Friday Night at Thai Edge

By the power of Twitter, we have made contact with a number of restaurants and recently struck up conversation with Thai Edge in Leeds (for website, click here).  They invited us to come and sample some of their food, and do a review.

I have lived in Leeds for six years, but never been to Thai Edge before.  Leeds has quite a few good Thai restaurants and it just happened that I have lived around the corner from Sukhothai, or across the road from Chaopraya, or near Thai Erawan, so never made it to Thai Edge.  I had had the impression that it was an "all you can eat" buffet place (which it does appear to do on weekends) so had been a little put off.

Anyways, we trotted along to Thai Edge last night not knowing what to expect.  It is a big airy restaurant opposite Millennium Square and the LGI with lots of glass and clean lines and a few traditional bits of decor thrown in.  When we first arrived there was a little confusion over our booking - as it had been made over Twitter, it was in their name, not ours.  We eventually made it to the right table, which was reserved by the window overlooking Millennium Square, giving us a good view of the other diners and the revellers outside.

Each table has a basket of crackers (a mix of Thai and prawn) ready on arrival.  The staff are quick with menus and we went with their recommended house rose, which has been chosen to be a good match with oriental food. 

The crackers on arrival - nice touch and replenished when we asked.

The house rose - good with spicy food!

Joe and I in the obligatory drinking pose.

The menu has some nice touches, including a glossary of Thai words.  We recently went to a restaurant in London (Hong Kong cafe - see post from Wednesday 17th August) where we didn't understand half of the menu!

The menu has a broad range of dishes from across Thailand.  After a great deal of debate, we opted for Yam Woon Sen (salad of glass noodles with minced pork, prawns, shrimps and dried shrimps in a spicy dressing) and Poh Pia Gai Tod (crispy spring rolls with chicken and white cabbage).  My only slight disappointment was that there are no dumplings on the menu (a favourite of FoodandBiscuits), but there are plenty of other dishes to choose from! The food is beautifully presented.  They also ask you how spicy you would like your food, and we opted for a very spicy salad.  It was brilliant - clean flavours, salty, sweet and spicy - and by far the best Thai salad I have ever had.  The spring rolls were light and crispy and came with a sweet and sticky plum sauce. 

Poh Pia Gai Tod - spring rolls with plum sauce

Yam Woon Sen - very spicy salad with pork and prawns - a vibrant wake up to the senses!

Joe eating a spring roll - check out his chopstick action!

Main courses also caused a big debate!  The menu is split by main ingredient and includes lots of curries and stir fried dishes.  We opted for Panang Nuae (beef cooked in a dry red Panang paste with lime leaves and red chilli) and Gai Ma Maung Himmapan (stir fried chicken with cashews, mushrooms, spring onions, red and green chillis and roasted chilli).  Despite all of the chillis in this dish, it was advertised as only medium heat, so I asked them to spice it up a bit.  Recently Joe and I have been a bit hit and miss with our ordering, but this time both dishes were really good.  The beef was rich and full of coconut, chilli and ginger and the chicken was hot but with real depth of flavour with a balanced sauce so all the individual tastes came through (my favourite dish of the meal).

Gai Ma Maung Himmpan (chicken with cashews and lots of chilli)

Panang Nuae (beef in red panang paste with coconut and red chilli)

Noodles in light soy sauce

Joe with our charming waitress, Ard.  All the waiting staff were very good, and very attentive last night.

The bill - a very good meal for under £50.00 is a real treat!

All in all, we had a really lovely evening at Thai Edge and I would definitely go back again.  There is a lot to try on the menu and they clearly put as much effort in to the food as they do to the appearance.  A big thank you to all at Thai Edge.