The Thai House Restaurant

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• Average price 2 courses:
   £8.95 (£7.95 vegetarian) (set lunch)
   £16 (evening meal)
• House wine: £9.95 per bottle

• High point: Friendly and unpretentious
• Low point: Has a lingering sense of a restaurant still feeling its way
• Food served: Mon-Sun noon-2.30pm, 5-11pm
• Delivery: charge varies depending on distance; 20% discount for takeaway
• Private dining: Up to 30 covers
• Open since: 2005
• Also offers: Vegetarian options (at least 25% of menu), Childrens portions, Childrens high chairs, Take away

The List's Eating & Drinking Guide 2008 is now in the shops.

This review is from the 2007 edition.

As its name suggests, The Thai House is a homely, authentic-feeling place. In an airy, two-storey premises on higgledy-piggledy Candlemaker Row, Thai native Petra Stark and her team offer a warm, welcoming retreat for a mixed clientele of locals, tourists and students from the nearby university. The interior features a palette of ochre and burgundy tones, strewn with twinkling fairy lights and bejewelled elephant wall-hangings. If there is a sense of weariness in the outdated chairs and well-thumbed menus, it tends towards the lived-in rather than careworn. In keeping with the relaxed atmosphere, the menu offers wholesome, lovingly prepared food reminiscent of proper Thai home cooking. The tom yum soup is heartier than many, with chunky carrot, lemon-grass, ginger and scallions, but lacks something of the hot, sour kick for which this vibrant dish is famous. An innocuous-sounding waterfall salad, on the other hand, comes ablaze with generous helpings of chilli and fresh coriander tempered with lime juice, while the heat of the coconut-free jungle curry is balanced by complex, earthy undertones of grachai (wild ginger). A less slick operation than some of its rivals, what Thai House lacks in sophistication it compensates for with warmth and charm.