congokid's London thai restaurant reviews


Elephant Royale Locke's Wharf Isle of Dogs 020 7987 7999 Island Gardens	Dinner £35 ($45)	The Elephant Royale is situated on a prime spot overlooking the river with views across to Greenwich, although the immediate neighbourhood probably offers the cheaper end of the market in Docklands living. On a Saturday night we had no trouble booking at late notice, and the large, dining room done out in a modern Thai style, was far from full. Our table was on a shallow platform opposite the picture windows. The menu is long with several different banquet options fromi £19.90 to £29.50 per person, but we decided to start with Thai lettuce wraps of barbecued chicken, carrots, beansprouts, garlic noodles with some quite spicy sauces, plus Bangkok crab claws (£9.50), and king prawn tempura ((£8.90). This was followed by fried crispy garlic squid in oyster sauce (£8.90) for me, while others had Massaman lamb in a medium spicy curry sauce (£9.50), khiew warn chicken (£7.90) and roast duck curry (£8.90), and we shared bowls of light, fluffy rice and noodles. A couple of bottles of Argentinian Malbec completed the meal. The food was accomplished and tasty, service keen and attentive, and the ambience of the restaurant relaxed. Probably worth a return visit on a summer's evening when the front terrace is open to diners. Website
Wharf Wapping High Street 020 7702 9559 Wapping	Dinner £20 ($30)	There's not a lot of choice for the well heeled residents - mostly City workers - in their converted wharf apartments in this corner of London, but Wharf at least gives them a chance to dine out on authentic Thai food. The name and decor are far from traditional - the bar area that greets diners is modern with funky art on the walls, while down a slight ramp is the oak floored dining room, where white marble topped tables and heavy captains' chairs predominate. There's barely a flat surface, with lattice windows, brick and sheet steel walls all executed in swerving curves, and an absence of soft furnishing could lead to noisy mealtimes on busier lunchtimes and evenings. The unadventurous menu lists many of the usual suspects, from satay and gado gado to numerous green and red curries and stir fries, and appears to be filled out with a few Chinese regulars such as dim sum, duck spring rolls and prawns on toast. Our starters of tempura king prawns (£6.95) and a platter of mixed seafood (£7.50), which included salmon fillet, squid, mussels and king prawns in a light batter, were rather bland and were only enlivened by a sweet ginger soy sauce. On the other hand, however, our main courses were delicious. Red roasted duckling curry (£7.50), which contained pineapples, cherry tomatoes, lime leaves, red Thai chilli and sweet basil with coconut milk, was atttractively presented in a little ramekin and was delicately flavoured. My panang nua (£8.95), with stir fried Aberdeen Angus beef, red curry paste and chilli, lime leaves and coconut milk as above also tantalised, although pad nam man hoi with Aberdeen beef (£6.95) was subdued by comparison. Rice, both egg fried and coconut, was soft and moist, and the stir fried noodles were lightly cooked with bean sprouts, spring onions and carrots. A bottle of French house wine at £10.95 and a bottle of mineral water completed the meal. Handy for residents but hardly worth a special visit.
Patara Fulham Road SW3 020 7351 5692 South Kensington	Dinner £20 ($30)	One of the few Thai restaurants open on a Sunday, as we discovered after a long and up until then fruitless search both sides of the river, Patara is just opposite PJ's Bar & Grill though there are two other branches of this chain, Beauchamp Place in Knightsbridge and Maddox Street in Mayfair. We were the first customers that evening but the small dining room, decked out in understated oriental style with touches of bamboo and a green and yellow colour scheme, soon filled up. After a gin and tonic each we ordered starters including chicken and beef satay and vine leaf wrapped satay. For main course my companions ordered duck in yellow thai curry, while I had green chicken curry, and to drink we had sparkling mineral water. Each dish was loaded with flavour and the service was attentive - we had the waiting staff to ourselves for the first half an hour until other diners drifted in. Worth a return visit, especially on a Sunday evening.
