Melanie's Reviews

I'd read all the hype about this fabulous cheap noodle bar by Alan Yau of Hakkasan and Yauatcha fame and having eaten many times at the latter, I was quite excited. My credit has been well and trully crunched this year, so the prospect of eating a more affordable meal at one of Mr Yau's restaurants was an opportunity not to pass up. When we arrived there was a queue that snaked the length of the restaurant entrance and way out into the steet, so although the thought of queuing wasn't ideal we figured this was a good sign. Luckily the queue moved quickly and we managed to get inside only to join another really long queue, but this was next to the glass fronted open plan kitchen so we were kept amused by the super-fast chefs with their bamboo steamers and searing hot woks. When we eventually made our way into the restaurant proper, we were surprised at how big it was. It looked like a posh Wagamama's or not-so-posh Yauatcha. The seating was main ly bench style and you share tables with complete strangers which you don't mind when no dish exceeds £6.50. The menu was noodles in any which way: steamed and hand pulled, boiled, stir fried… I opted for a chicken and vegetable stir-fry dish and my friend had a beef ho fun dish. Both were fresh, light and tasty. My friend is allergic to shellfish, so we had a little trouble choosing side dishes as we were only left with two options, some veg and chicken dumplings. It's not a great menu if you're vegetarian or if you can't eat shellfish, but other than that, it does what it says on the tin. The portions were on the small side though and we did come out a little hungry. Probably best for lunchtime rather than a leisurely evening meal.

Set in a beautiful old house in the unlikely setting of Stoke Newington High Street, this restaurant instantly transports you from the grit of North London to a glamourous and calm world of Thai huts, water fountains and a long sleek bar. The cocktail menu was long and inventive, not cheap, but not West End prices (despite the West End decor). The food and service however, were both let downs. The starters of ‘golden balls’ (yes, really) consisted of chopped, seasoned chicken fried in a light batter with a sweet chilli dipping sauce and prawn spring rolls were good – light and crispy, but the mains were another story. There “award winning” Mussaman lamb curry “cooked for hours and served on the bone with pumpkin and potatoes” was a larg bowl of sweet sauce with one small wedge of pumpkin, two small pieces of potato and three tiny pieces of ‘lamb’ that were not on the bone and looked like they'd been chewed up and then regurgitated by the local moggy…but were still tough as old boot leather. The lightly fried chicken with a chilli coconut sauce had a good quality, tasty chicken breast but was ruined by the presence of the chilli coconut sauce which both looked and tasted exactly the same as the gloop that the lamb curry was swimming in. Overall, the menu was full of typical ‘British Thai’ food – the usual green and red curries and pad thai and the like, nothing new or different. The wine list was good and the wine arrived speedily, but I'm still waiting for the tap water that we had to ask for three times. This isn't a cheap local restaurant, but I fear that you're paying more for the decor than the food. Not a terrible restaurant, but I won't be going back in a hurry.