We were mean-spiritedly looking forward to visiting this re-launched oriental (which was formerly called Sri Thai Soho). A press-scribbler of some note had used his Sunday column to proclaim it beyond dreadful, so we went armed with a full set of critical pencils, razor-sharp. This new establishment was even sibling to a City establishment (Hokkien Chan) we had given a lukewarm review to just a few weeks ago. This time, the sarcasm was going to be acid.
The reality, needless to say, was a total let-down for our preconceptions. Courteous welcome. Pleasant, and quite attentive service. A comfortable interior, and one that’s stylish enough too, given the reasonable prices. (Top tip: if you can, get one of the banquette seats as you go in.)
Surely the food might still be a travesty as promised? Well, if you were looking for London’s zingiest Sushi, the very best pad thai in town, or the capital’s top lamb massaman curry, you’d quite probably seek out a Japanese, Thai or Singaporean establishment (respectively). But if you just want a pretty decent, oriental-ish meal, at modest enough prices, you could – at least on the basis of our fairly copious lunch for two – do very much worse than here. Particular hits included some excellent, crispy vegetable tempura and a very successful noodle dish. Even the rice pudding was pretty good. As at Hokkien Chan however – the blancmange-y chocolate tart was little short of horrible.
Even given this last one dud dish, however, try as we might, we couldn’t persuade ourselves that the overall experience here was anything less than satisfactory. No, not a great foodie trip for sure. But – on our experience – a very handy stand-by, and one right in the heart of Soho.
