The Spirit House Restaurant

After a few months up here on the Sunshine Coast, I have been craving some good Thai food as it isn’t as easily accessible as it is in Sydney.

I waited for the weekend my sister was visiting from Sydney-town and along with my other sister, we ventured out to Yandina to check out the popular, chef-hatted Spirit House Restaurant.

Renowned for its Thai food (and a cooking school!), you do feel like you are visiting a slice of Asia as you follow the tropical paths past ponds to the series of dining areas in temple-like buildings.

We visited at night which was light up and beautiful but I would love to see it on a sunny day.

Arriving slightly ahead of our booked time, we were seated but told that we wouldn’t be able to order any food until our arranged time which was a little strange – luckily we could still order drinks and cocktails.

I kicked things off with a Mekong Margarita which was equal parts sweet and savoury filled with tequila, Thai bitter, lime, lemongrass syrup and Thai basil.

My sisters opted for a spicy Samui Mule and a martini – all very tasty.

In hindsight, we could have had a seat the new bar area for a different perspective before heading into the dining area – we walked past it on the way out and it looked very inviting…

We switched to nice dry white wine to sip with our meal.

All the dishes here are designed to share – my favourite way of dining -  and we started with Moreton Bay bug on betel leaf, deliciously served with Nahm Jim, and seared Harvey Bay scallops topped with pork floss. The amazing pork floss was the subject of much discussion!

For the next course we dived into some pork belly curry, which was tasty but possibly a little fatty for my liking and a whole crispy snapper that was so incredible it was merely a pile of bones before too long.

To cut through the richness of all that meat, we had some rice and a spicy green pawpaw salad and it was the perfect amount of food for the three of us.

I will be honest, even if I wasn’t full, I probably wouldn’t order dessert but that is more because, apart from sticky mango rice, Asian sweets are a little too sickly for my liking.

Overall, there is a reason Spirit House is one of the best-reviewed restaurants on the Sunshine Coast and I will more than likely be back to try some of the other dishes!

The restaurant opens every day for lunch and Wednesday - Saturday evenings.