Thai Square Review: Authentic Thai Cooking on The Strand

Thai cuisine has long been one of my favourite foods and over the years I’ve always been on the hunt for some of London’s best. I’ve never been a fan of Thai food when it comes to fine dining (yes there is a few) and I much prefer the more simple, classic and flavour focused restaurants. One place I’d yet to visit was the famed group of restaurants named Thai Square and so my latest meal found me heading to one of the brands most well-known branches which recently had a bit of a facelift. Thai Square on The Strand.

We dined from the restaurants premium set menu which offered a decadent four courses which we thought was a lovely way to sample the restaurants cooking. First out from the kitchen was something we’d both been craving from the moment we arrived – crispy duck. Flaky pieces of aromatic crispy duck, accompanied by steamed pancakes, cucumber, spring onions, carrot (oddly) and served with Thai Square’s house special hoisin sauce. We had no complaints.

I really enjoyed our second course which was a small dish of fresh, thinly sliced king scallops marinated in a Thai citrus sauce of chilli, coriander and everything else vibrant and flavoursome. A lovely zesty, mouth-watering dish which really got the palate salivating and it paired very well with our chosen white wine. I should probably also apologise now for my photos at this point but describing the romantic lighting inside Thai Square as dark, is an understatement! I tried my best.

For our main courses we had a rather hard task of deciding as it all sounded good, but I couldn’t resist the sound of the weeping tiger. A succulent marinated sirloin of beef, served with Thai Square’s top secret chilli sauce. Actually the beef was very good and had a nice streak of smokiness running through it and the chilli sauce had just the right level of spice.The side of pak choy was nice enough, but lacking in pak choy and mostly other vegetables. Though it had a nice flavour.

My favourite dish from our evening the Thai prawn green curry. As Thai Square say, everyone’s green curry paste is different and I must agree that theirs was an excellent example. The sauce had a great consistency and not too watery, the spice level just right and the flavour was rich and lingering. The prawns were nice and plump themselves, cooked in coconut milk with lime leaves, bamboo shoots, sweet basil leaves and more of their signature paste. A must order. To accompany the curry we tried the pad tang tak. Stir fried egg noodles with mixed vegetables and special chef’s sauce.

We finished up on a simple, but much welcomed dessert of fresh fruit salad with coconut ice cream. Just what we wanted after a somewhat filling meal.

We enjoyed our food here at Thai Square and while it was a simple meal, it offered exactly what we expected which was authentic, no frills Thai food at very affordable prices. The restaurant itself has had a spruce up but personally it needs a full refurb (especially downstairs) and we seemed to have been sitting at a rather odd vibrating table. If you’re close by then go to Thai Square for the food, enjoy the atmosphere and wash everything down with a good glass (or three) of wine.