South East Asian cooking has to be one of the most underrated cuisines, don’t you agree? They have the most amazing selection of seafood, prawns the size of your arms, fresh & zesty salads and curry sauces packed with flavour and heat. I fell completely in love with a little Thai restaurant in Barnes many years back and still return to this day, but after dining at Sticky Mango in Waterloo, I think I’ve found a new favourite, offering not just Thai food – but everything from the South East Asian region.
Decor wise I’m not going to sugar coat it, but the room could do with a facelift at some point. I don’t know what exactly, but it needs updating to match the food and help show it off nicely. As we tucked into a delicious mango laced cocktail, we caught up with chef/owner Peter Lloyd who has trained at the likes of The House of Commons and the Dorchester Hotel on Park Lane. In 2009 Peter discovered his passion for South East Asian Cuisine as Executive Chef at the 5 Star Sanderson Hotel and Suka Restaurant, then moving on to becoming Executive Chef of Spice Market at The W Hotel and now here at Sticky Mango. Peter regularly travels abroad promoting the best of South East Asian food with recent pop ups including Doha, Abu Dhabi, Bangkok, Bali and the World St Food Congress in Singapore and the Philippines.
We dined from the restaurants tasting menu which priced at £39.50 per person is an absolute bargain for the quantity and quality. Spread over nine courses and all designed to share – we started with the Malaysian chicken curry puffs. I usually find these type of curried puffs a little underwhelming, but I really want to get across just how amazing these ones were. Quite honestly some of the best few bites I’ve had in my life and if these were sold at a street food market near me – I’d never go anywhere else. The juicy chicken filling, buttery flaky pastry and rich curried flavour running through it. All made even better when dipped into the coriander yoghurt dipping sauce. These were stunning.
Even the simple Thai green mango salad with a candied ginger dressing and sprinkling of cashew nuts was delicious. Zesty, fresh and mouth-watering.
One of my favourite dishes was the black pepper prawns. I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this dish, but the prawns were absolutely beautiful in their own right. Big, juicy and well-cooked. The black pepper sauce had an incredible richness to it and the dehydrated pineapple, jicama & pea shoots helped fill it out and bring it all together.
The chef brought us out a small taster between courses of one of their most popular dishes. Crab dumplings with quail egg, laksa sauce and coriander oil. A small couple of mouthfuls which made a rather lasting impression. When we come back, this is what I’ll be ordering.
Two dishes which should be on your “must order list” are the wok fried monkfish with Malaysian chilli sauce and wok fried tenderstem broccoli with oyster sauce. The monkfish was outstanding, the vegetables were all well-cooked once again and the sauces so expertly put together with their refined flavours and thick, sticky consistencies. Just what you always want from a restaurant, but don’t always get.
More of a side dish to the other courses, but easily a main dish in its own right was this truffle egg fried rice with soft juicy leeks and a rich truffle paste. The rice was perfectly cooked, portion wise it was huge and that truffle flavour running through it was just the right intensity.
Better was the pandan macaron with kaya jam and the most delicious soy caramel ice cream. The macaron was a little more crispy than usual, which I thought worked perfectly with the ice cream meaning nothing got too soggy. The flavour and texture of the ice cream was sublime and the pandan flavour came through well. A really lovely dessert and the perfect ending to our meal.
I absolutely adored our meal at Sticky Mango and am so glad we’ve discovered this hidden gem in Waterloo. Everything is full of flavour, portions are generous, its excellent value for money and I love that all the dishes are given a slight modern twist – making each bite even more exciting. Chef/owner Peter Lloyd is doing some wonderful things here and I highly recommend Sticky Mango. Would we come back? Yes!
