Maggie's Thai, Erksineville

Maggie's Thai is a stalwart restaurant and Sydney institution. Open for an incredible 31 years it's a popular restaurant with a big following by locals. Staff are friendly, the food is tasty and consistent. Just make sure to do one thing when you visit Maggie's Thai!

Maggie's also happens to be Valentina's favourite Thai restaurant in Sydney. It's busy and she has booked a table outside so that we can bring Teddy along tonight. I let Valentina order as she knows the menu so well. A little tip: whatever you do at Maggie's make sure to have a look at the specials board because that's where a lot of goodies can be found. Maggie's is also BYO at $8 per bottle.

Valentina tells us that the duck parcels are sometimes served on betel leaves although tonight they are served on iceberg lettuce boats. There's plenty of crunch and fresh flavours in each bite with a flavoursome duck mince topping. I ask for some extra chilli and they give us a generous amount of spicy Thai chillies which rounds off the flavour quite nicely indeed.

The salt and pepper calamari is a good version of it with a light, crunchy batter and tender calamari.

The tofu is eggplant dish is a tasty vegetarian dish with big chunks of eggplant and tofu cubes that are very flavoursome. It has added flavour from chilli and basil.

Most restaurants that serve banana flower salad do it slightly differently to Maggie's and I think I was hoping for their version where it is very finely chopped and served with an intensely flavoured dressing and chicken and coconut cream on top. The slicing of the banana flower is different, coarser like a coarsely chopped coleslaw and the dressing is milder with prawns on top.

This is Pete's favourite curry. The mum's chicken curry is a richly flavoured curry with a bone in chicken thigh and plenty of Penang curry sauce finished with coconut milk. It's also not a particularly sweet curry whereas the massaman curry is sweeter. The rice that it is served with is a mixed purple grain rice with a nice texture to it rather than the softer traditional white jasmine rice.

I don't often order larb as I find it a bit on the dry side but this version is actually one of my favourite dishes of the night thanks to the clever addition of pomegranate seeds. It's full of onion, herbs and chicken mince topped with roasted rice powder and I add a bit of chilli to this too.

Just a little warning: the sticky rice dessert is enormous. It's black and yellow sticky rice topped with coconut milk and an egg custard with a touch of lemongrass in it. If you're fullish from the mains, it's really enough to serve four.

So tell me Dear Reader, do you have a favourite restaurant that has been around for many years?

This meal was independently paid for.

Maggie's Thai

75 Erskineville Road, Erskineville, NSW 2043

Tuesday to Friday 11am–2:30pm, 5–9pm

Saturday & Sunday 5–9pm

Monday closed