Well there's usually a story and so it is here. As I'm not very familiar with Chinese takeaways around Lisburn I texted an old friend for his view. I had tried the Man Lee once and was really underwhelmed and overcharged. My old friend said try the Emperor as his go to place. So we took his advice. Well we got three meals there and one meal from this Thai place. I didn't know it existed and just spotted it as we drove by it and the car radio played Excerpt from a Teenage Opera. Grocer Jack by the wonderful Keith West. We went into the Thai to order one meal and crossed the street to make the remaining food order in the Emperor Chinese. It was a lousy damp, miserable night too and I stood with my mind going 'count the days into years, 82 brings many fears' then I realised the girl on the counter at the Chinese had short changed me and I remedied that. Oh well another day dream shattered with dull reality. So I took the Thai meal - a good portion of tasty Thai prawn crackers - far better than any Chinese prawn crackers. And the Thai crackers came with a tiny pot of punchy sweet chilli sauce. A king prawn red Thai curry and coconut rice - one out of three boiled rice choices, the other two being jasmine and sticky (£6:50). It was a tough choice for a piggy like me. The rice was topped with that really adult delicious salted fried shallots. The liquid red curry portion was generous, it was very tasty but it was runny thin like a soup. The spice heat was just how I like it though. Hot enough to know you are eating it but not so hot as to make it unpleasant. I was delighted to find in it fresh cubed aubergines, butternut squash, carrots and courgettes. How refreshing but the aubergine and squash were near to disintegration by the time we got back to eat it but again I'm not too precious about this. There were six poached king prawns in the dish. So it gets a three star on the strength of this one main dish. I will be back soon enough as I really want to try the fishcakes. Oh nearly forgot there is seating inside. Benches rather than chairs - no expense spent - so a bit like a cheap and cheerful small cantina. One major disappointment for me though: no minced pork dishes available on the menu, yet a good Thai holy basil & dry red chilli pork stir fry is a fabulous dish. How awful it's like a Mc Donald's without any choice of burgers. read more