The Mango Tree in Belgravia is celebrating the very best of Thai gastronomy until 9 October with a special street food festival.
The chefs have devised a menu featuring some unique dishes, aiming to conjure up the spirit of Thai street eating. For anyone who’s ever travelled in Asia and wants to conjure up the sights and smells of life there, it sounds like a dream come true.
Starters include delicious Look-chin Moo Ping, grilled homemade pork balls served with spicy tamarind sauce, and Pla-muek Yang, smokey-flavoured grilled squid served with spicy lime sauce. The Tow-hoo Tord, crispy tofu, would have been bland but was saved by a sweet chilli and peanut sauce which had a real kick of chilli.
For main course, the Pad Khee-mao Nuer, stir fried thick noodles with beef and bamboo shoots, was hot and tasty. But the star of the show was undoubtedly the Pla Bo-ran, deep fried crispy seabass filets served with mango salad. The fish was crisp on the outside and moist in the middle, and flavoured subtly with lemon grass and a hint of chilli.
The menu was sadly let down by the choice of dessert - a bowl of coconut milk studded with kidney beans did not initially sound appealing, but perhaps the English pallet isn’t accustomed to seeing the traditionally savoury bean in a sweet dish. However, when it arrived it was pallid and fairly tasteless – a real disappointment given the quality of the previous courses.
There are plenty of other desserts on the main menu which looked far more appetising, so this appears to be just a dud note on an otherwise adventurous and enjoyable menu.
There’s an extensive wine and cocktail list to suit every budget, and the sauvignon blanc the waiter recommended complimented the lightness of the food.
The restaurant itself was warm and welcoming – the staff are endlessly attentive and the minimalist décor lends itself to a relaxed evening out. Go for the street food festival, but stay for the regular menu – the specials don’t really do the Mango Tree justice.
Two course dinner for two from the street food menu, plus a bottle of wine, is around £80.
Rhiannon Bury
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