While not all its dishes are a success, there are gems to be found on Siam's menu, says Emma McAlpine.
We Londoners are spoilt for choice when it comes to Thai food, from the cheap and cheerful Esarn Kheaw on the Uxbridge Road to David Thompson's opulent Nahm in the Halkin Hotel (and about 100 pubs come to think of it). It's suprising then that Soho – which has some of the most diverse and exciting restaurants in the capital – has suprisingly few Thai joints apart from the ever popular chains like Busaba and Patara.
Newish Soho opening Siam has a similar priced menu to Busaba but a shabbier interior. Gaudy décor (mirrored Buddha anyone?), is offset by harsh lighting and background music of the chart variety. Nothing cheapens a restaurant quicker than the warble of contemporary pop, but then, this is Soho and Siam isn't pitching itself at city slickers.
The menu contains plenty of familiar dishes like pad thai and massaman curry but there are some more adventurous gems to be found, although not all are a success. We start with ruam mittr: a plate of assorted appetisers including a prawn and pomelo wrap, deep fried spring rolls, chicken satay skewers and corn fritters.
The prawn and pomelo wrap, a dollop of black, sticky goo served on a mini gem lettuce plate looks intruiging but sadly, turns out to be vile. With far too many flavours going on, it's impossible to taste any of the main constituents of the dish aside from sugar, tamarind and fish sauce. The spring rolls are also disappointing; their long, breadstick-like shape being essentially crispy filo pastry with a stingy and indecipherable filling.
More appealing are the satay skewers (delicately spiced, chargrilled chicken with a buttery peanut sauce) and sweetcorn fritters (deep fried corn kernels with a herby red curry batter and a tangy dipping syrup). We also decide on a side order of 'Sai Oua', a delicious sort of peppery Thai sausage, which are even better when dunked in the sticky syrup.
We follow this with green papaya salad and salted duck eggs, a dish which achieves the perfect balance of sweet, sour and salt the country is so famous for. A mouthful of this stuff reveals a thrilling riot of flavours and textures from crunchy cabbage to soft, juicy papaya; hot chilli, creamy duck egg yolk and the occasional burst of salty dried shrimp perfectly complimenting the sweetness of the fruit. Equally well-balanced is a melt-in-the-mouth-tender duck curry with pineapple, lychee and aromatic holy basil; but a classic fiery northeastern dish of 'Weeping Tiger' beef is tough and served with an overly saccharine, rather than spicy, dipping sauce.
Puddings turn out to be equally mixed. The water chesnut dumplings with jasmine syrup is a thoughtful and gloriously textured dish which could have been a highlight, had it not been completely lacking in flavour. Crunchy banana fritters with a refreshing matcha tea ice cream however, fare much better on the palate.
Overall, a three course meal with wine came to about £40 a head which was reasonable considering how greedy we'd been. Siam isn't going to be the best Thai you'll come across in London, but it holds its own amongst the bigger chains in the area, and while it may not look as slick, the food is more authentic.
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