Perhaps it was that I was sick or that I was hormonal or that I was unbelievably hungry, but the disappointment I felt while eating at Pando threatened to reduce me to tears. Overreaction? Maybe. Understandable? Yes.
It began with my friends getting sushi for lunch. I opted to join them without ordering anything as I wanted to eat something healthy, in particular zucchini noodles and a smoothie. After leaving the sushi place we went on our adventure to hunt for Pando's. We didn't know our way around Brisbane so what was supposed to be a fifteen minute walk turned into a 45 minute excursion. Along the way we passed plenty of cute spots that had food I totally would've eaten (I checked their menus as we went by), but because of the things I'd heard about Pando's I resisted the urge.
Why oh why did I resist the urge. It was as if my stomach had somehow known what my brain didn't, that Pando's would S U C K. When we first arrived I noticed their menu was a bit different than the one I'd looked at earlier in the day. The smoothies were gone and a lot of the items I'd familiarized myself with were also gone. New chef maybe? Whilst scanning the menu I saw zucchini noodles and a green curry cauliflower dish. Because I was so hungry I decided to get both for a whopping $34 dollars.
The wait was fairly short, not even ten minutes, but that doesn't make the situation any better. When they arrived I quickly noticed that the zucchini noodles weren't at all like i'd expected. Firstly, the new menu had switched out the pesto zucchini noodles for something in a strange tomato sauce. It was my mistake for not actually reading the ingredients in the zucchini noodles and believing it'd still be what I'd looked at online, but come on, pesto and zucchini are a match made in heaven. Why would they change that? Instead of a raw, crisp dish, the zucchini was cut into ribbons and cooked down, leaving them with a mushy texture. And the tomato sauce was lacking seasoning.
The cauliflower curry was better than the noodles, but only slightly so. I'm Thai so I know what makes a good green curry, and this was far from it. There was no spice or complex flavors, just a strong taste of coconut milk and nothing else -- not even salt. It was also lukewarm at best. The only saving grace was that the cauliflower rice was actually quite nice.
I don't recommend this spot at all, so stay away! read more