Food&Drink News&Reviews
Och Thai The Noo A Thai restaurant with big ideas is the latest chain restaurant to arrive in Glasgow’s city centre. Andrea Pearson sized it up
+ Rich variety of colours, flavours and spices
- Service overwhelmed by the scale of the venue
S ometimes it’s hard to be a Weegie. Not just because at this time of year West Coasters have to scoot towards the last train home while ye merrie Edinburghers totter off to an after- after-show bash. It’s also because of the persisting belief that bigger is always better in food.
So while Edinburgh has a range of specialist, small restaurants serving regional Indian, Thai or Chinese cuisine, Glasgow has tended to focus on being the Curry King with large venues serving their dishes hot and their lagers cold. This may explain why the Thai restaurant chain, Chaophraya, has opened what they’re claiming is ‘Europe’s largest Thai restaurant’ in Glasgow.
The grand eaterie spans several immaculately decorated floors of the A-listed Townhouse in Nelson Mandela Place, with a cocktail lounge on the ground floor and a restaurant with four private dining rooms above. There’s a grandiose entrance hall and somehow it is hard to imagine that the food will be anything but a let down. The evidence, however, is that there’s something of substance beyond the edifice. On offer are familiar options such as green curry and pork skewers to more offbeat selections such as weeping tiger and sweetcorn cake. There’s also a Scottish/ Thai section matching the likes of Stornoway black pudding with mango and lime – a little unexpectedly, it’s a dream combo. It’s all the creation of Kim
108 THE LIST 9–16 Aug 2012
Kaewkraikhot, a Thai chef with 20 years’ experience and a stated desire to showcase authentic Thai flavours. Reasonably priced mains – £10 to £15 – include massaman lamb curry, a traditional dish combining potatoes with meltingly soft pieces of lamb, which has an aromatic, sweet sauce bursting with star anise, cinnamon, cardamom and coconut. It’s easy to see why it is ‘a favourite of the Thai royal family’. Jungle fish curry, by contrast, is a lighter blend of hot spices such as green peppercorns and krachai – a slender ginger root – with fried fish and enoki mushrooms.
Puddings include Thai favourites such as pancakes with vibrant green pandan custard and mango. The place is not perfect by any means – there are some teething problems in serving to so many tables and some of the sticky rice almost fuses to the pot – but it is a refreshing addition despite its elephantine proportions.
CHAOPHRAYA
The Townhouse, Nelson Mandela Place, Glasgow,
G1 2LL, 0141 332 0041, chaophraya.co.uk
Food served: Mon–Sun noon–10.30pm. Ave. price two-course meal: £10.95 (set lunch) / £23 (dinner)
SIDE DISHES NEWS TO NIBBLE ON
THE ITALIAN BISTRO and Partners Suite near the Pond off Great Western Road in Glasgow has been taken over by Nasreen Aksi, one of the partners behind the Ashoka restaurant chain. There’s been a bit of a facelift and the menu has been refreshed, but the venue retains its Italian core.
THE LOCH FYNE Oyster Bar at Cairndow in Argyll, which was bought over
this year by Scottish Seafood Investments, is to bring Ondine’s chef-proprietor Roy Brett on board to help to evolve and develop the restaurant, with a complete refurbishment planned. IF EVER YOU despair of the tourist tat filling up the Royal Mile, duck into a new food shop at 263 Canongate called Cranachan & Crowdie. Managing to see past Irn Bru and shortbread, C&C fill the demand for gift and packaged Scottish food with a discerning range including a number of small artisan producers.
DEUCHARS RECOMMENDS
BENNETS BAR 8 Leven Street Edinburgh, EH3 9LG Bennets Bar is proudly one of Edinburgh’s oldest and most historic pubs. Being the neighbour of the King’s Theatre makes it the perfect spot for food and drinks before or after a show. The recently refurbished Skean Dhu restaurant is family friendly and serves modern Scottish food and a few favourites too. The Deuchars’ IPA beer-battered haddock and chips is not to be missed!