Season vs Shimizu Part 2

Part 2: A party on the North Shore

Season Thai

780 Pacific Hwy 

Gordon

(02) 9499 9093

Those who know me know that I love my curry, and it's pretty much all I eat when I'm at a Thai restaurant. (well, that and pad kee mao with chicken) but here is a Thai restaurant which managed to entice me away from the usual curry; I would happily not order curry of any form when I'm here. Not that their curry is bad. Far from it, but I found something better to have, and thai curry? I can get that in any of the other hundreds of Thai restaurants littered around Sydney.

Not only is this place great, it's also extremely convenient as it's within easy walking distance from home. And it is without a doubt in my mind, the best of the three Thai restaurants within a 200m stretch. Of course, this also mean that they charge premium pricing. If you want good, cheap Thai, there's always Newtown Thai 1 & 2, and quite a few others. And if you are lucky enough to live out that way, all the better. However, when on the North Shore, one must pay the North Shore surcharge…

Season Thai is part of the Red Spoon Thai Riffic group. I haven't been to any of their other restaurants, so I'm not sure how they rate.

The restaurant can be extremely noisy when full, due to the complete lack of sound deadening material in the restaurant. But then again, they aren't the only ones guilty of this. I can think of plenty of others, but if you want a lively atmosphere, I don't think you'd care. Especially if you're in a big group. If you rather not shout your conversations, avoid the busy nights like Friday and Saturday. We've only experienced one night when it was extremely noisy, but then the big table in the middle was extremely noisy. I think most of them were already quite tipsy by the time they arrived at the restaurant.

Anyway, that's the bad out of the way. Onto the good.

Mango prawn avocado salad- This one is seasonal. Grab it when mangos are in season...

Acacia Modern Japanese Dining

 Acacia Modern Japanese Dining

Shop 6&7 GPO Building

741 Pacific Hwy Gordon

02 9499 5214

info@acaciadining.com.au

The redevelopment of Gordon’s GPO building was completed quite a long time ago, with a lot of the building remaining empty. It took ages for the pizza place to open up in what used to be the Gordon post office. It was only very recently that another restaurant opened up in the building.

You can’t see this restaurant from Pacific Hwy, which may or may not be ideal. But if you’re like me, and take the train everyday, then yes, you can see the restaurant from the station side. Acacia is a modern Japanese restaurant, but really, it’s more of a Japanese/Western fusion, but with a lot more Japanese influence, but served in a Western style.

The décor is very modern, clean and the seats are comfortable. One issue I have with the décor is the noise suppression aspect. Or, should I say, the lack of it. It’s a fairly busy restaurant, meaning that the noise level can be quite high, almost to the point of lunch time yum cha levels. It is not at all romantic, as suggested by the restaurant’s advertising material. This is quite unfortunate.

It is also a very new restaurant, with the wait staff still learning the ropes and hence service is friendly, but inconsistent. Sometimes you get the feeling that the staff still aren’t quite sure about what to do, and  they can look a bit hesitant at times.