Trevor Pepys reviews Monkey Punch Thai Cuisine
It’s hard to past a good Thai feed, and fortunately Noosa has several good exponents of the cuisine. But Trev has been missing one of his favourite dishes, the stir-fried duck in black pepper sauce at Thai Square, which mysteriously closed its doors some months ago, leaving only its sign to conjure pleasant memories of no frills meals served with a smile.
But wait. Hot for a stir fry, Trev was ferreting through the online menus when he noted that Monkey Punch in the Junction offered a good range of them, and that furthermore, on checking what’s left of the memory bank, he realised he had never actually tried the place in the couple of years that it’s been on the eat street strip near Mr Drifter. The on-line reviews were mixed – some positives on the flavours, colours, textures and presentation of the food, a lot of negatives on the service.
What the hell, it’s live street music night up the Junger, so if dinner’s crook we can at least groove to the beats.
Monkey Punch is a pleasant-enough indoor/outdoor set-up with cute monkeys on the walls for a bit of fun, and we were shown to a front table that offered a streetscape sunset and filtered music from just down the road. But then we were immediately confronted with the service issue. Our three waitresses (not Thai) had apparently convened a meeting to discuss human resources issues or their next ink jobs and could not be disturbed, even when Trev started clutching his throat and gasping for liquid refreshment.
When finally we managed to flag one down, I managed to order a bottle of La Plancheliere rose (a decent French quaffer marked up 300 percent on Dan’s price at $44) but it arrived in an ice bucket that had last seen ice at the lunch sitting. When Trev asked for more, the bucket and the wine disappeared for a long time and was returned with three new cubes. Well, with Unity Water’s prices, I suppose they have to be careful.
The menu was quite extensive but Trev was not to be deterred from a stir fry fix, so we kept the wolf from the door with a few starters before ordering a share stir fry. Curry puffs ($7.90 for four) and fish cakes ($7.90 for four) were just bog standard Thai, but the herby duck ($7.90 for two pieces) was in another realm, shredded roast duck in shallots, red onion, roasted rice, drizzled with chilli and lime dressing, served on cos lettuce leaves. Similar to a small san choy bau, but with distinct and delicious flavours.
For a shared main, Trev and the missus had to address the usual issue of chilli heat, for which there is a simple remedy. We order mild for her taste buds with a side of chopped chilli peppers for my fiery buds. Other than the word spicy, which can mean anything, there was no indication of how hot the lime leaf peppercorn stir fry chicken breast ($16.90) might be, so I asked our waitress for advice.“Yeah nah, it’s not very spicy at all,” she offered. Trev’s instinct was to ask her to check with the chef, but that seemed like a bridge too far so he just ordered the chopped chilli side. Mistake.
The chicken breast came beautifully presented and colour co-ordinated on a red plate to great effect, with a sea of spicy oyster sauce full of veges, lime leaves, peppercorn and garlic, chilli and ginger all in the mix. It was delicious and hot as hell. But every cloud has a silver lining – the missus pushed it aside after one flaming mouthful, leaving Trev with a delightfully filling meal while she finished off the puffs and fish cakes. The chopped chilli remained untouched.
The missus demanded ice cream as compensation, but the Monkey only serves it deep-fried so we went home for a cleansing ale instead.
The verdict: Funky venue with great food if you order wisely, keenly priced, let down considerably by inattentive, uninformed staff front of house.
Monkey Punch Thai Cuisine, 11 Sunshine Beach Road, Noosa Junction, phone 5474 5440.
