Spices Thai Restaurant is a family-run spot at 17/123 Ormiston Road in Flat Bush, Auckland, directed by Chantima and serving Thai food since 1999, when it began as a small Highland Park business before moving to bigger premises at Botany Junction. Tables can be booked or orders placed online, with a dinner menu on the website. A good Thai restaurant lives or dies by balance: the sweet, sour, salty and hot notes in a curry or stir-fry should sit in harmony rather than one flattening the rest. Curries built on fresh pounded pastes taste brighter than shortcuts, and coconut milk should enrich rather than smother. Most kitchens will cook to your preferred heat level, so say how spicy you like it. Sharing several dishes over rice is the usual way to eat, giving the table a range of flavours. On Ormiston Road in Flat Bush, it remains an established East Auckland choice for a sit-down dinner or a takeaway.