Siam Harbourside

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Siam Harbourside

Tony Benjamin finds out how Hotwells’ long-established Thai eatery is shaping up under Anglo-Thai management and a newish Thai chef

It had been there on Hotwell Road for a fair few years before the Grain Barge heaved to and moored next door, and initial appearances suggest that little has changed at Bristol’s longest-established Thai restaurant. Behind that dark red frontage there’s the little reception bar with sofas and fireplace where you’re greeted with warmth and coats are taken away. Then you’re shown into the large dining room where the elaborately carved chairs and wall panels combine with plentiful flowers, plants and oriental easy-listening music to convey a definite ambience of old Thailand. So far, so familiar.

It’s when the menu arrives that things start to look a bit different – there’s somehow less of it and yet a wider range of choices than before. This is encouraging. A glass of Thai ‘Monsoon’ white wine and the obligatory prawn crackers both dwindle as we take stock before ordering, but there’s no pressure and it’s a relaxing pleasure to imagine the different combinations we might enjoy. It’s good to note a nicely diverse section of starters and mains for vegetarians as well as the copious meat and seafood choices and some intriguing ‘specialities’. In the end we settle things in a rush of our own making – both me and the Lovely She are hungry, after all – and order a tumble of dishes. “Does that sound greedy?” I ask the waitress and she shakes her head, smiling discreetly.

Since I last ate at Siam Harbourside it’s changed hands, with a new Anglo-Thai partnership running things and a recently arrived Thai chef installed in the kitchen. That should be good news as previous visits had revealed rather bland dishes that harked back to a time when Thai food was a rarity in this country and few of us would have been to Thailand to sample the real thing. Post EasyJet and the gap year industry, however, more British people have eaten in Bangkok than Bangor, with a Thai place to hand in every high street to refresh those tasty memories of high-impact spices and vivid flavours. Bland won’t cut it any more (if it ever did).

Two spoonfuls into our po tak samui soup and we catch each other’s eye-watering glance – it’s amazing; a pungent stock infused with green chilli bubbling with fat tiger prawns and strips of supple squid topped with massive Pacific mussels in their shells. It’s a sharing dish, served in a nifty candle-powered heated tureen, and one of the brightest tastes I’ve sampled for a long time. According to the menu it’s a mildly spicy dish, but it actually kicks like an upcountry mule (only in a good way). Having ordered at least one hotter-rated main-course dish, I’m slightly nervous – but only slightly.

The soup is worth lingering over and we shamelessly scrape and drain that tureen before letting it go and welcoming the mains. They don’t disappoint, either, with the same combination of satisfying ingredients and vigorous flavours making each dish distinctively enjoyable. We’ve picked a vegetable green curry (gaeng kiew wan phak) that offers properly crunchy broccoli and moist asparagus with crisp fried tofu in rich creamy coconut sauce. That’s balanced by a couple of ‘speciality’ stirfry dishes featuring squid (pla meuk phad prig sod) and duck (ped phad kee mao). The squid is once again meltingly soft, with a hot peppery dryness to its garlic-scented sauce, and the duck is perfectly marinated meat, moistly cooked with Thai aubergine in a dark, sweet, caramel-hinting sauce.

Laid out before us with noodles and rice, it looks ambitious but, once started, we steadily work through the lot – including those elaborately carved carrot garnishes. It leaves us feeling satisfied, which is the best kind of full, and apart from a mild dispute about which was the tastiest sauce, the whole thing has been exceedingly agreeable. With a second glass of wine each, the bill runs out at just under £60, and that’s plenty of Bangkok for your buck.