Celebration Food at Patara Thai; London

The celebration season brings with it a lot of joy; presents, lessening workloads and copious, copious drinks. I love it and it wouldn’t give me cause to complain at all but for one miniscule, teeny weeny little thing: the set function menus. I can honestly say that I’ve rarely tasted a truly fine one. There’s a formula to a function menu, there has to be purely for the logistics; it’s difficult to cook a la minute (prepared to order) and you have to cater for all those dreadful peasants who ‘don’t like fish’ (unless it’s battered), are ‘terribly lactose intolerant’ (but eat cheddar…) or are highly allergic to green vegetables (greedy).  These factors result in menus that are repetitive and commonly dull. There tends to be a lot of chicken breast.

 

 

I booked at their flagship restaurant in Soho, although they have 3 others around London, as well as Singapore, Beijing, Bangkok, Geneva and Vienna. Sadly the PR agency wouldn’t expense my flights to Asia so Soho it was!
The restaurant itself is lovely; all modern, dark wood interior with stone flooring and pings of the traditional Thai in wall carvings and vibrant hangings. It was bustling when I visited which, for me, is normally a promising indication (unless you’re in an Aberdeen Angus Steakhouse…).  All signs pointed to a good meal. This, in short, is certainly what I got. I could also quote plentiful, imaginative, well-flavoured, well-conceived and ever so, ever so tasty.

I was greeted with a glass of champagne which is always a not –round-about way of immediately sweetening me up and some decent prawn crackers. Starters came in a frenzy of nibbles: marinated, tender turkey (their one obligatory nod to Christmas) skewers flavoured with lemongrass and coriander and grilled with a fragrant papaya salad, lush tuna tataki in a spicy sauce and crisp, buttery parcels stuffed with chicken, taro and mushroom. 

The next course was one of my highlights; a fresh coconut and galangal soup with scallops and coconut flesh. The scallops were cooked perfectly with slightly rare centres and the sauce was intensely flavoured, whilst mild and rich. Watch out for the chunked galangal which the chefs didn’t fish out before serving – these are bitter and give you a hell of a shock if you bite into one. I don’t mind this but then that’s how I would serve this, with the herbs and spices flavouring the soup until the very moment ingested. Others may disagree but just be mindful to put these on the side. 

We moved on to the mains, of which we were offered a choice of meat or fish curries. The black cod with ‘chu-chee’ red curry sauce was cooked skilfully, flaking away at the lightest swipe of a fork, and accompanied by a creamy, well-balanced sauce, thick with coconut, chilli and spices. We also tried a dish of sautéed giant king prawns and scallops, in a salty, sour sauce and sweet little clam shell mushrooms. Again, I couldn’t fault the cooking of the seafood although the black cod was undoubtedly the star of the mains. Both dishes came with Thai gaba rice and wok fried vegetables which were fresh, offering a much needed means of mopping up sauces.

Dessert arrived beautifully; a smooth vanilla panna cotta served in a glass, with berry compote in the bottom and decorated with flowers and mint leaves. This was light enough to follow what really was a substantial meal and tasty enough to satisfy even one as culinarily jaded as myself.