Mana Thai is a Thai restaurant at 12 Seaway Rd, Clarks Beach, on the Manukau Harbour in Franklin, and it holds a 4.9 rating on Google. Thai cooking is a matter of balance: sweet, salty, sour and chilli heat held so no single note overwhelms the dish. The best kitchens pound their own curry pastes and taste as they go, and it shows in curries that taste layered rather than simply sweet. Heat is usually adjustable, so say how you like it when ordering — Thai-hot runs well beyond what most New Zealand menus call hot. A table works best as shared plates with plenty of rice; one curry, one stir-fry and something sharp like a green papaya salad will cover more ground than three curries. For a small harbourside settlement, a kitchen rated that highly is a real find — Mana Thai gives Clarks Beach a proper destination for dinner.