Sri Thong: City, London

Sri Thong

Date of Visit: 23^rd July 2013

Ambience

For a Thai restaurant, I thought this place was lacking a bit of authenticity in its décor.  It gave me an impression of a café more than a fine dining restaurant.  I guess it is fine for a quick dinner/catch-up for city workers but there isn’t much character to this restaurant.

Food

I was pleasantly surprised with the food, given my initial impression of the interior.  We were served prawn crackers (Chinese style) when we sat down which is a nice touch but it was a shame that they didn’t serve spicy Thai prawn crackers instead.

I opted for satay prawns as a starter which was quite tasty and I was surprised on the portion size given that Thai servings tend to be small (3 skewer sticks with I think 3 prawns on each) – it came with two sauces: Satay and sweet chilli. 

Before I arrived at the restaurant, I looked at the menu online and liked the sound of a drunken duck dish but I could not see it on the menu in the restaurant but after querying it with the waitress, she was able to put in the order for me.  It was delicious and perfect with coconut rice.  The duck dish was fairly spicy so it needed some rice – the coconut rice was pretty good.  I could tell that it had actually been soaked in coconut water/juices since it was much more fragrant than other coconut rice I’ve had in the past.

We didn’t have dessert since we had brought in a cake for a friend’s birthday so I cannot comment on the desserts.

Service

The service was good from the minute we walked through the door.  We asked the staff to put our birthday cake in the fridge and they offered candles for us.  Food arrived quickly after ordering and whilst it took some time for them to come back to us after handing out dessert menus, we did not have to spoil the surprise by asking for the cake… a little eye contact was enough and they knew exactly what to do.

Summary

I enjoyed the food at Sri Thong and prices are reasonable being in the city.  Some improvements can be made on the interior décor to make it more authentic but like I said, it is fine for an impromptu dinner/catch-up.  I would not hesitate about returning to this restaurant as I find their menu extensive with choices that are not common in other Thai restaurants so I wouldn’t mind trying a few more dishes.