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Thai House, Chichester
Restaurant Alley, aka St Pancras in Chichester, is a strange, unpredictable beast.
There are no fewer than six restaurants along this short one-way part of the street before it takes off out of town.
Some sites are long-term successes, others fading.
One such closed restaurant has yet another incumbent, this time round a Thai business.
Thai House has inherited a lovely building with a grand door and Georgian exterior, the dcor typical Thai thanks to wood carvings, golden dragons' heads and a fine portrait of the revered Thai Royal couple.
Thai cooking is either Royal - deeply skilled, elaborately decorated banquets - or your average Thai.
By average, I don't mean second-best and ill-conceived.
Far from it. Some of the best cooking found in Thailand is simple street food or in simple small restaurants,
Thai House has only been open a few weeks but it has the air of being already quite comfortable with itself.
It was packed as totally charming waitresses in long silk skirts weaved through the bamboo-type chairs and close-knit tables.
If you're familiar with Thai food you'll recognise firm favourites: spicy fish cakes; satay chicken; crispy beancurd; grilled prawns; chilli squid and pork spare ribs for starters.
Trad Thai salads - duck, beef, vegetable and beancurd - join yum woonsen, a hot, sour vermicelli noodle one with prawns and squid. Tom yum soup is naturally on the menu to show off essential Thai ingredients: lemongrass, chilli, coriander.
Curries with or without coconut milk, stir-fried dishes, seafood, noodles and essential rice - Thai food is incomplete without rice, the staff of life - are the sum of Thai House menu parts.
Fish cakes flew out of the kitchen in nanoseconds. Perched appealingly on a navy blue and white china stand with the obligatory carved vegetables, the finely ground but rather oily fish was helped along with an excellent thick soya, ginger and garlic sauce.
If there's one thing I love in Thai cooking it's the addition of coconut milk: it soothes chilli, enhances ginger or galangal, smoothes pungent Thai basil.
So, no contest then. A green curry (Geang Kew Wan, Bangkok's most famous dish) with duck it was, prices around the 8 mark for a curry, the 5 mark for a starter.
Whoever is in the kitchen has a fine way with duck, those moreish tender morsels inhabiting a further china dish of character alongside bamboo shoots, peas, peppers and Thai basil.
This simple dish oozing coconut flavour came with perfect Persil-white rice.
I suspect Thai House will be there longer than the building's previous occupants thanks to the British love of Thai food, attractive service and those keen prices.
Thai House, 149 St Pancras, Chichester PO19 7SH. Tel: 01243 778881
Open: 6pm-11pm Tuesday-Sunday Food: ****
Service: ****
Atmosphere: ****
Disabled access: Tricky, with steps up to entrance for wheelchair users.
How to get there: Leave A27 at the Witterings roundabout, drive past the station following Market Avenue, which becomes St Pancras after the East Street junction. Restaurant is on the right past Kwik-Fit. Park in a car park off New Park Road. A green curry (Geang Kew Wan, Bangkok's most famous dish) with duck it was, prices around the 8 mark for a curry, the 5 mark for a starter.
Whoever is in the kitchen has a fine way with duck, those moreish tender morsels inhabiting a further china dish of character alongside bamboo shoots, peas, peppers and Thai basil.
This simple dish oozing coconut flavour came with perfect Persil-white rice.
I suspect Thai House will be there longer than the building's previous occupants thanks to the British love of Thai food, attractive service and those keen prices.
My bill came to just over 17 for two courses and a Thai beer.
A stylish Thai to try
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Wednesday 23 May 2012
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