Simply Thai
Xintiandi North Block,
Lane 181 Taicang Lu (???181?)
Shanghai, China
PRICE: ????
RATING:

The very lovely people at diningsecretary.com invited Chris and I for lunch to discuss their new website, potential collaborations, and well, the main purpose was to have a foodie’s pig-out session 😛 It was held in the gorgeous Simply Thai in Xintiandi, which holds a special place in my heart because it was one of the first restaurants I visited when I first moved to Shanghai. I loved the food there then, however was scared off by their pricing (as compared to local Chinese places). So I was naturally quite delighted when diningsecretary were hosting a lunch there – yay! 🙂

There were of course our hosts Shau-Ru and Raph as well as other diningsecretary.com staff, and in attendance was another fabulous Shanghai food blogger Phat in Shanghai. It really made me wistful for our life back in Australia, where every single friend of ours was a massive foodie and would love to eat copious amounts with us. In contrast, in Shanghai, I don’t actually know ONE single girl friend that loves to eat, and loves to eat a LOT. Everyone I know here is either always on some sort of diet, or vegetarian, or simply not very interested in food. It’s a blessing in disguise because they’re a very good influence on me (after all, now I exercise! Well, at least I used to, I’ve quit as of this week)… but I do miss having some girl friends that just adore eating and chow down in wild abandon, with nary a thought of getting fat.

After a long time gas-bagging away (there is MUCH to talk about with fellow foodies!), we kicked off with the food. The main theme running through? We had massively over-ordered. LOL! We could’ve cut the food down by 50%, easily. We ate and ate and ate, and I really hate leaving food behind on plates, so I did my best to try and cram everything in, but to no avail. The whole table was covered with a staggering array of dishes.

IT WAS AWESOME 😀

I loooove a whole smorgasboard of dishes for me to feast my eyes (and belly) on. The dishes were delicious, though the only downside was that my belly filled up quickly and I couldn’t stuff everything in 🙁 But I thoroughly enjoyed the food and company, and it’s re-ignited my interest in Simply Thai. I’m already planning my next visit back… 😉

My first visit to Simply Thai, early last year.
thediningsecretary.com’s blog of the lunch.
Phat in Shanghai’s blog of the lunch.

The curtain-draped interior of Simply Thai

Mango slushee and Banana yoghurt slushee. Perfect on a hot summer’s day.

Fish cakes, Shrimp spring rolls, Beef satay, Lemon grass chicken, Mango rice paper rolls
BEST by far was the Lemon grass chicken – packed with flavour and still juicy

Soft shell crab salad – you can’t go wrong with soft shell crab! Huge, fat chunks,
much to my delight. I ignored the salad 😉

Tom Yum king prawn soup – the prawn was giant, LOL. I liked how the bowl
came on top of a candle burner, to keep it warm. Spicy, tangy, comfort food.

Green curry chicken – I find the thin sliced chicken breast a bit bland, and prefer
to slurp up the creamy coconut milk curry which is packed with spices and flavour

Egg plant with bell peppers and minced pork – holy smokes this was good!!!
Creamy, soft eggplant and packing a spicy flavour punch. Amazing just with plain rice.

Mussels with chilli paste – the mussels weren’t as super juicy as I’d expected,
and was really full by now, so I only had a few of these..

Crispy fish and mango in tamarind sauce – very impressive looking. The fish meat
could’ve been more tender, as it was overpowered by the hard batter, but the
mango and tamarind sauce…… divine!!!!!

Sago and coconut pudding – by far the best dessert at Simply Thai. Creamy
coconut atop juicy little sago pearls and corn kernels. Check out the wee spoon 😛