Patara: Soho, Thursday May 9th, 2013

Anybody who has been reading these pages for some time now will know my feelings on Thai food have changed a lot in the last few years. Once I felt it was a sort of fad which meant Asian food I liked was getting unfairly overlooked. More recently, I have come around to the fact that it can actually deliver on the sort of flavours and sensations I really enjoy in Asian foods. Of course, there's the natural level of spice which doesn't agree with me and the frequent use of ingredients I can't stand, but I have discovered there's plenty out there I can get on board with.

Last May a former colleague of mine was visiting London with his family, so a meal out was suggested, as tends to be my way. The wife and I met the family of four in Covent Garden and took a walk down to Soho in search of somewhere suitable. We decided Thai food was a viable option so went for a table for six at Patara, a chain which has several branches across the world, with a strong presence in London.

The atmosphere within the restaurant is quite a pleasant, refined one. It is quiet - possibly a little too quiet if the meal was for just the two of us - which made it a well-judged choice for the two children at the table. What I found slightly off-putting was the way it occasionally, in terms of service and menu, veered into the realms of that slightly tacky stereotypical Asian style which can be most unappealing. Fortunately it never became patronising which was a relief.

The food itself was pleasant and rather varied. The menu did have a slightly vague feel to it, with probably a few too many dishes at first glance. Things started with a surprisingly refreshing stuffed chicken wings plate (left). They were tender, moist and crispy, with crunchy lemongrass and lime as a dressing. This is the kind of comfort food I didn't think was possible in a Thai restaurant.

Next up were some kong neum ruam, or dumplings (right). These were fairly close to the kind of dim sum snacks I just adore and they were not bad at all. A combination of attractive colours with prawns, chicken and pork made for a great sharing starter. Elsewhere we had some chicken skewers with satay sauce which wasn't far away from the kind of standard fare one expects from a takeaway place.

Main courses featured an interesting beef cooked in an 'aromatic coconut reduction' (left). The beef was nicely slow-cooked, falling apart with minimal fuss. The sauce was a little too heady for me, too strong with coconut but the spicing was excellent. A dish which really surprised me and I finished almost all of it.

The wife ordered a speciality dish of lamb shank braised in red coconut curry (right). It was too hot for me but the meat was cooked expertly, even better than the beef I'd chosen. The sauce was a rich, deep orange which coated the meat appetisingly. It was an interesting take on Thai food which I had not seen before, taking something rather rustic and homely, transforming it into a special, celebratory plate of food.

Another dish which was a bit much for me but widely praised by others was the sliced duck served with garlic, chilli and crispy basil (left). I'd not seen much duck used in Thai cookery until this but it was inventive, if over-spiced. There was a distinct freshness to the dish which helped elevate it.

The evening progressed in a pleasant and comfortable sort of way. There is something quite incongruous about a refined Thai restaurant in Soho - it certainly doesn't capture the Zeitgeist of where Soho is moving these days - but it's a nice place to be. The younger of the children was very tired but the staff were perfectly happy to let her take a nap on the banquette. It was a fun evening with friends and - though it's not somewhere I'd go again in a hurry - if you're into your Thai food in a classic surrounding, it may well be the place for you.

Patara

A Complaint Retracted - Thai Rice: Fulham, Friday 15th February, 2013

Some time ago I wrote this piece on how Thai food was growing on me. Aside from all the irritating spicing, nuts where they don't belong and fragrances which just aren't to my taste, there is a lot of good in Thai food. On a Friday night early last year, I got a call from a good friend who fancied catching up. We compromised on Fulham as a location we could get to easily and were on our way.

Thai Rice is part of what you'd usually call a chain, five restaurants owned by the same group. Except they're not really a chain. Each restaurant has its own distinct website and menu. There are small intricacies which make each branch slightly different, meaning you're never quite sure what to expect. The Fulham place came with a pretty decent reputation, so I was happy to give it a go.

