Sabai Thai
8 Castle St , Christchurch BH23 1DT - Tel. 01202 486 671Located where the old Topogigio Italian restaurant was, this represented a very bright, chic replacement. Very light and airy inside with lovely leather chairs.
It seemed as if the food would be a refreshing modern twist on traditional Thai cuisine.
Although we finished everything off and it was tasty indeed. I felt with all the modern looks and feel, I craved a bit of old fashioned Thai.
The prawn tempura was not tempura by any means, just plain battered prawns. I was looking forward to my green curry but it lacked the baby aubergines, bamboo shoots, large peas and long soothing kick of chilli found at other Thai restaurants I have tried around Bournemouth. The sad little Birds Eye peas floating around was a disappointment.
Presentation wasn't that great neither. OK, so not everywhere has the time and skills to make all those elaborate vegetable carvings but the sliced tomato and iceberg lettuce is more reminiscent of a bar meal garnish.
Not a huge fan of sweet and sour but theirs was a good rendition. Very savoury without the overly cut of vinegar and bright red colouring. To be fair the Pad Thai went down a treat as well.
A chicken green curry is my key test for any Thai restaurant as to whether I would choose to go back in any great hurry. Found lacking on my part.
However, it is still a nice restaurant and service is very friendly as with all Thai restaurants we have been to so far.
