Eating: Red Shallot

19/01/2015

One lazy night, when we felt like naughty food but our wallets were too slim, we dipped into the Entertainment book and decided on Red Shallot.

The interior is a little threadbare, with an attempt at a modern style. I noticed straight away a great example of design compromising functionality in the bowls they had set up with chopsticks threaded through, (please see above for example). I like things functional yet pretty so seeing this caused an eye twitch.

Since it had been a particularly long week at work, we both felt like being greedy, and decided on fried Basa fillet with coconut sauce to share, with one Pad Thai each.

The fish looked amazing, but was not as great as we had hoped. The Basa fillet had an excellent crunch but the flavour of the fish was spoiled by the overwhelming oil flavour from the batter on the outside. The quality of the fish was questionable as it felt mushy and undercooked right in the centre. It's like the consistency you would get if you didn't completely thaw out your fish before deep frying it. The coconut sauce was made of a generous amount of desiccated coconut, coconut milk and a few bits of chilli. The flavour was not one that improved with time, as the more you ate the more fatty it felt, without anything to help cut through the oil from the outside crumb.

Recently I've been preferring my vegetarian versions of my favourite noodles. Unfortunately this is one of the poorer versions of vegetarian Pad Thai I've experienced. The firm style tofu looked like it was meant to have a crunchy exterior but was gooey, and potentially undercooked. The Pad Thai sauce was tasty but was much too wet, making the noodles soggy.

My better half chose the seafood pad Thai, but half way through stopped eating the prawns. He described them as tasteless, and once again questionably undercooked. Do you notice the same pattern I noticed? Just to be clear we didn't experience any gastroenteritis after this dining experience, but I'm not one to place myself in a situation where there is the potential for illness.

In conclusion:

My one dinner experience at this restaurant was not one I would remember fondly. Other people seemed to have better experiences here, but based on my one night I wouldn't recommend this place to my friends or loved ones. The tastes here are average in the Basa fillet with coconut dish, and the two Pad Thai dishes. The quality of the food is questionable, as the texture is not one I would equate to food cooked to an acceptable eating standard.

Perhaps you might have a better experience here than I had, but it's not an experience I would personally repeat.

Red Shallots
680 Glen Huntly Rd 

Caulfield South, VIC 3162
Ph: 03 9528 4026