The evening sprawled out of control instantly. We ended up spending a frankly irresponsible amount of money on a last minute dinner for four, ordering what seemed like way too much but all of which was eaten. That tells you one thing: it was a fun evening. The wife had taken some advice from a friend in the know on what to order so we also sampled a few dishes we wouldn't have otherwise been aware of; a sure bonus when visiting a Thai restaurant.

Several dishes stood out for the right reasons. Some scallops weren't cheap at around £6 each but the result was worth the expense (left). Delicately spiced and seasoned, swimming in a butter sauce, they were a great way to get us started. It was a similar story with the soft shell crab tempura, which for around £5 was great value and a typically crunchy, sweet, salty and greasy proposition (above right).

The wife tends to go crazy for a decent papaya salad when eating Thai food, something I am rarely enthused by since it is usually both too bitter and packed with nuts for me. In this case it was refreshing, cool and a great accompaniment to the food (left). Still too many nuts for me but the wife loved every mouthful. She remarked that the salad was very traditionally and typically Thai, with the sweetness coming from the peanuts.

In ordering our food we had thrown caution to the wind and dishes to the table were a procession at this point. Some 'off menu' beef with noodles was a delight which I had not been expecting at all. The meat was tender, salty, savoury and sitting in a throaty, rich broth. All the tiresome clichés I had been dismissing about Thai food began to drift away somewhere in amongst the table which was now becoming so full we could barely fit our own plates on it.

No English person's visit to a Thai restaurant is complete without either a curry or some noodles. Naturally we had both. The curry was a delicately-balanced, mild yet flavoursome bowl (right). This was a Panaeng curry which I had never heard of, but our friends in particular put paid to this with no time to stand on ceremony. The noodles were a fairly unadventurous chicken variety but were a nicely grounded plate around some of the headier flavours.

We ordered some Pla Ma Kham which was sea bass served with pineapple, vegetables and a spicy sauce (left). I was not so bothered with all the sides to the dish, just hugely impressed with the tender, moist flesh underneath. There's something so delightfully refined and pure about a fillet of Asian fish and this was a terrific example. It was another plate which sat well with the rest of the cavalcade of food we were eating.

Making sure we had enough meat, we ordered two dishes which had been sliced and grilled, then served with variations on spicy sauce. Both the chicken and the pork were delicious and earned us the dubious achievement of having eaten just about every animal on the menu. This was all being washed down with mango lassi for me, beer for one friend and Thai milk tea for the other and the wife.

This was a ridiculous exuberance of a night out but a great one. The meal was lots of fun and all the food was great. I can't say I am now a huge Thai food fan but this kind of experience is making me re-think my past criticisms. Thai Rice is a great place to spend a Friday evening with friends. If that's not a ringing endorsement of a restaurant, I don't know what is.

Thai Rice

@Siam - Soho, Thursday July 26th, 2012

As has been documented previously, I'm no fan of Thai food. Such barefaced criticism stirred a couple of readers into sarcastic feedback, so what better way to try and drum up some 'any publicity is good publicity' than to recant a trip to one of the busiest Thai places in the west end from last July?

This was another experience altogether from some of my previous Thai outings. We met two friends (one of whom is from Thailand) for some midweek dinner and I was as skeptical as ever. That said, our Thai friend actually knows the owner. Certainly something to make the evening more interesting...

The place itself has the look and feel (and definitely the name) of a very modern restaurant. Simply furnished without pandering to the kind of fake opulence that damns so many Asian restaurants in London, it absolutely is the kind of place you can wander in off the streets and enjoy a stress-free evening. The waiters wear shorts, the patter is friendly and you feel right at home as soon as you sit down.

Our friend ordered for the table which was a no-brainer. She was reminded that I cannot physically deal with anything too spicy but more or less everything else was fair game. There's something both reassuring and terrifying when you're left in the hands of an expert on a cuisine you've previously written off ordering for you in a language you can't understand.

