WHAT WE LIKED Chive pancakes, Thai dumplings, golden bags, shrimp salad, pad basil with chicken, eggplant basil, pork in red curry, red snapper in garlic sauce, pad Thai, all desserts.
WHAT WE LIKE Won-ton soup, shumai, gyoza, chicken lettuce wrap, sushi appetizer; General Tso's chicken, prawns with leeks, Chilean sea bass, shrimp with spicy mango sauce, pad Thai; ice creams, triple chocolate mousse cake.
RECOMMENDED DISHES -- Satay with peanut sauce, escargot Thai style, fried fish cakes, chicken and coconut soup, hot-and-sour shrimp soup, spinach and tofu soup, fish and vegetable soup with tamarind, lobster bisque with mango, Thai chili shrimp, Panaeng beef curry, duck with tamarind-garlic sauce, eggplant in garlic sauce, pad Thai, mango and cheese mousse, steamed coconut custard.
For £6.45, try classic pad thai, or kheaw waan spaghetti (stir-fried in Thai green curry sauce), pad woon sen (glass noodles with egg, oyster sauce, broccoli and carrots) or splash out for the special curry gaeng panang with coconut, baby corn and bamboo shoots (£6.95 chicken or £7.50 duck).
The menu takes care to offer some thoroughly traditional Thai dishes like pork satay with peanut sauce, pad thai, and curry puffs, an Asian empanada filled with ground beef, potato and onion and served with a sweet-hot vinegar dip; but the standbys seem intended for diners who simply cannot do without them.
RECOMMENDED DISHES -- Crab-meat dumplings, grilled shrimp salad, Asian chargrilled chicken, sambal with beef, Sichuan peppercorn sauce with tofu, pad Thai, eggplant in garlic sauce, crispy honey walnut chicken and shrimp.
Duck in a panang curry sauce vied with the pad Thai for top honors among the entrees.
Not only is the flavour out of place here, but it stops the noodles absorbing the pad thai sauce.
I'd begin a meal with a dim sum order of shrimp toast: three large triangles with crisp exteriors and juicy interiors, and a peanut-studded pad Thai sauce served on the side.
Strictly speaking, there's no such thing as "pad thai sauce" – at least, you're unlikely to find one in an oriental supermarket, but in Thailand, you will see many vendors using a pre-prepared brown sludge.
For example, Ms. Hochstetter made pork dumplings, Johanna Haan made chicken satay with a peanut dipping sauce, Cathy Riley brought shrimp pad Thai, and T. J. Murtagh made flank steak with asparagus and fermented black beans.
