Don’t let the cowboy statue outside fool you, this bar-cum-eatery is no burger or steak joint but most definitely exclusively serves Thai cuisine, as its name rather confusingly attempts to indicate. And whatever it is doing it must be doing something right, as it was packed on a Tuesday evening, mainly by a younger crowd with whom it is obviously very popular.
We had to meet our friend Tyrone Ellul for a quick chat and he suggested that we also grab a bite to eat there, being somewhat of a regular himself. His quick story revealed that the place has been taken over by a German acquaintance of his, whose wife is Thai and who has made a very good name for herself in the area with her interesting and authentic food.
As already stated, this is more of a bar than anything else, which has converted one side of the establishment into a very informal dining area and as such everything about it is very informal and unceremonious, which is very much to be expected in such a case.
As we arrived a bit early we were in the mood for a nice glass of white wine while we waited for Tyrone to arrive. They stocked either a sauvignon, or a chenin blanc or a chardonnay, which is more than acceptable in this type of environment. So we went for the sauvignon which was a run-of-the-mill Chilean, but which proved to be pleasant and more than fine for us in such circumstances.
The no-nonsense menu included quite a fine selection of Thai specialities and favourites, making it relatively easy to order, especially with Tyrone’s informed recommendations. We passed on our order to the busy waitress, however much to our disappointment and frustration the food took more than 45 minutes to arrive. Tyrone actually warned us of this, as apparently this is a constant fixture here and when I very offhandedly mentioned this to the waitress afterwards, she immediately retorted that they have a tiny kitchen. Naturally this did not make us feel even one little bit better.
In days of old most people’s tolerance to waiting was definitely much higher, to the extent that many diners actually preferred a slow, long drawn out meal – but times change! Unfortunately there is no way on Earth that I can enjoy waiting for the very first bite of food to arrive virtually an hour after I place my order. Is it perhaps that many of the younger customers there just enjoy chatting and drinking amongst themselves and are oblivious to the long wait? Possibly so, however I can say that there was many a long face around us and several complaints from the less than amused diners!
When the food finally arrived I am pleased to say that it was very enjoyable. We had prawn soup and beef Thai salad for starters. Notably the soups were excellent with intense flavours of coriander, lemongrass, ginger and chilli, which jumped right out at you and virtually bit you in the nose the moment you tasted it.
For mains we took ginger pork with vegetables, which was another interesting dish presenting a lovely mix of ingredients and flavours. We also had a pork and a chicken green curry which offered a fascinating blend of tastes and were truly bursting with flavour. The only problem was that as I love very spicy food I ordered mine not ‘hot’ but ‘Thai hot’, which is the hottest grade they produce. Now similarly to most other things in life there are days you can do something very well and others when somehow you can’t. And for some unknown reason this seemed to be one of those days for me on the spice tolerance scale when my abilities turned out to be very limited. This was definitely exasperated by the fact that we continued drinking wine, which is not quite complimentary to eating hot curry. I am a firm believer that in any meal food and beverage should be matching and complimentary, in which case you enjoy both to a much higher level of indulgence.
I can usually eat anything no matter how spicy it is and believe me I know what I’m talking about, but somehow on this particular occasion I must admit that I did struggle. As already mentioned drinking wine with such spicy food only makes matters worse. So I quickly ordered two pints of lager which I swallowed down in a flash and which I must say went a long way in soothing the increasing discomfort.
After this mini ordeal I was craving for something sweet as this too tends to sooth or at least counterbalance the effects of excessive spiciness. However we were simply informed that they do not offer any desserts and we got the very small kitchen story again. I would think that in such an informal environment even chucking a fridge/freezer in a corner and filling it with even the most unelaborate industrial stuff would be much better than nothing.
It is also worth noting that pricing was more than reasonable, so definitely no problem there. I understand that people are different and that perhaps in certain circumstances you might not really mind waiting so long for your food. But unfortunately for me no meal is worth such a long wait. In today’s dining world even top restaurants have long learned that they have to somehow tweak their menu, cooking methods and talents to be able to serve customers within much shorter delays than before. So when ordering a couple of fun dishes in an informal eatery I expect to have these thrown at me by the time we have uttered our very first cin cin.