Sri Thai Restaurant on Bridge Street in Ahuriri, Napier cooks Thai and Vietnamese cuisine side by side — green, red, yellow and masamun curries, wok-tossed stir-fries, tom yum and herby salads on one half of the menu, and pho bo, rice-paper summer rolls and sizzling grilled beef on the other. The dining room opens from 5pm, Tuesday to Sunday, and the kitchen runs a busy takeaway trade for locals eating at home. The cooking is accommodating by design: curries, stir-fries and noodle dishes can be prepared from no chilli at all up to Thai hot, and most dishes can be built around your choice of protein, from vegetables and tofu through chicken, beef and pork to crispy pork, squid, lamb, duck, prawns, seafood and fish. The menu also asks diners to flag any allergies, and staff are happy to advise on spice. A banquet set menu looks after groups of four or more with shared entrées, four popular mains, jasmine rice, dessert and jasmine green tea. Sri Thai is fully licensed and also welcomes BYO wine (wine only) for a per-bottle corkage charge, with a strict limit of one bottle between two people. Steamed rice and plain noodles are ordered separately, takeaway orders go straight through on 06 835 2299, and email enquiries to [email protected] are answered within about 24 hours.
Sri Thai Restaurant sits on Bridge Street in Ahuriri, the harbourside quarter of Napier, and has built its name on doing two things at once: cooking Thai food with real depth and giving Vietnamese classics an equally serious seat at the table. From 5pm, Tuesday through Sunday, the dining room fills with the smells of lemongrass, galangal and frying garlic, while the takeaway side of the business keeps locals supplied at home — a call to 06 835 2299 is all it takes.
The menu is the clearest expression of that dual identity. On the Thai side, appetizers run from satay chicken kebabs grilled under house-made peanut sauce to curry puffs, Thai fish cakes, stuffed mushrooms, dumplings and crispy squid. Soups come in the two great styles — creamy, herby tom ka and the spicy-sour punch of tom yum — and the curry list covers the classics: masamun with roasted peanuts, panang, green, yellow and red. Stir-fries lean on the wok with cashew nut, sweet and sour, Thai basil, ginger and garlic-and-black-pepper versions, plus a house curry, Gang Ped Sri Thai, built on a home-made paste with bamboo shoots, cashews and lime leaves.
The Vietnamese half of the menu answers with rice-paper summer rolls wrapped around pork and prawns, grilled beef parcels, and a benchmark pho bo — a beef noodle soup with a rich, clear, spiced broth. Mains arrive sizzling: bo luc lac, marinated grilled beef on a hot plate, or lamb marinated with garlic and lemongrass, alongside lemongrass chicken and a Vietnamese-style combination fried rice.
Spice at Sri Thai is a decision, not a default. Curries, stir-fries and noodle dishes can be cooked from no chilli at all up to Thai hot, and the menu maps the scale with some relish: Mild is "a stimulating kick to the lips and tongue", Medium leaves a "tingling sensation" that settles into "a hearty glow", Hot means "raging fires", and Thai hot is "spitting fire and coal hot — you have been warned!". Most dishes can also be built around your protein of choice, from vegetables and tofu through chicken, beef and pork to crispy pork, squid, lamb, duck, prawns, seafood and fish.
That flexibility carries into the fish section too, where steamed fillets arrive under four different moods: a tangy lemon and chilli dressing, Thai pickled plum sauce with ginger, a gentle chu-chee red curry sauce, or ginger and soy topped with fried garlic.
Tables of friends do well here. The banquet menu, designed for groups of four or more, layers a combination entrée plate — spring rolls, stuffed mushrooms, wontons and crumbed butterfly prawns — over four of the kitchen's most popular mains with steamed jasmine rice, then closes with ice-cream sundaes, tropical lychee with vanilla ice-cream and jasmine green tea. The kitchen will rearrange dishes to suit the table, and staff recommend the set menu for group bookings so food arrives steadily. Solo diners and couples are not forgotten: the noodle and rice list covers pad Thai with its sweet tamarind dressing and crushed peanuts, the broad noodles of pad si-ew, basil-flecked fried rice and a house pad mee.
A few house rules shape the visit. Dishes don't come with steamed rice — bowls are ordered separately, sized for one to four people. The restaurant is fully licensed, and wine lovers may bring their own bottles (wine only) for a per-bottle corkage charge, with a strict limit of one bottle between two people to keep the room's atmosphere sensible. Allergies matter here too: the menu asks diners to flag them clearly. One small footnote for planners — the house-made steamed dumplings need at least fifteen minutes, so order them when you sit down.
Whether it's a midweek takeaway green curry on the couch, a pho-and-pad-Thai crossover dinner or a full banquet with the extended family, Sri Thai keeps the offer simple: two cuisines, cooked to your heat, from 5pm Tuesday to Sunday in Napier.