Wulfstan C.
Yelp
We've been here twice this year, the first times we've been back since Covid, and the experiences were very mixed.
The place itself is nice. The interior overall has a nice, stylish and comfortable decor. There is a small outdoor dining area which is a touch cramped but otherwise attractive.
Prices are high for a Thai place but this is fancier and has cocktails.
The first time, I had the cashew chicken, which was excellent. It had nice texture, crunchy but not hard, and a nice full and complex range of flavours. mixture of chicken and some veg. I need to get rice as an extra, though. About 4.5 stars, not quite 5. The Thai iced tea was very good but not great, a touch weak. 4 stars. Service was good, not great. Overall, I would have given 4 stars easily based on this first visit, and felt at the time it might have gone higher.
The more recent visit was 3 stars overall and I can see nothing about the visit, given the dishes described below, which could have moved it up to 4 unless the main dishes were radically reworked.
The most recent time, we got the English cucumber & avocado salad, which was very good. The dressing was nice, but either the salad needed a bit more dressing, or the dressing needed a touch more pizazz to liven it up; it was hard to tell which, but the salad, though tasty, definitely needed something more. Cucumber and lettuce were nice. There were cashews but not a lot and we did not notice peanuts despite the menu saying they were there. It seems that execution was a bit sloppy. 4 stars overall.
We also got the Drunken Noodles and Street Fair Noodle, both of which were disappointing. My wife chose the Drunken because she wanted something less spicy and couldn't remember if this dish was spicy but went by the menu description that did not state it had chili flakes, unlike other dishes, such as the Street Fair Noodle, which I got. Although Drunken noodles do tend to have spice to them, the description on the menu was misleading. That aside, the dish was ok. It had some character and a touch of sweetness underneath bit was barely two-dimensional in character and was very blunt and uninteresting. It had only two leaves of Thai basil, despite the description specifying Thai basil, and the noodles were poorly prepared, most stuck and clumped together. It was blunt, lacking in character, and poorly prepared. Moreover, the sauce and ingredients were essentially identical to the Street Fair Noddles which I had, aside from the different noodles, the fact that the Drunken Noodles lacked bacon, and the Drunken Noodles' slight hint to something more than a characterless one-note spicy taste which described the Street Fair Noodles. 3 stars.
The Street Fair Noodles, as mentioned, were basically likely a more characterless variation of the Drunken Noodles, but with bacon added and with thin noodles. Otherwise, they largely looked and tasted the same. The Street Fair really was disappointing, the sauce being very characterless and basic, with just a spicy character and nothing more. The bacon was minimally present and just barely added some character, but only in the bites which actually had some bacon; it imparted nothing to the dish as a whole. The noodles were, as with the others, largely clumped and stuck together. They were also overcooked and just a starchy mess. Again, therefore, execution was not good, although it seems unlikely the dish could have been salvageable. It was crude and very characterless. The dish was edible but pointless. I do not see how anything other than a radical overhaul could make this worth ordering ever again. 2 stars.
I had a cocktail, the Kiss from a Rose. It was enjoyable and looked beautiful, but it was a little light in character. It was pretty well balanced but was light and simple and needed a bit more character to it. The rose petals, which intrigued me since I love things tasting of rose or other flowers, were just dry garnish which merely got in the way and added nothing other than a nice look. There was no rose aroma or taste whatsoever. 4 stars overall, but just barely and if any little thing were changed just a bit and it could easily have been either a 3 or 4.5. It could not have been a 5 unless it were radically improved.
Service was ok. The busboy was good with the water and the waiter was good at getting our takeaway boxes and bill, and was pleasant, but he was a bit slack otherwise
I am giving three stars but it is closer to 3.5. I'm not rounding up, though, because the negatives were stronger, more consistent and numerous, and dominate. Based on the positives, and its location, plus the memory of having had some good things here before, we'll go back and maybe my review will warrant a modification, but we'll have to see.
I just discovered that I forgot to get pictures of the noodle dishes. That said, they were good sized and both reddish, looking the same aside from the noodles.