Suchard 102 Tooley Street SE1 020 7357 6381 London Bridge	Dinner £15 ($22)	Across the street from the stack of saucepans that is the riverside offices of London's Lord Mayor, Suchard is a small, unpretentious Thai that functions as much as a local take away as a restaurant. The formica surfaces and rather plain dining room don't inspire, and the place was mostly empty on our visit to celebrate a friend's birthday one Saturday evening, but the food stands up well to scrutiny. It's unlicensed, so we took along a bottle or two of wine, as well as a 3 litre box of Banrock Station Cabernet Sauvignon - well, it was party time! After a selection of starters that included prawns in tempura batter with sweet chilli sauce, Thai fish cakes with sweet and sour dip, we chose from the extensive menu. I had tamarind duck with shallots and chilli (£7.50), while others ordered honey chicken (£6.95) and hormok talay - mixed seafood in red curry with lime leaves and coconut (£7.95). We sampled each other's selections. Although the starters were unremarkable, the main courses were very well put together and tasty. As we wandered back to our friend's docklands apartment overlooking the Thames, we passed the shell of the original Suchard, which is part of an isolated little terrace of disused buildings seemingly destined for destruction or redevelopment.
Busaba Eathai revisited Wardour Street W1 020 7255 8686 Tottenham Court Road	Dinner £30 ($45)	On my second visit to Busaba Eathai, early on a St Patrick's Day Sunday evening, we perched at the corner of a well filled table and had fishcakes with cucumber and peanut relish (£4.20), Thai calamari with ginger garlic and peppercorn (£4.20), duck stir fried with pickled vegetable and black bean (£7.50), thom yam chicken with rice noodles in spicy sour soup (£6.50), chicken butternut squash stir fried with cashew nuts and chilli (£5.50) and to drink, a jasmine smoothie - passion fruit, banana, orange, natural yogurt and jasmine water (£2.50). The flavours roared through and the spiciness tingled my tongue. Busaba is still good value and well worth a visit if you don't mind queuing for a seat at shared tables.
Hobgoblin 21 Balcombe Street Marylebone NW1 020 7723 0352 Marylebone	Dinner £30 ($45)	Not quite your typical Thai restaurant, the Hobgoblin is actually one of the Hobgoblinns pub chain, but the food is provided by the Thai couple that work there. It's one of a growing number of central London pubs that have franchised their kitchens, instead of providing the standard pub fare of chilli con carné, lasagne and oven chips with everything. In this case, it's been a welcome development (although I still have a soft spot for the venue when it was Hennelly's Champagne Bar & Restaurant which, back in 1990-93, was one of London's first Gaelic themed restaurants). The chef and his wife are both from Bangkok, and know how to weave magic in the kitchen. On our visit we ordered prawns in a bed and tom yam soup. I had squid for main course and there were pad thai noodles, as well as chicken in oyster sauce with noodles. One of our party, who had travelled extensively in Thailand, claimed the food was the best he'd tasted outside that country. We drank beer and red wine, and the bill would still have been very reasonable had the landlord, who knew us, gave us the meal on the house. You won't always have my luck, but Hobgoblin is a nice venue in a quiet part of Marylebone where the Thai food matches anything else available in the area.
Busaba Eathai Wardour Street W1 020 7255 8686 Tottenham Court Road	Dinner £25 ($38)	New Thai dining hall launched in 1999, on the premises that used to be my local NatWest bank, along similar lines to nearby Wagamama and Satsuma down the road, featuring communal tables and yet another philosophy to filling your face - this time buddist (sic). They've replaced the term restaurant with 'eathai' to represent a more casual single course dining experience geared toward feeding you 'with minimum fuss'. Lengthy queues are another feature, as there is no reservation system, although you shouldn't have to wait long as the turnover is relatively rapid - it's not the kind of place where you linger over the last bite on your plate. Inside, there's wood panelled walls, a smooth polished concrete floor and about 12 large square dark wood tables, each seating between 10 and 12 diners. Low polished wooden benches surrounded the table, above which is suspended a fat cylindrical light fixture. The menu is loosely structured with dishes arranged under main headings and others under side orders together with starters. A small range of wines is also offered. We ordered prawns, which came battered and with a sweet orange coloured dip, as well as thai fishcakes, which came with a clear chilli dip with bits of chopped veg in it. Apart from a rubbery texture, which seems to be a trademark of thai fishcakes, these were spicy and tasty. Main courses consisted of pork with chives for my companion, while I had a vast bowl of seafood noodle soup. The pork looked on the fatty side but tasted fine. My soup contained a few prawns, a large mushroom, a couple of large scallops and several pieces of chewy squid. The broth was very spicy, with lots of thinly sliced red and green chillies, although I avoided the large deep green raw chilli pepper lurking in the depths. We had carbonated water to wash it down. The whole bill came to just over £25, not including service, but suggesting a 10 per cent tip which seemed fair. Essentially this kind of dining is fast food without the speed, but with the quality you'd expect of more traditional restaurants. The communal seating sounds intrusive but the two of us didn't feel uncomfortable and chatted to some of our immediate neighbours.
