Spirit House
Cuisine: Thai

www.spirithouse.com.au

20 Ninderry Rd, Yandina
Sunshine Coast QLD
Ph: (07) 5446 8994

I can’t remember how long I have wanted to go to Spirit House but I was overjoyed when my hubby said that we could go to celebrate my graduation. I’d always promised Froggy that we would have a crazy party when we graduated together, but we were happy to do this instead. Booking is very highly recommended, especially for weekends. We had to book 3 weeks in advance for our Saturday dinner.

Spirit House is situated in Yandina on the Sunshine Coast about an hour and a half drive from Brisbane. We spent the afternoon driving around Maleny and Montville before our reservation working up an appetite. When you walk into the Spirit House grounds you find yourself in a peaceful garden filled with oriental lights, Buddha statues and lots of bamboo. There is a separate building for Spirit House’s cooking lessons which Froggy and I are definitely going to try out.  But the restaurant itself sits around a large pond which reflects the restaurant and its ambient lighting at night. They have lit mosquito coils but if you are one of those people that just seems to attract every mosquito around you then don’t forget some insect repellent.  It is an exceptionally romantic setting if you are looking to impress a loved one. 

They have recently changed their menu for shared style dining. This is a typically Asian way of dining which I have been brought up with and love. It means you order a few dishes to share and everyone gets to try each thing. This solves the meal envy problem and also having to decide on just one thing to order, which quite frankly I believe would be impossible to do. Amongst the four of us, we chose 8 dishes. Four from the entrees and starters and four from the larger meals. We also squeezed in a dessert tasting platter. Oh actually I just remembered that we did order one extra starter, but I will explain that a little further down.

First entree was the Salt & Pepper Silken Tofu with Sweet Ginger & Lime Sauce $10.  This was beautiful, silky tofu with a crispy coating.

Next out we had the Crispy Pork Belly with Green Pawpaw, Scallops & Nam Jim (3 pcs) $20. Sadly I wasn’t able to try this dish which I guess worked out for us in a way. This is the only entree/starter on the menu that has an odd number of pieces. Why, I don’t know since most people usually dine in even numbers. The reason I wasn’t able to try this wasn’t because everyone took their piece first and I missed out but because I have a mild allergy to peanuts and forgot to check if any of the dishes we had ordered contained any. This dish was sprinkled in them (which wasn’t listed on the menu). I am usually cautious of places I go to eat with regards to my allergy, particularly Thai or Vietnamese restaurants. I don’t usually fault people for using it as a garnish and not stating it on the menu, though it would be nice. I will just have to go back again. I could tell though that everyone else loved this starter.

The Duck & Lychee Salad with Pomegranate Molasses dressing $20 was really nice and I think we even picked off most of the pomegranate after the duck pieces were all gone. This is listed on the menu has a duck and blood orange salad, but on the night we were there it was substituted with lychee.

Our last entree was the Crispy Salmon Straws with Green Shallot, Ginger & Wasabi Mayo (4 pcs) $12. This was unanimously our favourite entree. There is no photo of this dish however and I do apologise. The boys started eating them too fast for me to take a photo. Froggy and I even convinced them that we should order more, which we did, only to then again eat them all before realising we forgot to take a photo again. But if you can imagine, they were about the size of a bread stick and were spring roll pastry wrapped around salmon and fried. These crispy straws sat in a small glass of wasabi mayo which was had a gentle wasabi kick. The mayo was so good we all scooped some onto our plates to save for later dishes.

You are probably starting to wonder how we possibly had room for our mains. In hindsight, I myself also wonder about this. But when you are sitting there with delicious plate after delicious plate in front of you, you will find that it is impossible to resist. Your body will make room for anything they bring out to you.

The BBQ Mooloolaba Prawns in Rendang Paste with Mango, Coconut & Mint (4 pcs) $29 were fresh prawns, perfectly BBQ’d. The green mango and coconut salad atop the prawns had a lovely, crisp texture.

The Coconut Poached Chicken with Lemon Grass, Cashews & Chilli Jam $28  was very tender and was one of my favourite dishes.. oh wait, no they are ALL my favourite.

This was a big hit with our table, the Mild Red Curry of Wagyu Beef with Tamarind & Cassia $30. The wagyu was so tender and while we were all being conservative with the portions we were taking so that we didn’t appear greedy, I know each of us was secretly eyeing the last piece. It was quite a large portion though and the curry was creamy with the tang of the tamarind coming through.

I know I have said everything has been our favourite, but this was really deserving of the favourite tag as well. The Whole Crispy Reef Fish (Baby Snapper) with Tamarind Chilli Sauce market price ($36) was so full of flavour and crispy. The sauce was really beautiful with a nice chilli kick. I can’t really express how much we loved this dish except to show you the photographic evidence of what we did to it.

This was the fish as it was presented to our table.

And this is how it left our table. When it looked finished, somehow Froggy and I still found more of it to eat. We picked off every single bone. Hubby and I have never eaten the fish head but we found the cheeks while someone else cleaned up the fins and tail. We were so full but if someone had given me another one I would have found the will to eat it.

But I guess I had to leave room for dessert.

A single serving of any of their desserts is $14.50. But knowing how much we had just eaten we decided to share the dessert tasting plate for two ($22) amongst the four of us which comes with a bit of everything.

Chocolate Palm Sugar Caramel Delice & Candied Chili (LEFT)

Spiced Pineapple Tart Tatin with Gingerbread Ice Cream (RIGHT)

Warm Coconut Citrus Syrup Cake with Roasted Rhubarb & Double Cream (LEFT)

Pink Peppercorn Meringue with Mandarin Cardamon Compote & Saffron Fairy Floss (RIGHT)

The desserts were a little too sweet for us and we found it difficult to eat them after the feast we had. Our favourite was the chocolate palm sugar caramel delice though we could barely finish even that.

Including a couple of drinks, our whole dinner set us back about $250 for the whole table. It’s a wonderful place for special occasion dining and I am kind of glad it is out of the way for me. Otherwise I’d try to concoct reasons to go all the time. Spirit House also has a couple of cook books out and cooking lessons are $125. Froggy and I have decided we will definitely be going since we discovered that one of the classes teaches you how to make the fish we loved so much.