I am currently binging on Thai food. Not in a gross literal sense, but still. My last two reviews have been of Thai restaurants; I went back to Esarn Kheaw for seconds last Friday; I had Thai for lunch yesterday (this review); and today I’m going to a Thai restaurant for the office Christmas meal. Luckily for me, I really like Thai food.
I wanted to try a few different things (for review purposes of course, although the fact that I was starving and generally quite greedy may have been factors) so I ordered the spicy beef with spicy rice, a spring roll, and a piece of vegetable tempura.
First, let’s get the good stuff out of the way: this place is cheap, even by Soho standards. My entire order came to £5.40, with the curry and rice costing just under £4.00. That’s a lot of food for the money. And to be fair, the beef was nice and tender – it was better quality meat than I was expecting.
Okay, enough of that – let’s move on to the bad.
The rice was salty. I kept finding what seemed like pockets of salt; it was a bit overpowering at times.
The vegetables had no crunch; they were limp and lifeless. Soggy, even.
The sweet chilli sauce came in a baggy. It looked like sticky orange food drugs.
Most disconcertingly, everything was coated in a layer of grease. Just look at the photo – you can see it pooling in the bottom of the container, and I’m pretty sure that food shouldn’t be that shiny. I can imagine myself enjoying this after stumbling out of a pub after a five-hour drinking session, but in the cold hard light of day it didn’t feel much better than eating a kebab sober (I tried that once and it didn’t work out). And the less said about the sides, the better.
If you want a budget Soho lunch then there are better options available to you. Papaya in St. Anne’s Court springs to mind, as does the presumably nameless curry stand on Rupert Street opposite Freebird Burritos. Go to one of those places. They cost the same (about £4) and are much less greasy.
Rating: 3/10
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