Tasty Thai at the Bay

Sushada's is doing a good job of providing Thai food that is a cut above the average, with all the sweetness, tang and freshness of flavour that comes with that, in a beautiful location.

Address: 28 Beach Road, Batemans Bay

Phone: 02 4472 4288

Website: n/a

Owner: Todd Alexander

Chef: Siwakorn Chaiyanon

Hours: Tuesday to Sunday, lunch from 11.30am, dinner from 5pm; lunch is served downstars when the restaurant turns into a fish and chip shop and takeaway also, with a $15 set Thai menu

Licensed: BYO only, corkage $2.50 per person drinking

Vegetarian: A good range

To pay: Visa, Mastercard, Eftpos

Wheelchair access: No, it is up a steep set of stairs. Access at lunch in the downstairs area.

Seats: 48 inside, 20 outside

Food: 2/4

Wine list:  n/a

Style: 2/4

Value for money: 3/4

Service: 2/4

Score 12.5/20*

*The stars are a quick reference to the key highs or lows. They do not relate directly to the score out of 20.

It wasn't so many years ago that Thai food was generally regarded as being exciting, highly exotic, but also profoundly foreign.

But these days, all you have to do is wander down any supermarket aisle to see a range of Thai ingredients, pastes and sauces. Thai food - or at least a dumbed-down version of the noble and ancient cuisine - has become woven into everyday Australian cooking. Tip in a tin of coconut milk and a spoon of pre-made curry paste over pretty much anything, and the family dinner is made.

Our local pizza place even does ''Thai-flavoured'' pizza on ''special'' nights, which seems to involve chicken, a nasty creamy substance, and some very mild chilli.

But where there is ubiquity, there is also a growing band of chefs dishing up the much broader range of food that makes up authentic Thai cuisine. Many have been influenced by Australia's David Thompson, arguably the best English-language chef writing on Thai food, who has worked and cooked in the country itself. Also, chefs who hail from Thailand know that tastes are getting more sophisticated, allowing them to cook more authentic dishes.

Sushada's chef is pushing the envelope, especially so given the location.

Working within the constraints of a wildly fluctuating customer base that bedevils all beach-town restaurants, the first-floor eatery in Batemans Bay has been gaining in popularity since it opened in 2010.

Sushada's occupies the space familiar to many as the old Bernie's - an old-fashioned seafood restaurant, in a two-storey weatherboard just along Beach Road from the centre of Batemans Bay.

Now the vinyl nook seats and seafood crepes are gone, and the whole space has been opened up to the glittering and active view. Pelicans soar over the buzz of boats motoring in and out of the bay and wading birds poke about the shore.

The decor is clean and airy, and the seats comfortable, if a little tightly packed under the tables. Service is welcoming and moderately well informed.

We start with the fairly conventional vegetable spring rolls ($8.90) and moon cakes - crumbed pork and prawn meat ($12.90). Both dishes are cleanly fried and homemade, with mild flavours and decent quality ingredients. Both are served with sweet plum sauce, which adds a sugar hit and some sticky wetness, but little else.

Curry puffs ($8.90) are more striking, with well-flavoured chicken and vegetables, in decent chunks, with a good dose of spice, wrapped in good flaky pastry.

Main courses are more adventurous and authentic, featuring a variety of fresh fish and seafood options. This should be unremarkable, but alas it is not on the South Coast, especially around the Bay. Outside good fish and chip shops with local oysters and cooked prawns, seafood and fish are often a token effort on local menus.

As befits the almost always warm weather at the South Coast, Sushada's has number of salads in the classic Thai style, with robust flavours and aromas, and we start with the PP Island salad ($23.90). Lovely little flathead tails are tasty and cleanly fried, and lifted with a sprightly, sweet and slightly hot sauce - the whole cut with fresh coriander and other crisp herbs. With a little steamed rice, this makes a very nice meal. On future visits, we will try the Princess salad - grilled nuggets of blushing pink salmon, with crunchy green papaya and apple salad.

The classic gaeng pah, or jungle curry, is, as it should be, free of coconut milk, and full of baby eggplant. We chose a beef version (seafood, vegetable, chicken, pork, duck are options for many dishes on the menu) and are pleased with the fresh tasting curry base and the stick of fresh green peppercorns that add spice to the otherwise rather tame version of this dish.

Presentation at Sushada's is extravagant, with some dishes arriving inside pineapples, and others inside young coconut shells.

A creamy dish of mixed seafood ($23.90) arrives poking out the top of the coconut, and is mildly curried with a generous array of good flavoured seafood. A pleasant dish, good for less adventurous eaters. A hearty fried rice ($18.90) also arrives in the coconut and includes young coconut strips, making it rich and sweet. This is a dish in itself, certainly no side offering.

One of the simplest dishes is perhaps the best, Thai barbequed pork ($18.90). The nicely trimmed pieces of lean pork are marinated and grilled, and then nicely teamed with a tangy tamarind dip.

Desserts are more than big enough to share (all $9.90). A half mango is pleasantly tangy, and offset by the traditional accompaniments of dense, and very good Thai custard as well as sweet sticky rice.

Bananas in love is a generous pile of lovely crisp fritters, drizzled with good honey, and the expected scoop of ice cream on the side.

The food at Sushadas is reminiscent of that served at many good Thai resort restaurants. It is fresh, good quality, with a good measure of presentation razzamatazz that is essentially harmless, if a little unnecessary.

It lacks some of the stridence and clarity of flavour that distinguishes Thai food. However, Sushadas is certainly a cut above the standard suburban Thai, and that's worth applauding anywhere, but especially in the Bay.

>>Catriona Jackson is director of communications and external liaison at the Australian National University and a food writer.