@Siam

I've given @Siam a couple of tries but I keep finding their space tight, their food mediocre and if I'm in Soho eating Thai I can't help thinking, "Why am I not at (the far superior) Patara?

Last night I came to @Siam with a friend visiting from Japan. She let me do the ordering so I went with a few of my favourites: tom kha goong, massaman curry and pad see ew.

As I was portioning out the soup between us I realised we'd been given tom yum goong - hot and sour soup - as opposed to the coconut milk-based soup I'd ordered. I'm a fan of both so we ate it but I'd had a hankering for the soup I'd originally requested. As it happens, the soup was the best part of the meal.

The massaman curry had decent flavour but was excessively oily and the lamb was not tender the way I've come to expect it. The beef in the pad see ew was even tougher and lacked the spiciness this dish is known for.

Bottom line: If you're after above average Thai in Soho, it's not @Siam.

For starters, I have no idea why they have an @ in their name. It's not like the restaurant is literally a Twitter handle or anything. (or is it?)

Naming aside, @Siam has a solid lunch. While it may not be the most exciting spot on Frith, especially given it's lack of outdoor seating, they have a lot of good options for not a lot of money; £8.95 gets you an appetizer and main.

This place has surprising lovely food (considering it has such a silly name!)

My friends chose to eat here by peeking in the window to see if the food other customers were being served looked good... @siam passed the 'look' test, so they grabbed a table, and we came and joined them half a beer later. The service wasn't amazing, but the food made up for it.

We tried the battered corn starter along with the fried prawns. Om nom nom. I then went for the baked tiger prawns with vermicelli noodles. The prawns were huuuuuge, juicy and lovely. I was the only one of the four of us that has not been to Thailand, and all of my friends were suitably impressed. They had plenty of interesting things on the menu that I have never heard of, along with the old favourites (my mate's pad thai was excellent.)

* Be warned, the salads are SPICY! One of my friends (who loves spicy food) couldn't finish it, as it was just too full of chilli goodness. We all tried it and thought it was gorgeous, but I don't think I could eat a whole plate full.

The best indication of how good a Thai restaurant is, in my experience, down to their tom yum soup. If it is excellent, the rest of the meal typically will be as well.

At @Siam, the soup was good, but way too sour. And that sort of set the tone for the rest of the meal - every dish was decent, but didn't really stand out.

Typical of Soho, the tables were quite cramped together, and the atmosphere was slightly too noisy as they were full. Service was quick and friendly though, which was great.

Pricing was OK, for Soho, but you could get better Thai food in London for cheaper and in a more spacious setting, but not in such a central location.

It was a Saturday night and I hadn't made reservations anywhere. This was the only restaurant with a table available so we thought let's try it.
I had the Tom Yum Goong which was nice but nothing mind blowing and then a green curry. All was just okay and I expected better. Perhaps our experience wasn't as nice because we were by the door and people kept going in and out and it was freezing. Unfortunately there wasn't any other tables but this is isn't the staff's fault.

Having tried a few Thai places in London, I haven't been too impressed. With that, I have to confess that Thai cuisine has not been one that frequently crosses my mind when choosing where to eat.

First thing we said to the waiter when he gave us the menu was to recommend to us the more unique/traditional/authentic Thai dishes. If that fails, I usually go with 'What is your favourite?'


With that, we managed to order a few starters and mains.

My Thai Ice Tea arrived first of course which on first sip tasted similar to HK style milk tea. There were hint of sweetness without being overly so followed by a mid-strength tannin taste.
I like this drink.

Sai Uoa £8.95

The first starter to arrive was the Sai Uoa which is a Grilled Northern Thai mixed herb traditional pork sausage. I don't know if it usually is THAT spicy but these were SPICY! Am started to wonder in my head if I should perhaps have not said to the waiter that we wanted hot dishes!

The sausages were juicy with the flavours well balanced. As much as this was burning my mouth, I couldn't stop myself as the more I ate, the more I wanted to eat.


Som Tum Pon La Mai Ruam £7.5

It was with relief when the next starter arrived. A wonderful array of colours coming from the tomatoes, grapes, apples, green beans and I couldn't believe it, tiny shrimps known as 'Har Mai' drizzled with Som Tum sauce.

It was sour, it was salty, it was refreshing, and it cooled my burning tongue down. I have not had a salad like this before with a sour salty combo and it really works. I highly recommend.


Pla Hoi Shell £10.5

The last of the starters were these seared scallops resting on a circled courgette crowned with sliced apples and caviar with spicy and sour seafood dressing to finish. This was the least impressionable of the trios. The combination doesn't seem to add anything or harmonise with each other. Its side salad was a different story though which you could just about see on the top left part of the pic. With chopped up mint added to the salad, it brought the salad to a whole new level and was finished within minutes by the table.

With the starters, I would say that I am most delighted with the salads and can't wait to try others when I come back next time.

I was feeling a tad full now and we haven't even move on to the mains.

