Squid and Thai Fish Cakes for lunch at Secret Garden Café

My friend Ami took me out for a post-birthday lunch @ Secret Garden Cafe yesterday. I had been there a few times before for coffee and lunch, and have enjoyed every visit.

Last time I went to Secret Garden, I had the Salt & Pepper Squid (actually I think I ordered it the last two times I’ve been there) and it came with a Thai salad which had beans sprouts through it. I forgot Thai salads normally have beans sprouts so it took me forever to fish it all out. Yesterday I was again deciding between my usual Salt & Pepper Squid $17 or trying the Thai Fish Cakes $16.50 but when the waitress said the salad had tomato and cheese (and no beans sprouts), my decision was made!

From my last Secret Garden experience, I was expecting to be satisfied but not completely full so I ordered a strawberry milkshake to compliment. Secret Garden however surprised me with a massive salt & pepper squid serving and the salad was actually very filling. My milkshake was made with fresh strawberries and tasted more like a strawberry smoothie rather than a milkshake and needed just a little bit more flavour. The squid pieces were larger than usual, lightly battered and tasted amazing as always. I also had a taste of my friend’s Thai Fish Cakes and they were really tender, flavour wasn’t too intense and it was serviced with a snap pea and mango cheek salad with crispy spiced noodles.

It was a wonderful lunch - great company, great food and the end result was a very satisfied but unproductive foodie back @ work.