Blue Elephant 020 7385 6595 Fulham Broadway	Dinner £40 ($60)	West London, very exotic ambience, food and service excellent. Bridges, waterways, koi carp, jungle, this place has it all, as well as some of London's top Thai food. Apparently fresh ingredients are flown in weekly from the subcontinent. Order the Royal Banquet - quicker than trawling through the long menu and a good way to sample most of the popular items such as the prawn sesame toast, spring rolls, pad thai and green curry. Go back a second time to focus on your favourites! And now you can have the delicious food in the comfort of your own home as most of the menu can be home delivered by restaurant delivery service, Room Service.
Chada Thai Battersea Park Road 020 7622 2209 Battersea Park	Dinner £25 ($40)	Intimate, wood-paneled, family-run room offering favourites as well as a few more unusual items all presented to a high standard. Thai noodles especially delicious.
Sri Thai Soho Old Compton Street Soho 020 7434 3544 Tottenham Court Road	Dinner £30 ($45)	Modern, lively Thai, formerly Sri Siam, located in the heart of gay Soho. A visit shortly after it opened several years back was unforgettable - but only for the overpowering doses of finely-chopped chilli in every dish. Even my Hong Kong Chinese colleague, who ordered for me, couldn't take more than a couple of mouthfuls of our meal, most of which remained untouched. Luckily, recent visits have been much more pleasurable as the new chef seems to have a lighter hand with the chilli. Customers are flocking to eat here now and there is usually a very busy atmosphere. Spicy prawn crackers set the sweat glands racing to begin with (at least mine do), fish cakes come with sweet dipping sauce and the Thai curries are still memorable, but for all the right reasons. A second branch plies its trade at London Wall.
Thailand Lewisham Way 020 8691 4040 New Cross	Dinner £25 ($40)	Located in the relative depths of south east London this Thai restaurant, set in a tiny front room on a clapped out high street, has built up a loyal following with the quality of its cooking. A Scottish connection somewhere is evident from the huge display of different whiskies on offer. On my first visit, rather than order from the menu and risk wasting any more time and confusing ourselves, we simply asked for our waiter to order and keep bringing food to us until we said 'no more'. Surprisingly they agreed without a blink, and we ate what was put in front of us - all of it. Several heaped platters later we had to wave the white flag. Included in our food fest were a large plate of mussels in a Thai curry sauce, larb (hot and sour minced chicken wrapped in lettuce leaves) and much else besides. We were more than happy with the bill, which for the food came to only about £17 per head. Return visits have proved it was no fluke. A real must-try worth the journey.
Busabong Too Langton Street Chelsea 020 8691 4040 Fulham Broadway	Dinner £25 ($40)	A late change of plans - the Blue Elephant proved impossible to get into at short notice - led us to this nearby Thai, but a disappointing evening was in store. Perhaps because it was just before Christmas, too early in the week or too early for the local crowd to put in an appearance, but it was unusually quiet, which could have been advance warning of the lacklustre food and none too hot service. Has links with at least one other Busabong restaurant in the same area. Food also delivered by Room Service.
Ben's Thai Warrington Crescent Maida Vale 020 7266 3143 Maida Vale	Dinner £25 ($40)	Part of a British trend of opening up Thai restaurants above traditional pubs that began in the mid-80s, Ben's is a fine attempt and one much appreciated by local residents. A large busy room above the Warrington Hotel pub, which is worth a special visit in its own right for its decor and the interesting clientele (it was my 'local' for two years!), the restaurant has been receiving mixed reviews recently, although I found the food excellent on my last visit.
Bedlington Cafe Fauconberg Road Chiswick 020 8944 1965 Chiswick	Lunch £15 ($25)	What looks like the archetypal greasy spoon, and probably is first thing in the morning, actually serves up some fiercely spicy fare, although the odd rogue ingredient may creep in. My lunch, part of a farewell celebration for a colleague, was uncomfortably hot, but I'm probably not accustomed to curries at that time of the day.
Prices are per head for two-three courses, sharing a bottle of wine or a beer or two where appropriate
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