Gang Phed Ped Yang £11.95
Chargrilled marinated duck breast in red curry with pineapple and lychees

It would be appalling to go to a Thai restaurant and not to at least give one of their curries a try. We decided to skip convention and went with one with a most unusual and interesting combination indeed. So our Gang Phed Ped Yang arrived which is duck breast that has been chargrilled and then cooked in a red curry with pineapple and lychees.

Pineapple and lychees? I know, I was thinking the same thing and the unusual combo was just too hard to resist not trying. Duck is a heavily accented meat and it combines well with the curry, the texture itself was succulent. The curry itself was way too creamy. Gamey and creamy over dominated everything else which was quite unfortunate for the pineapple and lychees.


Pra Nung Ma Naew £14.95

The Pra Nung Ma Naew arrived next which were two sea bass fillets with a tropical zesty sauce. Zesty lime, coriander and tiny chopped chillies adding a kick, this would have blown me away if not for the fish. Such a light and zingy sauce is perfect to bring out the freshness and sweetness of the sea bass, but its downfall is that anything less than fresh would also be more pronounced. The sea bass was unfortunately not fresh, chatting with the waiter, we were told that priced at £15, the cost would have been too high to use fresh fish and frozen fish was used instead.

Understandable but such a pity. It is still a good dish but has so much potential to blow your socks off.


Weeping tiger £11.95

The last trio of mains was the Weeping Tiger. Beef grilled to medium well with Thai sauce to dip into on the side, good without leaving an impression.

With the starters and mains over, we browsed the dessert menu and couldn't decide as the now really full glutton in me wanted to try all three! Our wonderful waiter came to the rescue and insisted that we got the water chestnut dumpling and no more.

Water Chestnut Dumpling £5.75

Our dessert arrived which was totally not what we were expecting. Tiny cubes of water chestnut with a coat that is both joyfully chewy and elastic. We figured out the ingredient used to coat those ruby water chestnut but which has now slipped my mind. A few slivers of jackfruit as garnish and coconut ice cream on the side completes the dessert.

These ruby babies are good and such a delight to eat. I can see myself coming here just to have this when I crave dessert. The coconut ice cream had just the right balance of coconut in it and complements the water chestnuts well.

Authentic regional Thai food exists in Central London. HUZZAH!

So for all of you who can't make the long trips out to the world-class regional Thai restaurants of West London, there now is an option closer to home at the new and lovely @Siam restaurant in Soho.

At first glance @Siam could be any other swanky modern Thai in Soho with it's cool decor and staff in smart black tops, but under the hood there is a wonderful difference lying dotted through the menu and on full view on the last page. The food cooked here is not just the usual Thai stalwarts of curries, soups and pad thais but includes many more of the best dishes from the Thai regions. I'm talking about the earthy herbal food from Lanna in the north, the firey spices of Isarn in the east and the pungent fish from the South.

With a member of Yelp royalty at my side, we went for two £15 set meals - the Isarn set (beef strips with tamarind sauce, sticky rice, spicy papaya salad and spicy chicken laap) and the Lanna set (pork belly curry, herbal sausage, sticky rice, spicy dips and pork rinds). We added lychee juice to drink and took a take out box of a beautiful spicy pomelo salad home. All for £45

The food was good, pretty and crucially authentic. I felt well at home with my Lanna set, as if I was back with my family in Northern Thailand, dipping crispy pork rinds into nam prik and watching the hot sun set.

Can't wait to be back there and can't wait to be back here too.

@Siam (please don't tell me there's a #Bangkok nearby) looked promising, but our service wasn't so great! He was really impatient and at times a little rude! At some point we were helped by some other servers and they were a lot more helpful. We had the pad thai, red curry with duck and green curry with chicken which wasn't bad although we've definitely had better! Two of us had lychee juice which was overwhelmingly sweet.

I wasn't terribly impressed although not unhappy with our dinner - but I don't think I'll come here again!

Restaurant decoration is simple but nice and atmosphere was friendly. It was Chinese New Year day and Soho area was busy. We were at lunch time and ordered 2 tasty starters: Deep fried golden corn with red curry batter and aromatic syrup; Thai fish cakes served with crushed peanut in sweet chilli sauce. For main course we chose delicious traditional fried noodles with prawn in tamarind sauce and stir fried mixed seasonal green vegetables with holy basil and chilli. Thai dessert pandan cake with vanilla ice cream was yum! We drank hot Jasmine tea as it was raining and snowing in this cold February day. Service was very friendly and prices meet high food quality. I recommend you to make a reservation before.

This restaurant is now known as @Siam. The restaurant is a little small, and our table was slightly cramped, but the staff were friendly and the service was exceptionally quick.


We had a variety of dishes, which were all very nicely presented and very tasty. My prawn Pad Thai was very good. I'd recommend some Thai prawn crackers to munch on while you're perusing the menu.


If you're a Thai speaker, apparently you can ask for the "locals" menu, containing regional specialities you don't often find in regular Thai restaurants.


I'd definitely go back to @Siam if I'm in the area and fancied a quick lunch or early dinner.


Oh, the dessert menu wasn't great so we popped round the corner to Lick Gelato on Greek Street for pud. Lovely!