Review: Cafe Sopra

I finally made an effort to visit Cafe Sopra at Fratelli Fresh waterloo. Last time being a few years ago, and was well into the weekend lunchtime rush.

As I got there pretty late, quite a few of the mains were already gone. I wanted risotto, but was hungry for something for immediate. Polenta with oyster mushroom and gorgonzola sauce. It was nice, although very creamy, got very same taste after a while. I wish I had got one of the salad leaves: raddichio or witlof with a vinegarette to break the cream.
I finished up with the banoffe pie. My sister had tried this a few weeks ago and raved about it. A rich caramel tart with a thick crispy biscuit base, a layer of sliced banana and a thin layer of cream on top sprinkled with flaked chocolate. Indeed, it was nice. But coupled with the creamy sauce of my earlier dish meant that I could only eat half the slice before conceeding defeat, and asking for the remainder takeaway.
I enjoyed the food ... but did feel somewhat unwanted, having turned up near the end of the lunch session.

The local thai restaurant

I have just found out that the local thai restaurant normally cooks "to aussie tastes" when preparing dishes. So the first green curry I had from there had a slight chilli 'spice', and was mostly flavoured milk. So much so, that I didn't want to go there again. Having this discovered this now, last night we ordered the Penang curry 'cooked thai style', it was a lot more edible, with a decent curry paste background..

Gamely enough .. I even ordered Som tum (Green papaya salad), which generally knocks my head off with the 'one chilli' specification. It was oh-kay... with iceberg lettuce, green beans and peanuts. i couldn't detect any dried shrimp in the sauce.. and very little fish sauce. Probably geared to Aussie tastes again. Next time... I will specify it to 'thai style'.... but only one chilli!

At least now, I won't be so adverse to visiting the local thai to encourage 'thai-style' thai food, and sample the other dishes.