The food was a mixed bag but in a far more positive light than I've considered Thai food before. We started with a gorgeous-looking sea bass which had been boned out and half-butterflied on the plate but with the head still attached and the body more or less intact. The array of green and red vegetable dressing added to the visual impact and the fish itself was perfectly moist and juicy. But it was just too spicy for me. I'm sure most people with an interest in tangy Asian food would love this but I couldn't hold more than two mouthfuls.

Some seafood soup was up next and this really is the kind of thing I quiver at the thought of. Thin Asian broths aren't something I enjoy and this looked essentially like a bowl of water with mussels and greens floating around in it. Sadly it wasn't one for me again but the wife loved it and the rest of the table got stuck in. I have to say, having tried some of the seafood itself, it wasn't half bad. It's just that seawater-esque broth that left a bad taste.

At this point, our friend mentioned to the owner that I was a "food critic". Cue embarrassed floor-gazing as I explained that I was merely a blogger-among-thousands and my outreach was negligible at best... But it didn't seem to matter. The rest of the meal was a thoroughly entertaining and engaging chit-chat with the owner which certainly helped relax me. Fortunately I wasn't quizzed on what I thought of Thai food in general but questions like "which is your favourite restaurant" did come up. That said, I did not lie when I said I was enjoying the meal.

The rest of the food was really rather lovely. Some rich, dark noodles with prawns were eaten mostly by me as the rest of the table enjoyed a pleasant-looking curry and the soup and fish which wasn't for me. Even better was some delicately-fried soft shell crab: a perfect balance of sweetness and tartness from the seasoning in the crisp coating. Essentially I ate the lot which meant we had to order a second bowlful.

I felt myself warming to the idea of Thai food. Maybe it was the owner or the friendly bill, or the genuine bustling bonhomie of the place, but something was clicking. Desserts came in the form of some mango and sticky rice which was so fermented (and served with a vile coconut sauce) that it made me recoil. Fortunately ice cream saved the day. Some green tea was okay, some sesame tasted of sesame (so not good at all) but two delicious scoops of mango and raspberry were a perfect end to what had been a very nice meal.

I don't write this review as a wholly-converted fan of Thai eating, but as a convert in the making (which I was). There will be more to follow, but for now, take my inexperienced but convicted advice: relaxed Thai food in Soho for reasonable money is a good thing. @Siam is a good thing. Thai cuisine is not a bad thing.

@Siam

Two Much for Anyone: Taste of Siam & Asakusa - Camden, Friday 10th December, 2010

Once in a while, I indulge in a session of eating that technically beggars belief. Two days before the sushi adventures in the same postcode, the other half and I were drawn to try what we had read was one of the most genuine and appealing Japanese restaurants in town: Asakusa. It was, I had read, one of those places that you are lucky to find in London.

And so it goes; London seems to have taken to it rather well. So much so that when we showed up without a reservation we were told we'd have to wait until after ten to eat. That certainly wasn't an option on a cold December evening, especially on crutches. Most normal people might have gone home at this point but we were not to be deterred. We walked up Camden High Street as far as Taste of Siam, a fairly empty canteen-looking Thai place.

We were both hungry, cold and miserable enough to try whatever we could get so in we went. Now, as I have vented before, Thai food is not my favourite cuisine. In fact, most of the time I plainly do not like it. My hopes were not high. In the event, they were right not to be. We ate over £30 worth of food and I didn't enjoy a lot of it, sadly.

The other half is certainly more keen on Thai food than I, so the tom yum soup she ordered was eaten exclusively by her, save for a few coughing, spluttering sips for me. This stuff is just horrible. Over-spicy, excessively thin, bitty and generally laden with nastiness, I can't bring myself to eat more than a couple of spoonfuls before choosing hunger over indigestion. That said...she liked it. It was reportedly very traditional and fresh.

The kung pao prawns we ordered were more up my street. Typically quite a spicy dish, these were actually quite reserved and, as with the soup, pretty fresh. Certainly firm enough to actually taste prawn in there. The two curries we tried were acceptable enough, apart from one being too sweet and one being too spicy. Apologies if I sound grumpy recounting this, but as I have previously explained, Thai food is simply not my thing.

