A few weeks ago, hubby and I went to Chilli ‘n’ Chive Thai Restaurant in Beaconsfield for a friend’s birthday dinner. We’ve never been to this restaurant neither did we even know of its existence! Turns out we’ve been missing out… it is quite a good Thai restaurant with a lovely restaurant atmosphere and great food. It was the perfect place to have friends come together for a meal, also a cosy place for couples to have their weekly (or monthly.. or yearly? Lol) date night.

Looking through the menu they have split the items into Small, Medium and Large meals, which I thought was pretty clever so people could decide what to have based on how hungry they were at the time. I wasn’t too hungry, so I definitely wasn’t interested in a full on large main meal. I did, however want to try a couple of different things. So I ordered a Small meal as well as a Medium.

Son-In-Law Eggs $10

For my entree, I had the famous Son-In-Law Eggs – soft boiled eggs then fried until crisp, with tamarind sauce, fried shallots and chillis.

The eggs were cooked beautifully, the way it should be. The yolk was still soft and gooey and even the egg whites stayed soft textured so combine that with its crisp outer layer, you get perfect son-in-law eggs. I wasn’t a huge fan of the tamarind sauce though, I thought it was way too sweet for my liking, but that’s just how Thai cuisine can be sometimes. They are a lot sweeter than other South East Asian cuisines.

Roast Duck and Lychee Salad $19

For my Medium main course, I had the Roast Duck and Lychee Salad with Ginger, Red Onion and Peanuts. It was a very interesting salad. I love roast duck, and I love lychees, but I’ve never had them together! Especially when combined with the strong flavours of ginger and red onion… and then suddenly BAM! Peanuts! It was a weird concoction… but I wanted to give it a try. In the end I found I really enjoyed it, but I ended up eating most of the components in this salad separately anyway. The roast duck and lychee combination was great, but it was too weird with ginger and red onion. I just wasn’t sure.. and again, the salad dressing tasted too sweet! Was it just me? Maybe I’m just not a big fan of sweet savoury dishes. Savoury to me is meant to be salty, maybe a hint of sweet is great when coupled with a bit of acid (sour e.g. tomatoes, lemon, etc) but too much sweet and too much salty is just too weird for me.

In saying that, that duck was delicious and I love lychee so I ate most of the salads anyway.

Hubby had the Chicken Green Curry which was a very generous portion served with rice. They weren’t kidding when they categorised the curries as a Large main meal! It was a great green curry, full of flavours and deliciously creamy. Perfect for when you’re extra hungry!

Pad See Ew $18.90

Finally, my friend who sat next to me had the Pad See Ew – thick rice noodles with chinese brocolli and bean shoots – and I had a little taste and I am definitely ordering this one the next time I come back here! It was like a Thai version of the Malaysian Char Kuay Teow, very different yet similar because of the thick rice noodles used in this dish. I absolutely LOVED the flavours in this stirfry, loved the fact that the rice noodles have stayed intact and have not gone all mushy, loved the fact that I can have this and not feel guilty about not eating enough veggies because it is loaded with greens, LOVE the fact that they use Asian greens instead of western brocolli, carrots, etc. Love the peanutty flavour and the slight charcoal flavour from stirfrying it in a hot wok. Look forward to going back just to have a big plate of this and another serving of Son-In-Law eggs, hehe.

So overall, this restaurant definitely will go on my list of regulars (not that we go out that often) but we will definitely consider coming here again the next time we plan to dine out.