A Sunday with a lack of desire to cook (yes, even I have evenings like that!) and a craving for something tasty led Dave and I to don our coats and wander through to Brindley Place. The usual suspects weren’t really ‘hitting the taste spot’ – then we remembered Thai Edge.
We’ve been there twice before – once on a date (ah good times) and once entertaining some Chinese clients – both evenings fun, although I couldn’t remember the contribution the restaurant had made to that fun.
It seemed a good idea to give it another try…
What I was eating:
S: seafood sharing platter – salmon skewer, crab ball, grilled king prawn, crab cakes & four dipping sauces.
Choice-wise – well it cannot be denied that there is choice on a menu like this. It took me 20 minutes to read it and to decide! If you read the descriptions it is possible here to select a fairly healthy option too, which is great. But that wasn’t top of our agenda this evening – flavour was.
I guess in terms of originality Thai Edge doesn’t offer anything over and above other Thai restaurants I've been to and I wouldn’t say that the presentation is stunningly contemporary as their website would seem to suggest – (judge for yourself from the pics). Whilst I appreciate that a candle-lit hotplate is brought to the table – it was just as well – because our side dishes were served on cold plates (regular readers will know this drives me insane!).
As for flavour – well, I really wish I hadn’t had the starters. You know, they always disappoint me in Thai restaurants for some reason. And I don’t know that it’s unique to restaurants outside of their homeland because I found them quite disappointing when I was in Thailand too. Certainly those at Thai Edge seem rubbery and like they are bought in frozen – now this may be doing them a great disservice and they may be lovingly crafted onsite – but either way, they fall short in the texture stakes for me. The only item I enjoyed was the salmon skewer – which, lets face it, you can’t go too far wrong with!
Moving on to the mains, and here is where Thai Edge, for me, got it right. Granted, the vegetables were luke warm – but the red curry was absolutely delicious – full of strong aromatic flavours that you expect – but well balanced and with just enough heat to still leave all of those flavours kicking around your mouth after each bite.
The misworded ‘chargrilled seabass’ (actually wrapped in banana leaves & then foil and then baked - from what I could see) – consisted of 2 large fillets, delicately flavoured and absolutely divine.
The vegetables looked disappointing (I was expecting something more exotic than broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and mangetout) but they were really crunchy and the satay sauce totally moreish. The fine egg noodles were also a superb accompaniment – my absolute favourite. The sticky rice, it has to be said, was possibly the stickiest ever - I don’t think you should need to cut it with a knife…
I can’t really comment on the drinks other than to say we weren’t offered any water and we chose a Zinfandel – entirely drinkable and really rather lovely with the food we chose.
But now we come to the overall dining experience.
The ambience is OK’ish – nothing special, no special touches and it didn’t make me feel like I was stepping into a little corner of the orient – it comes across as cold and corporate. The music was intermittent which was weird and the tables are too close together – don’t hope to be able to have a private conversation at all.
Having spent time in Thailand I feel incredibly disappointed that the Thai people are represented by the team at this restaurant in a less than favourable way. One of the girls was quite gentle, apologetic and smiley, but the service one might expect in Thailand compared to that given at this restaurant couldn’t be more different. Thai people constantly smile and cannot do enough to host or help.
Quite simply – the team at Thai Edge, on this occasion, appeared fairly indifferent to their customers. They were going through the motions and certainly not demonstrating any of the very beautiful service customs that you get from the real people in the real country. If you have never been to Thailand – please please please don’t think that this represents what it is like. Because it doesn’t.
[NB This may be partly due to the fact that while the chef purports to be Thai – the service team are not. I speak some Mandarin and I’m pretty sure they are Chinese.]
Never at any stage did anyone ask how our food was. We had to wait and wave to attract anyone’s attention and we felt genuinely uncared for all together.
I also found it odd that our table was stripped of the white cloth after our main course only to reveal a dirty brown cloth underneath that we were presumably then meant to have dessert on!
An amazing lack of attention to detail and care in my mind.
At £55 for the food alone, Thai Edge is not a cheap dining experience and although the main courses were all delicious I felt let down with absolutely everything else.
My advice to you? Go only if you have the taste munchies and the cash to spare – forget the starters, forget the desserts and just head straight for the mains, share 2 dishes, a veg and a noodles and ask for a jug of iced water!
To the team at the Thai Edge: Yes you’re on the edge of Brindley place – I think you’re relying on this fact for custom and you’ve stopped making the effort. It’s a shame.
My rating: 45 / 100 = 45%
[Please email me if you’re interested in the ten point criteria I use for my ratings.]
M: sharing red chicken curry, flamegrilled seabass, satay stir-fried vegetables, stir-fried thin egg noodles, sticky rice.
Choice-wise – well it cannot be denied that there is choice on a menu like this. It took me 20 minutes to read it and to decide! If you read the descriptions it is possible here to select a fairly healthy option too, which is great. But that wasn’t top of our agenda this evening – flavour was.
As for flavour – well, I really wish I hadn’t had the starters. You know, they always disappoint me in Thai restaurants for some reason. And I don’t know that it’s unique to restaurants outside of their homeland because I found them quite disappointing when I was in
Chantal Denny-Harrow