Bringing Suan Bua to Bentota

 Published 29/09/2016 on Daily News

Taking on the fact that Sri Lanka’s culinary life is booming with restaurants popping up like hot tarts around the country especially in Colombo, it’s only natural that tastes from around the world make its way to the shores of Bentota.

The taste of Thai is truly loved by us all. And you find many Thai restaurants in Colombo that everyone goes to when they get a Tom Yam craving or have that Papaya Salad. Well now, the people from Down South can enjoy all that and more without having to travel all the way to Colombo. Suan Bua (Lotus Garden) at Centara Ceysands Resorts & Spa opened doors to its in-house guests and the local plus travelling community last month.

Thai Ambassador to Sri Lanka Nopporn Adchariyavanich opened the restaurant along with Softlogic Group Chairman and Managing Director Ashok Pathirage. The guests were treated to 4 course sit down dinner prepared for the opening by Thai Chef Thanida Amornvatin.

“The concept for the restaurant is like contemporary modern cuisine with authentic tastes of Thailand. Some of the ingredients that have been brought down such as the noodles, soya sauce are from Thailand. The vegetables and other spices are from here such as basil, tamarind etc. The food is also easy for everybody to eat and is not too spicy”, Chef Thanida said speaking to the media.

Chef Thanida has over 19 years experience in the culinary field graduating in the University of Thailand majoring in Kitchen & Restaurants. The whole menu was created by Chef Thanida and she is right now based in Maldives, she has trained the staff in creating the dishes she has come up with and to make sure that authenticity is indeed there in the dishes they serve to the guests. The menu consists a 7 day 7 set menu as well as a 24-hour 1-la-carte menu. Thanida chose the popular dishes which are favourite among the crowd and put them on the menu. This menu she has designed is used in Maldives as well as Thailand. In Sri Lanka she wants to adjust it to for everybody because even though we eat more chili and spicy stuff, the foreigners vary in their palette.

Speaking on the a-la-carte menu there are Appetisers, Soup, Mains and of course Dessert. The Appetisers include a choice of Gai Satay, Poh Pia Tod, Som Tam Thai, Laab Gai and Yam Woon Sen. Moving on to the soups, Thanida explained that they have two kinds of Tom Yam soups - the original Tom Yam Goong Nam Sai is the clear soup with less work on the spices and then there is the Tom Yam Goong Nam Koon (milky soup with coconut milk and raw chili paste) and Tom Kha Gai which is chicken in Coconut Milk with Galangal and Mushroom. Depending on the guest they have these three choices…and if a guest wants it spicier…all they have to do is request it when making their order.

Moving on to the Main course there Phad Kapraow (Stir fried Chicken/Pork/Beef with string bean, garlic, chili & hot basil), Pla Thod Nam Pla (Deep fried fish with Onion Salsa), Goong Phad Nam Prik Pow (Stir fried prawns with onion, sweet basil & Roasted chili paste), Geang Kiew Waan Gai (Green curry with chicken, eggplant & sweet basil) – which is actually my favourite – Phad Thai Goong (Stir fried Thai Noodles with prawns, bean sprout & Chinese chives) or the Khao Phad Gai (jasmine fried rice with chicken topped with Thai style fried eggs). There’s more and the menu will vary for the guests.

Speaking to the General Manager Riaan Drever, about why they chose a Thai Restaurant, he said “It’s our signature restaurant. For the moment it’s open only for dinner from 7pm to 10pm. If it becomes more popular we will look into opening it for lunch as well. They can cater to around 40 guests and as the restaurant stretches out into the garden as well…guests have the choice of dining inside or outside”.

So, now when driving back the usual way on Galle Road to your favourite down-south destinations you know where to pit-stop to have your Thai craving break.