This place, located at The Orchid Hotel along Brooke Drive (2.292906, 111.828398), has been open for business for quite a while now but only recently did they manage to get a true-blue Thai chef from Thailand and there has been no turning back since. Now that they are going full swing, Mary hosted a party on Tuesday night and invited all her friends to the official opening. If you have missed my previous posts on it, you can click the links here, here and here to see what I had had here before and enjoyed a lot, to say the least.
Mary, our perfect hostess, was dressed up to the nines that evening in her stunning black outfit and she went through the trouble of elaborately decorating the place too with candles…
…real flowers and tablecloth on every table…
…and so on and so forth, right down to the presentation of the fruits at the buffet tables…
…both inside and outside.
Ooopsss!!! There I was, caught unaware on camera…
*Andy Tie’s photo on Facebook*
Can you spot me in the snapshot? Hehehehehe!!!!
There was this little bowl of ikan bilis from Sandakan…
…to keep the early birds busy while waiting for everybody else to arrive and in the very impressive buffet spread that night were these irresistable Thai salads, the mango salad…
…the som tam (green papaya salad)…
…and this very nice one that I had not had before…
…with all the prawns and sotong (squid) and a choice between bihun (rice vermicelli) and noodles (the instant noodles variety) in it. I feasted on these so much that I had very little tummy space left for everything else but there was fried bihun as well…
…and chicken too, done in two different styles, but the photographs I took came out a little blurry so I would not be able to feature those in this post. Another time perhaps.
There was also this fried fish with Thai sauce…
…and the shrimp sashimi…
…that I had before on one of my earlier visits…and I absolutely loved that dish of minced meat with all the herbs and leaves…
…that was so fragrant I could detect it from where I was sitting when they brought it out of the kitchen. As a matter of fact, I enjoyed it so much that I went back for more!
By the time this dish of sotong (squid) and prawns…
…was served, I was already too full so I did not have any but I heard everyone at my table singing its praises. I am not sure if it was the same as the slipper lobster/crayfish dish that I had during my first visit to this place but it sure looked similar.
Initially, I thought these…
…were nougats (blame it on my failing eyesight, this old man) so I did not take any as I am not a fan of those and then I heard some of those at my table saying that it wasn’t nice, that it was sweet but they told me it wasn’t nougat – some kind of egg thing so I took one and tried. Gee!!! I loved it! Yes, it was sweet, great as a dessert. Probably everybody thought it was meant to be another one of the many options in the buffet spread and expected it to be salty or savoury. I asked Mary and she said it was pumpkin and egg custard – it actually reminded me of some kind of nyonya kueh and I have a soft spot for those, of course…and no prize for guessing how many I had. LOL!!!
It certainly was a most delightful evening with a truly awesome dinner, thank you, Mary, for the kind invitation. Our heartiest congratulations to you once again and here’s wishing you nothing but the very very best in all that lie ahead. Cheers!!!
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
Wow that is certainly a very beautiful buffet spread. I love everything I see and I am sure they are all delicious. You got me excited with that pumpkin and egg dessert. Yummy to my tummy. Haha
Sweet for my sweet, sugar for my honey? 😉 Come on over, sure I will bring you here! Typical Thai cuisine though, lots of cili padi.
Ooo I want the raw marinated prawns! And having a Thai chef at the helm definitely boosts the confidence level in the authenticity of the menu here, yes 😉
I had those prawns before and yes, they were nice. I tried the sea crab version of the same too, also good but I prefer the prawns especially when there’s no shell to deal with. Glad we have a good Thai chef in town now – haven’t had any decently-good Thai delights since the last good one at a since-closed-down place here left. Come, hop over and we’ll drop by here and all the worth-the-visit places in town.
Lovely food. What an awesome buffet spread. Good luck to Mary!
Thanks, on Mary’s behalf. I do hope she does well and with all her friends and connections, I’m sure she will. The last Thai place that was so very nice, I did not know it existed owing to the lack of promotion, until the owner had decided to close it down. By the time I knew about it, it was already too late to try and save the day. 😦
I even spotted that ring on your finger, what more to say about you, hehehe!!!.. Indeed a nice spread of food & love everything so colourful. I love the mango salad & bihun.
Wahhhhhhhh!!! Your eyesight so good! Like mine, especially for my age – no need to use glasses. 😀
Spotted you, but too bad your face didn’t turn the other way, if not, able to see you, hehe….
Lucky thing!!! Who wants to see this old, big, fat and ugly face? Will scare everybody away. Hehehehehe!!!!
Beautiful decorations with absolutely delectable dishes! The papaya salad looks awesome too.
Well, photographers tend to take pictures of their friends or people in the moment when they’re unaware of the camera’s presence…
I think he was taking a photo of the bowl of salad and we happened to be in the background. Thank goodness I was not in any kind of awkward poses or anything. LOL!!! These days, lots of people with smartphone cameras, taking photos all the time – have to be on the watch out, not to be caught unaware.
Wow! Wow! Wow! I would want to sample everything on that spread! Come, come, how many pumpkin and egg custard did you have? 😀 😀 😀 This must be the one that they usually steam the custard inside a whole pumpkin and then cut into slices. I see that this is the modified version. Very nice. Must go to Mary’s restaurant if I ever step foot in Sibu!
When? When? I’m right here waiting – you will not regret making the trip, I assure you. We have so much here to offer, provided you do not stay too long, small town – a week to the most. Hehehehehe!!!!
Never had this custard in pumpkin thing and if it is anything like these tiny slices, I love it!!! Ummmm….ask no questions and I will tell no lies. Muahahahaha!!!!!
I’m sure that this place is absolutely worth to check out since you have blogged about it for so many times! HEHE!
Four times only – three times, invited…skin thick thick, went and ate for free and only once, as a regular paying customer. Hehehehehe!!!! Well, definitely worth checking out, this place.
I bet Mary will have a flourishing business in Sibu! Just look at those glorious food… each of them look so appealing and appetizing… oh, one question, the shrimps.. are they eaten raw like that? Call me jakun… other than that, I would love to try a bit of everything including the desserts!!
So you’ve never tried sashimi at the Japanese places you go to? Well, at least, you’ve had the Malanau umai that time when you all had dinner at my house – that’s raw fish drowned with all the lime juice. This is along that same line too.