Finally, we experienced the absurdity of crab claw tempura. I will eat just about any sort of tempura and I had visions of these being comparable to battered oysters: luxury street food which melts in the mouth. Unfortunately these were whole crab claws wrapped in batter. I almost broke a tooth in my over-zealous efforts to extract the meat from the things. The meat itself was rather nice, but not worth the challenge by a long shot.

As we left, it's fair to say I was in a pretty bad mood. I was on crutches, it was cold and late, we hadn't got into our first choice restaurant and I had not enjoyed our food. It was at this point that the other half had one of her typical flights of fancy... How about the place that was too full earlier?

She had to be joking... I mean she had to be. She wasn't. Back to Asakusa we went, but it was almost too late to get a table now. So much so that she hurried on ahead whilst I huffed and puffed with my leg supports back down the high street. It certainly wasn't one of our brightest ideas, or one of the most necessary meals we'd ever eat. Let's be honest, it was downright ridiculous.

Whilst it was primarily outrageous greed and curiosity on the other half's part, it was more unfulfilled irritation on mine which pushed us to the table. We rushed in, content that a late sitting would do the trick, or at least send us both home satisfied.

We ate two set meals. Basically your main event coupled with salad, pickles, miso soup and rice. Easy-peasy: that's traditional Japanese enough. As for the food, there's enough there to make it worth a visit but not enough to make it a special occasion place.

The other half's potato and pork mince croquette was casually dismissed as "something I can cook at home". (I am indeed a lucky man.) The ratio of pork to potato was absolutely too low and they didn't hold their shape or form as well as they might.

I ate some ton katsu, a sliced breaded pork cutlet. Very pleasant: moist, tender, appropriately sauced and breadcrumbs A-okay. Now this is all well and good but none of it is particularly out of the ordinary. As mentioned; it is stuff you might well cook at home if you're appropriately skilled. (Yes, you can technically say that about any food you eat in a restaurant but you know what I mean.) Maybe the naff Thai food put me in a more receptive mood...

What I will say in Asakusa's favour is that it is exactly what it purports to be: a no-frills neighbourhood Japanese restaurant. It does have a very authentic feel to it; cosy and quaint yet brusque and professional. I wouldn't say that you should drop everything and head up there the second you're free, but you should definitely pop in for a quick dinner if you are in the area. Not to be missed, though not as altogether fantastic as some would have you believe. And better than Taste of Siam. Well, I think so.

Taste of Siam

My Thai Gripe - Mangosteen: Earl's Court, 5th of November, 2010

This meal wouldn't usually merit a review in that it was horribly brief, inconsequential and unappetising. The only reason I write about this here is to dispel (at least personally) that most bizarre of auras which surrounds Thai food in England.

People seem to love this stuff. It's hip'n'trendy east end fodder for the masses, re-fuel for Soho bohemian drinkers, pretentious lunch for city poseurs and generally loved in a way that I cannot wrap my head around. There are, I believe, two reasons for my ambivalence toward Thai food: sourness and spiciness. Two things I do not look for in my food. Thai food has these in spades.

This bonfire night, I was thoroughly underwhelmed by a variety of dishes which either burned my mouth into oblivion or blanded it into boredom. The green curry was nutty and lifeless, the chicken was fiery and mushy, the salad was a mixture of raw carrots, chillies and beansprouts and the soup was as unappetising as any thin, insubstantial Asian soup could be.

My advice is to not bother with Mangosteen, but I would urge you to go one further and stop with Thai food altogether. Maybe I'm just in a bad mood today, or maybe having to recall this dire meal has put me in one, but it's time we took a stand and stopped pretending that the kind of useless rubbish which is sent our way in such pretentiously-endorsed guises is any good. I'm sure there is good Thai food out there somewhere. You clearly just have to look bloody hard for it.