't much variation or difference. Well these actually were fish cakes with a difference! They were made with swordfish purchased fresh from the markets by the owner (as they always are each and every week). The fish was then used in these tasty morsels in chunks rather than being completely puréed.
As a result you could still see the fish in the fish cakes and the use of fresh swordfish added even more to the dish. These were lovely with a great blend of flavours that combined perfectly and didn't overpower each other and they certainly weren't chewy or rubbery.
These chunky juicy plump fish cakes with lemongrass, coriander and crunchy onion come in a serving of four for only $11.90.
Once we saw the betel leaves on the menu were were always going to have at least one each. In this case they were our third entrée to arrive (yes we were indulging a bit) and even though we still had several main courses to come we were very tempted to have seconds each - they were that good.
The betel leaves were beautiful, heart shaped leaves that you could order with either seafood or vegetarian filling.
We had the seafood option which had lemongrass, prawn, peanut, dried coconut. Amazing and such good value at only $3.00 each.
They were so fresh and crisp with a great combination of both flavours and textures with the soft delicate leaf contrasting nicely with the crunch of the dried coconut and peanut. .
If you go to Baywok you may well bring some wine of your own - as it's BYO - but it's well worth trying the bamboo mixed berry green tea.
It's extremely refreshing and none of the flavours overpower the others and we found it quite addictive. It was also a nice accompaniment to the food as well. We're not sure about the price but it wouldn't be much as everything here is reasonably priced.
We then moved on to the main courses. The shredded snow pea salad isn't something I'd normally order but WOW - this was a killer dish and for me one of the best salad dishes I'd ever had! It had shredded snow peas, red onion, dried coconut, palm sugar, chilli jam and red curry dressing with seared scallops and wild caught Australian prawns. Every bit of this dish was sublime and every last bit of it was finished - including the remaining sauce in the bowl. What a winner at $22.00.
We love massaman dishes - mostly beef to be honest for Mlady - while I'm comfortable with anything as there's a trend these days towards using lamb quite a bit, particularly shanks.The massaman was described in the menu as slow cooked massaman beef cheeks with potato and sweet potato.
The meat fell apart when cut and melted in your mouth - as good massaman should - but this was extremely tender and had clearly been slow cooked for a long time. It came with a side of steamed jasmine rice - as all curry dishes here do.
The massaman flavours were really good too, solid but not overpowering, and the serving size was extremely generous for the $17.90 price.
It was a lovely finish with nice sweetness and good texture. Mlady described it as thick and creamy and oh so yummy!
\The papaya went well too and provided some nice linkage to the modern Asian food for Baywok.
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| Dan Galati |
Sir and Mlady dined as guests of Baywok and Rob and Dan Galati.
