Thai Tara Johnsonville is a Thai restaurant at 114 Johnsonville Road in Wellington's northern suburbs, carrying a 3.9 rating on Google.
A good Thai kitchen is built on balance — the sweet, sour, salty and hot notes that carry a curry or a tom yum — and on fresh aromatics such as lemongrass, galangal and lime leaf rather than jarred paste. Heat is the thing to negotiate: many New Zealand Thai kitchens temper their chilli for local palates, so if you want dishes the way they're eaten in Bangkok, say so when you order. Menus tend to run from familiar stir-fries and noodle dishes to regional curries, and a kitchen's skill shows most clearly in the soups, where that balance is hardest to hold.
Set on the main road through Johnsonville, Thai Tara gives the northern suburbs a local option for a Thai meal without the trip into town.