Suksan is not a chain, but does have two sister restaurants, one called Sukho in Fulham, and another named Suk Saran in Wimbledon – whether they have any resemblance in similar cooking, I have no clue. But the menus definitely don’t suggest so. We arrived a little dishevelled from another of my extremely long walks around south-west London debating on where to eat – I really do get carried away and can walk for miles to find the right place. From the moment we walked through the doors of this charming little restaurant the staff were incredibly friendly, and once we sat down, knew we were in very capable hands.
An easy choice off of our ridiculously low priced set menu of two courses for (if my memory serves well) £13.95. It’s a real steal. Three good sized skewers of grilled, moist chicken which was very well seasoned and served with a light, but very complex coconut and peanut satay sauce – I was almost tempted to drink the stuff. Everything about it was light and fresh – how Thai food should be.
A mini taste of their home made dumplings came as a selection of three different types, prawn and chicken, Thai chive and flower dumpling with peanuts. It was all very well executed and the texture was perfect, but to be really amazing they all needed much more flavour – a little bit more oomph would have been more than welcome to these pretty little dumplings.
A quick move on to the first of our mains was a beautiful gang kari gae. A dish of succulent tender lamb cooked with potatoes, and shallots all simmering away in a beautiful coconut based yellow curry sauce with a multitude of spices. If not done right, this dish can actually be quite a heavy but here it felt effervescent and so light and fresh you could easily put away far more of it than you’d need to. The rice was lovely and fluffy as well – a dish which was hard to fault.
A slightly unusual mix of food, but delicious one was a dish called mee puu nim. A combination of egg noodles with chili, soy dressing, grilled peppers and crisp and meaty deep fried soft shell crab. This was Thai comfort food at its best. The batter on the crab could have done with some more seasoning but the rest of the dish was so beautifully balanced, you easily forget about that. When it arrived in front of me i thought all that juicy sauce would ruin the crispy crab, but it only enhanced it.
Our dessert with the slightly awkward name of ‘Bangkok banana’ was far more delicious than it sounded. A warm banana battered (god this is hard to keep serious) in a coconut shell was doused in some warm syrup and served with a heavenly coconut dusted, and infused ice cream – it was a lot of coconut, but actually not too much. All very delicate and light, it was definitely a contender for one of my favourite fritters – but it isn’t quite at the standard of the one I had at Le Chinois on Sloane Street.
I’ve walked past Suksan so many times yet always dismissed, but I won’t be doing that again. It offers excellent value for money, OK wines, immaculate service and some of the best Thai food that Chelsea has to offer. If you happen to find yourself in the area then stop by. They have a few seats outside as well, so with summer (hopefully) inbound, I’ll be making much more use of this place.
7/10
