Thai Punna, 140 London Road
My wife looked across at my plate at something very runny and very green.
"Shall I tell you what that looks like?" she said.
"Don't. I know," I said, taking another spoonful of Thai pancake infused with pandanus leaf with pandanus custard and trying not to think of what she was thinking of. It was all bright green apart from the vanilla ice cream.
Pandanus, or pandan, is a flavouring much loved by Thais. "The flavour is delicate and as important to Asians as vanilla is to Westerners," says Google.
Actually it was quite nice in a subtle, almost elusive way but by then my tastebuds had been given a good workout by the Thai Punna's chillies.
I'm not sure what it is but the chilli buzz you get after a Thai is different from that in an Indian or Chinese restaurant.
The Thai Punna, a former Turkish restaurant on the corner of London Road with Keeton's Hill, is the latest Thai restaurant to open. For years we had only one, the now deceased Bahn Nah but at least half a dozen have opened in recent years, with more outside the city.
Thai restaurants, possibly because they arrived on the scene relatively late in the day, have not been bracketed in the same category as Chinese and Indian restaurants. They can get away with being dearer.
I had lunch recently with a well-known Chinese restaurateur and we reflected on this. They use the same ingredients and the cooking styles have many similarities - in fact, any Chinese would have recognised many of the starters on the Thai Punna's menu. Certainly the prawn toast and the spring rolls.
You might be confused between the Thai Punna and the Thai Panna further along London Road, which is a Thai grocery shop. Don't be. They're connected.
The Chinchai family who run that have brought in chef Athiwut Ariyaponsopon - at one time he cooked at the Bahn Thai - and his wife Mai-Tai to run the place for them.
They've transformed the place into a sumptuously decorated restaurant with lots of red, waitresses in red tops, cane chairs and decent-sized tables. A big mirror makes the place look twice as big as it is.
We look at the a la carte menu but it's one of those days when we can't make up our minds so decide to plump for one of the set menus at 17.50 and let things just happen.
They happen very nicely.
We've got a good selection of starters, the ubiquitous prawn toast, which seems a little more generous than that encountered in Chinese restaurants, and the equally ubiquitous Thai fishcake.
I still can't make up my mind whether I actually like the rubbery texture you always get but the flavour's fine.
There are also vegetarian spring rolls stuffed with vermicelli (I'm not even going to attempt the spelling of the Thai names) as well as some excellent, very subtle chicken satay and deep-fried prawns in spring roll wrappers.
They come surrounding a variety of little dips. We forget which goes with which but it's fun trying each morsel with a different one.
Thais are very skilled in carving flowers from vegetables and there's a nice one decorating our starters. I'm so peckish this evening I eat ours. It's turnip.
The set menu gives you three dishes for mains: a green chicken curry, seafood stir-fry, stir-fried vegetables in oyster sauce as well as steamed jasmine rice.
First thing to be said about the Thai green curry is that it isn't served up very green but do watch out for what look like green peas bobbing in the sauce. They're actually chillies and they're h-o-t!
But this is quite a pleasant dish, as is the seafood stir-fry which comprised mainly squid and green lipped mussels and the vegetables.
We're always pushovers for jasmine rice which is fine and we get a second helping without question.
It was a pleasant meal with pleasant service. Thai restaurants are inevitably up to the mark but I'd have welcomed a tiny bit more excitement on my plate. Next time I'll go a la carte.
We paid, with drinks, 47.10.
FOOD REVIEW:
140 London Road, Sheffield S2 4LT. Tel: 0114 255 5522. Website: www.thaipanna.co.uk
Open daily, 12-11am. Credit cards. Ethnic music. Takeaways. Disabled access and toilets. Street parking.
Star ratings (out of five):
Food HHHH
Atmosphere HHHH
Service HHHH
Value HHHH
Ethnic/Thai category.
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Friday 10 February 2012
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