PROFILED BY DEGROOTS MEDIAAyutthaya is unmistakably a Thai restaurant. As you enter, you’re greeted by the owner Saylom Siharath, welcomed and seated like one of the family. Yet fear not, for the service and food make you feel like one of the Thai Royals, who are gazing dourly over the dining room from prime position on the back wall. One feels that they enjoy the view out the main windows over Lake Ginninderra too. The bright interior feels cosy and fun - hot pink, yellow and royal blue. Saylom, from Bangkok, is an old hand at restaurants, having been on the scene in Canberra for over a decade, originally at Thai Amarin, then Bangkok Garden, before opening Ayutthaya. So he knows Thai food and Australian palettes.
Head chef Theeraboon Sathong masterfully preserves the traditional flavours of Thai cuisine, while catering the spicy dishes to more sensitive tastes of Australia. The house special, though, is still the delicious tom yum goong soup, served with tiger prawns and perfectly flavoured with galangal and lemon grass, or the crowd-pleasing chicken pad Thai served with fried rice noodles and tamarind pulp. Finish off your royal feast with the exotic kao niao ma muang; a tasty sticky rice and mango pudding, or wash down some traditional Thai iced coffee and take in the regal waterside views.
Russell Buzby, November 2008