cookies and code

Today my wife and I walked away from dinner saying, “That was the best meal we’ve had in a long time.” We’ve been going to Banzai Sushi and Thai Restaurant since the first week we moved into Brevard county. A friend of mine, who had grown up in Melbourne, recommended it as one of his favorite Japanese and Thai restaurants in the area. Ever since that first visit we have never had a bad experience being spoiled with amazing food, service, and ambiance. To call Banzai just an eatery doesn’t do it justice, it’s a dining experience. In fact Banzai has kept up its dining traditions when most restaurateurs have been quick to abandon them in these tough economic times. Allow me to share our latest experience.

Upon arriving at their small, but comfortable location, you are immediately greeted by one of the servers and immediately seated at a table; we’ve never had to wait. Within a minute or so, your server arrives with hot towels to clean your hands and small salad bowls with tiny spoons. The salad is a mixture of diced tomatoes and cucumber, shredded carrots, mandarin oranges, and pieces of fried tempura batter. It’s a great balance of sweet and salty and perfect to wet your appetite. We usually like to start with a pot of hot green tea ($1.50 p/person) and a couple ice waters. Once we work our way through the massive list of sushi, Japanese, Thai, and Chinese selections, we’ve never had to wait more than a 10-15 minutes to start our meal. This time around, I ordered one of the most fragrant and tasty green curry dishes with chicken (~$10) and my wife ordered the small green salad (~$3) and the shrimp and vegetable tempura appetizer (~$8). The curry is prepared with coconut millk, bell pepper, bamboo shoots, fresh basil, and red pepper oil in a huge portion; if you like spicy, try the Thai hot for that good kind of spicy. The small green salad comes with your option of ginger or honey ginger dressing on top of iceberg and romaine lettuce, tomato, shredded carrots, and sliced cucumber. The tempura appetizer is big enough to be a meal for a single person coming with three shrimp, onion, broccoli, and sweet potato. If all of this food wasn’t enough, at the end of the meal, the server brings out fried sweet doughnuts, dusted with sugar granules. This time around we didn’t order any sushi, but I have to say that Banzai has some of the best quality sushi for your dollar. Their sushi chefs will make pretty much anything you’d like, even if it’s not on the menu. The rolls are packed full of ingredients and they even have surfboards for larger groups.

Adding to the experience of dining at Banzai, every server in the restaurant is your server. They are all equally friendly and courteous offering help to anyone who needs it. I’m not sure if he’s the manager or owner, but even the man in charge is out and about taking care of his customers, making it a pleasent evening for everyone in the restaurant. What’s probably the best part of the service however, is the facet most people don’t consider, invisibility. Banzai works like a well oiled machine providing its customers with whatever they need, but without them having to ask for it. This breeds the peaceful quiet that I have to believe all of Banzai’s patrons associate with the restaurant.

Banzai Sushi and Thai Restaurant provides a high quality experience for what has become a more reasonable price now-a-days. The quality of food is high and you’ll find yourself eager for your next visit before you even walk out of the door. If you’re looking for an establishment that is just as much about the time you spend there as it is the food, do yourself a favor and give Banzai and shot. I promise you won’t regret it.

Banzai Sushi and Thai Restaurant is located in the Publix plaza on the corner of Lake Washington and Wickham at 3208 Lake Washington Road, Melbourne, FL.

During acts_as_conference, a few of us decided to grab lunch at a local Thai place that I’ve been hearing my co-workers rave about for months, but have yet to try. Now I’ve tried some pretty great Thai food in Melbourne (I’d recommend Thai Kitchen on Aurora and Wickham), but most of the places I’ve tried in Orlando have left me a little dissapointed. G & G Thai Cuisine is definitely not one of those places.

G & G Thai Cuisine is located next to Jersey Mike’s in the Conroy/Turkey Lake plaza. The restaurant is cozy with a great lay back and modern atmosphere. G & G’s menu has the classic dishes you come to expect from Thai dining, but it’s the twists on those classics that set them apart from their competitors. For some strange reason, I am obsessed with anything pumpkin, so once I saw the Pumpkin Chicken Curry ($9.50), I had to order it. The food arrived within 10 minutes or so and mine was piping hot. The Pumpkin Chicken Curry came with thinly sliced pieces of chicken placed in a flavorful mixture of coconut milk, spices, green pepper, chunks cut from a small pumpkin, and red curry. The meal also came with a large portion of white rice. This was probably one of the best red curry dishes I’ve had in a long time. It is always so hard to find a good balance between heat and flavor when it comes to preparing spicy food, especially Thai. G & G has found that perfect balance; my meal was oustanding. Some others at the table had the Pineapple Chicken Curry and said it was just as good. Someone else ordered the Panang, which also looked really tasty. Did I mention they split the check 7 ways without any issue, because they did, which another plus in my book.

Please keep in mind, I went for lunch on a Saturday, so there were no specials. G & G’s does have lunch specials however, from looking at the menu, and they seemed to be reasonably priced. I eyed the Green Curry ($7) as something I’m going to have to try next time I go back. I definitely will have to thanks my co-workers again for making this recommendation. If you haven’t tried G & G Thai Cuisine, make it a point to do so; I promise you won’t be disappointed.

G & G Thai Cuisine is located at 6700 Conroy Rd, Orlando, FL 32835.