SUDA – Siamese Rice Bowl
23 Slingsby Place, St Martin’s Courtyard, London, WC2E 9AB
www.suda-thai.com

Rice is the basis of Thai food culture and Thai’s eat it with literally every meal. In Thailand instead of asking if you are hungry we say ‘Have you eaten rice yet?’.

That may explain why I love eating rice so much! Being half-thai, I’m always curious to check out a new Thai place. In terms of location, SUDA couldn’t be better placed. It stands out from all the other boutiques and beckons you in.

I was kindly invited to SUDA‘s taster menu to sample some of their delicious starters (they call these small plates)  and non-stop cocktails – oh yes this is modern Thai, hot & spicy with SATC cocktails. Their head barman served his time at Maze for four years so he knows how to shake and stir, and how to handle himself!

After the taster menu, I wanted to try out the menu and booked a table for my hubby and I for dinner on a Friday night. When you arrive, you are greeted by a thai sawadee ka and a wai (thai hand gesture marking respect) and shown to your table. We were seated upstairs by the window and I couldn’t resist to say hello to their head barman. The restaurant had a nice buzz, quite busy and after a couple of seconds of being seated- two ‘Thai Sunrise’ cocktails arrived. This was an excellent touch as these were the cocktails that went down really well at the SUDA taster menu. It looks great and hits you with its flavours to start your Thai adventure of discovery and tastes.

We ordered some small plates:

• Suda crab and prawn fire cracker – these look like long spring rolls and are presented in sweet chilli dip. Lush!!
• Fish and prawn lollipops – these are small fish and prawn cakes on sticks. TJHeart is really impressed that SUDA serve prawn cakes – these are NEVER served in Thai restaurants, but the Thais love to order both types of fish cakes
• Crabmeat rolls with 5 spice tofu and tamarind sauce – we weren’t keen on these.
  They just didn’t taste quite right and the rolls felt like it should have been fried beforehand. We mentioned this to the waitress and were told that they were popular but I wouldn’t bother ordering them

For our mains we ordered:

• BBQ pork with som tum salad and sticky rice (moo yang som tum)

This is one of my favourite Thai BBQ dish and best eaten with your hands (so thai style!) It provides you with some yummy sweet, tender pork on sticks and the chance to sample the delights of sticky rice . The som tum – a classic spicy salad and traditionally made with unripened green papaya, seasoned with dried shrimp and fish sauce, using a pestle and mortar. This was definitely spicy so be warned if you’re not good with hot food!

• Tenderloin beef in oyster sauce with kailang (nua phad nam man hoy)

A bit of a boring choice but the hubby really fancied a meat dish. The beef was really tender but the overall portion size was a bit disappointing and the flavours were lack-lustre.

We finished our meal with a surprise individual cocktails – one made of espresso (right up hubby’s alley!) and TJHeart had a sour apple cocktail with egg whites.

OVERALL TJHeart score = 6 / 10

It was a great attempt at Thai cuisine with a modern fusion, quirky decor, fantastic location and cocktails. The service was excellent and the food is worth another visit. Keep up the great start SUDA!