Good, affordable Thai cuisine in Colombo tends to be a rarity, with just one leading city hotel dishing out delectable Thai fare alongside a couple of other restaurants, but is bound to leave a dent in your wallet. So when I heard of Quick Thai having opened down Maitland Place, I was rather curious. But all doubts were put to rest once I finally paid them a visit and having feasted on a number of favourites at the restaurant, I was left happy and stuffed!

The menu at Quick Thai features a wide range of Thai dishes, the grand total coming to 120 items. Their main aim is to serve tasty and authentic street food Thai style, while also placing focus on the fact that they wish to do Thai cuisine the best possible way they can, with the freshest of ingredients available.

Kicking things off at lunch, I was served a platter of fried crabs alongside sweet and sour chillie sauce. The crabs were fried quite well, and this made it easier to bite into them. The meat was soft and this refreshingly light appetizer was crunchy and paired with the sauce proved to be delicious and perfect for those seafood (or crab, specifically!) aficionados.

No Thai meal is complete without a serving of red, green or yellow curry, and keeping this in mind, I was served red curry chicken and a green curry chicken alongside a bowl of steaming, fragrant jasmine rice. A mouthful of jasmine rice with red or green curry chicken was incredibly flavourful and spicy, and utterly delicious. It’s advisable that the curries be eaten with the jasmine rice as opposed to the fried rice dishes, because the flavours are brought out better.

Best enjoyed with the jasmine rice is a portion of raw mango or papaya salad. Incorporating shredded raw mango or papaya, the fruit is combined with crunchy peanuts, sliced raw beans, red chillies, lime, sugar and garlic and tossed together to make a perfect spicy salad – which can be eaten alone or with jasmine rice. Yummy, and incredibly flavourful.

Next was a serving of a Chicken with Thai basil set lunch which consists of a mound of jasmine rice served with a spicy Thai chicken curry with basil, and topped with a fried egg. Simple flavours executed and a great pick for lunch at Quick Thai. Another favourite at the restaurant is the fried rice with basil chicken and shredded omelette and vegetables and the fried garoupa with Thai sauce.

The vast menu includes other rice and noodle dishes in addition to a host of meat and seafood dishes. Desserts include sticky rice with mango, lychees with vanilla ice cream, chocolate mousse, chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream, and fresh fruit. Fresh fruit juices are also on the menu, and customers can request for sugar to be added.

Picture courtesy Quick Thai

Ingredients are sourced from small scale suppliers, such as the basil leaves which are sourced by a farmer in Ratnapura. Quick Thai was first opened in Pelawatte, Battaramulla around 11 months back, and the outlet at Maitland Place (adjoining NCC) was opened three weeks back, and so far they’ve garnered a favourable response from customers.

The kitchens at both outlets have a strict no MSG or corn flour policy, and they don’t use as much sugar or chillies in the dishes prepared as much as the Thais do, but still keeping things as much authentic as possible. Every dish is made upon order, and Quick Thai stresses on the fact that they do not microwave a previously cooked dish to be served to customers. A Thai chef is currently heading operations at the kitchens and is training staff when it comes to preparation of the dishes. Customer favourites include the fresh salads, and the curries in addition to the Tom Yam soup. They will partner with Quickee.lk soon for delivery orders.

Picture courtesy Quick Thai

Quick Thai is on Facebook, should you wish to have a look at more dishes. They can be contacted on 0113560466 (Pelawatte outlet), and 0113090008 (Maitland Place outlet).

Addresses of both outlets: 29A, Maitland Place, Colombo 07 and 424A, Pannipitiya Road, Pelawatte.

Text and pics by Sarah Kellapatha