Delicious Thai Food in Soho (ad)

The one thing my love of travel has brought me is an appreciation for world foods.  Lately, I’ve been particularly drawn to Asian cuisine, especially after my trip to China, Hong Kong and Japan a few years ago which totally made me fall in love with various foods from that region.  Currently, I’m planning a solo trip to Thailand next year so I thought I’d get myself in the mood by checking out a local Thai restaurant.

Now London has so many restaurants it can be hard to know where to start!  I used Opentable to help me narrow down my search and booked it directly through their website.  I could search by my chosen area of the city and food type before checking out the reviews and menus directly from the page.  After lots of narrowing down (Soho has the best food options), I eventually settled on Patara for Thai Food in Soho.

The decor of Patara is simplistic yet chic, with lots of dark woods and open tables for a social and comfortable atmosphere.  The staff are knowledgable and friendly making it the perfect place for dinner with friends.

To start with after much deliberation we went with the Patara platter for two, (£28.50) which gave us a taste of many dishes (perfect for those as indecisive as me!).  It includes; spicy scallops which were tangy with a hint of spice, chicken satay (the sauce of which was thick, perfectly peanutty and delicious), perfectly crispy duck spring rolls with morish plum dip, impossibly smooth spiced fish cakes with a refreshing cucumber dip and soft prawn and pork dumplings.  The perfect start to a Thai food feast!

The drinks menu is extensive with a full range of wines, spirits and cocktails to choose from.  I went with something none alcoholic whilst my dining partner went for the Syrah Vermentino 1753 wine (£12.50) which is a dry wine with delicate citrus notes.

For the main course, there was a wide range of curries, noodles, salads and other traditional Taiwanese dishes to choose from.  We went with the Duck Red Curry (£19.50) which consists of honey duck with lychee and pineapple.  It was deliciously sweet, lightly spiced and packed with flavour.  We also chose the Wild Ginger Beef (£19.95) which included stir-fried beef strips with wild ginger, peppers, chilli, lemongrass and kaffir lime in a deliciously warming and aromatic broth.  We paired these with both egg-fried rice (£4.50) and coconut rice (£4.50).  The egg-fried rice was light and gently flavoured whilst the coconut rice was sweet and sticky.

To end the evening we had a couple of sweet treats, the chocolate pudding (£9.50) which was dark and rich with a melt-in-the-middle centre served with vanilla ice cream and the coconut sundae (£8.50) which consisted of coconut ice cream with toasted coconut, dates, fresh coconut and plum which was sweet and yet still light and refreshing.

Overall I’d really recommend Patara if you are looking for Thai Food in Soho and will certainly be using Opentable again for the ease of booking process and to find the best local restaurants.

Let me know what your favourite food is that you have discovered while travelling!

This meal was paid for by Opentable, all words and opinions are my own.