SIAM ORCHID: Thai win over the 'experts'

MARCH, 2010

Siam Orchid,

22 Middleton Road,

Royton

Tel: 0161 624 8338

IT is certainly a sign of the times that when we made a Friday visit to this little bit of Asia in downtown Royton we were seated in the downstairs section of the restaurant with the upstairs not in use.

Several previous visits to this well-established delight have seen both sections crammed with diners. But times are tough and restaurants are cutting their cloth. Not that the 30+ diners who were in there that night would have known.

Nothing is too much trouble for the traditionally-attired staff and they go out of their way to ensure that everything is to your liking. It is truly appreciated and means a lot when it is sincere.

I have to confess that we went for the meal with a couple of self-confessed Thai-addicts and I was interested to see if our little Orchid would still bloom in comparison to some of the top Thai restaurants in this country and beyond they have frequented.

We were having great difficulty in choosing between starters and a soup so opted for just one of the mixed starters (for two - but in our case for four) so that we could all have soup. The mixed starter (£11.95) contained chicken satay, spring rolls, Thai fish cakes, chicken sesame toast and vegetable samosas. And three dips - the chunkier of the three had a real kick.

It does make me smile when you come to order in restaurants that have dishes literally into the 100s that they have a number against them and you do find yourself ordering by numbers.

I'll leave the jokes alone as this food is serious business. Mrs W went for spicy chicken coconut cream soup (No 20, £5.50) on the grounds that she had starved herself all week to be able to even allow coconut milk's billion calories to touch her lips and she was going to enjoy it.

And she sure did.

I chose the king prawn option of the hot and sour (£6.20) and once I had recovered my composure from an early attack of the chilli, I was able to enjoy the succulent prawns and take in the myriad flavours. Four empty bowls and just a few crumbs on the mixed starters suggested all were well satisfied.

We sneaked in another Thai beer and other drinks to cool down before the main courses arrived. Our aficionado had ordered a Beef salad (£5.50) - sounds rather plain, but I can tell you from tasting it, anything but. He had asked for it to be spicy. And while he felt the beef could have been a touch pinker, he was wowed by the zing and thoroughly enjoyed it.

The vote for top dish - Mrs W does this month in month out - went to her stir-fried chicken in a sweet brandy and red wine sauce with cashew nuts (£7.50). Mmmms all round.

I chose the green curry (£7.50) while our quartet of dishes was completed by a prawns with chilli and hot basil (£7.50) and it really is part of the experience of such meals to be able to get a taste of everything.

We added a portion of noodles (£3.50), consensus was cooked just right, two portions of egg fried rice (£2.50 each) and a similarly priced sticky rice to soak up all the lovely sauces. It took us a while but we did not leave much.

With drinks it was under £60 a couple. The whole meal was just packed with flavours at every turn. It impressed our 'experts'. As mere diners, we thought it was magic!