The reviews for this place were good so had high hopes for this. I'm picky about Thai food having lived there and had relationships with women who cooked this day in day out so I will be pointing out what I deem are glaring errors to me.
The starter of Tom Young Goong was good but as I always ask for Prik Nam Pla as general side dressing for the meal I had to add some ofthe birds eye chilies in that to the soup to increase the hotness, it had everything else, the sweet, the sour, the salty but not the heat which I thought straightaway its been dumbed down for english palates, something which I hate straightaway. There was also a notable absence of coriander. It was also £ 5.50 and I can't help but compare it to the excellent Pepper Tree in Clapham Common where its under £ 3.00. Considering the location of this cafe its starter menu at £ 5.00 for a lot of items is a lot.
Next came the Thai Beef salad and this was good, not authentic in my opinion but just okay. This dish needs soft quality beef but the beef that came was chewy and obviously a cheaper cut that they use in the currys. I'd rather have in this dish less of a better cut than more of a tougher one as after all we are paying for the food.
The papaya salad, Som Tum came and it was shredded carrot instead of papaya. My mistake for not reading the menu and seeing this cafe served it as that but come on, its called papaya salad for a reason and not carrot salad. Paying £ 5.50 for a carrot version of this classic just further fuelled my growing disdain for dumbing down this classic dish which should be served with papaya, dried shrimp etc etc so very disappointing.
The main course was a musammon curry, I had asked for red beef but no big deal as I like both but others may not have, ok, no big deal, just a mistake. However the curry came with enough carrots and onions in it to start a vegetable patch. Hardly any potatoes in it and those that were had been chopped into little cm pieces ! This is not how you serve a musammon curry. Again, more gentrification of a dish. I couldn't take anymore. If you want authentic Thai food at a similar price then the best place in my opinion is the Pepper Tree in Clapham. Smiles was just a less than average place and too expensive for its location and most importantly, I don't want to see loads of carrots in my Thai food !
I can only think that most of the other reviewers on here do not really know what authentic Thai food is like and thats not a poke at not having been there, you can get it in London at the Blue Elephant in Fulham, Pepper Tree in Clapham etc but not at Smiles unfortunately.