Applecheeks and I were on an adventure getting a half keg for my padre’s birthday. One of the best prices I found was at a place called Total Wine near the Millenia mall.
While we were there we decided to stop off at NaraDeva Thai Restaurant for some grub. Hauling kegs is hungry work. It’s placed in a corner lot with fairly convenient parking. We got in there in the early evening, around 5:30pm on a week day and business was understandably slow. The hostess, server and another lady were chatting quietly at a booth and greeted us immediately.
The decor was pretty awesome. There were plenty of plants and fountains. Lots of wooden decorative pieces and light fixtures.
Our server was very friendly and didn’t mind waiting when we took a while to order. Since I was in a Thai restaurant I had to order a thai tea, sooo tasty. It was a little sweeter than I’m use to but still good. We decided to order all appetizers so we could eat a bigger variety of things.
First up on the hit parade
Steamed Tapioca Balls – stuffed with savory ground pork, sweet turnip and crushed peanuts filling, sprinkled with fried garlic flakes, garnished with cilantro.
My thoughts on this one; They were green and squishy. I don’t have a problem with that but some might. The outside resembles flavorless jello. Which isn’t too far from the truth, when the tapioca is steamed, it gels and creates that distinct squishy outside. The filling was a tad disappointing. I didn’t taste much of the savory ground pork but I would recommend these to impress your friends.
Steamed Dumplings – Steamed Gyoza Wrapper, filled with seasoned pork mix, with garlic chives and shredded cabbage in sesame sauce, served with Sweet & Sour Soy Dip.
These guys I felt were nothing special. Pretty good if you’re a dumpling fan but the portion size is pretty small… which I guess is the point of appetizers? The sweet and sour sou dip was a good complement to the dumplings.
Fresh Roll – Steamed Rice Paper Rolls, filled with boiled shrimps, crisp vegetables, fresh Thai herbs and rice noodles, served with Sweet Chili Sauce with crushed peanuts.
These guys looked naked with transparent rice paper. Basically you wanna have one of these in between as a pallet cleanser. The flavor is of unseasoned, raw vegetables. For best results, dip the roll in the sweet chili sauce and then into the crushed peanuts.
Thai Jerky – Marinated in flavorful Thai Jerky sauce, deep fried & served with Spicy Lemon & Chili dip.
You can chose between beef, pork or chicken. We went with pork and I was quite happy about that decision. Imagine little chunkies of pork that have been deep fried. That’s essentially what this dish offers. The spicy lemon, chili dip was, at first taste, a bit odd. But it was actually one of the tastiest sauces we had that day. I would totally recommend this appetizer. It’s a little more costly than the others but you get a decent amount of meat for your money.
Since we didn’t get an entree we felt totally justified in ordering dessert. There were quite a few choices that looked delicious. Eventually we ordered Black sticky rice with coconut in palm sugar carmel topping. Heck of a long name for a dessert but it happens to be very descriptive. The dessert features black sticky rice which I think is a wild rice. It had shredded coconut which was mixed with that palm sugar carmel, topped with Coconut Cream Sauce. That sauce was super sweet but went well with the rice. I’d say the dessert was a winner, especially if you like rice. I don’t know if it was because we were a couple or if it’s how it’s normally served but our dessert was shapped like a heart! <3