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When I was in high school and Market! Market! was still a new mall, I used to drag my parents to Oody’s for Thai food. Their affordable prices (around P150-200 per person), fast service, and excellent food made Oody’s one of my favorite restaurants of all time, and I was brokenhearted to learn that the one at Market! Market! closed down for some reason. It’s been years since I last ate at Oody’s and while I always passed by the one at Greenbelt 3, I never had the chance to go in and revisit it. Last Saturday, however, my boyfriend and I finally got around to dining at Oody’s, thanks to a movie screening time that gave us a couple of hours to kill at Greenbelt.

The Oody’s I used to know was very simple, low-key, almost fast food-like in its appearance. Although well decorated, you can tell by the quality of the seats and their proximity to each other that the place was meant for cheap and quick eating. The new Oody’s, on the other hand, has more upscale interiors and spacious tables that invite diners to stay and linger even after their meals have been consumed. I like how the new Oody’s looks, and I wonder if the taste and price of the food matched the restaurant’s classy, laid-back atmosphere.

I only order house water at restaurants to cut costs and to avoid the liquid calories, but I couldn’t resist the P75 bottomless pandan juice. Unlike most restaurant juice drinks, this one didn’t taste like it was made of 50% artificial flavoring and 50% sugar; it had a subtle pandan taste and was slightly sweet. Later, I would find out that the pandan juice is the perfect complement for Oody’s spicier offerings.

The bagoong rice (P198) was always a favorite; I love that the toppings are placed at the side, allowing you to decide whether or not you want them with the rice. My only complaint is that the serving size is small for its price; it was only slightly larger than a cup and felt a little bitin.

I cannot eat at a Thai restaurant without ordering a plate of pad thai, and I was looking forward to trying Oody’s pad thai shrimp after so many years. The first thing I noticed was that it got pretty expensive at P240 without increasing the serving size. At least it was as flavorful and moist as I remembered! The noodles are a lot thinner than what I’m used to, but it allowed me to enjoy the flavors of the sauce and texture of the toppings.

My boyfriend got beef red curry (P253), a thick stew with generous servings of beef, baby corn, and yummy curry sauce. I don’t think I’ve had Thai curry in a while and I like how different it is from Indian curry. Which is not to say that I like Thai curry more; what I mean is that I appreciate the difference in flavor. Thai curry is more herb-y and salty (possibly due to the basil leaves) whereas Indian curry is more spice-y (not spicy as in hot, but spice-y as in a mixture of different spices). This particular one was a little on the spicy side, but nothing a little swallow of pandan juice couldn’t fix. The beef curry had a lot of sauce, which also went great with the bagoong rice; too bad we ran out of rice too quickly and had a lot of sauce leftovers.

I’d definitely come back to Oody’s again, but I wish they offered a little more value for money. Among all the dishes we ate that night, I’d say only the beef red curry and bottomless pandan juice were really worth ordering. Although the pad thai and bagoong rice are really tasty, I think other Thai restaurants would offer more generous servings for the price you pay at Oody’s.

Oody’s can be found at the second floor of Greenbelt 3.

Tags: thai food