Mee Thai, Bold Street, reviewed

There are rarely many surprises when you go to a Thai restaurant, and to me that’s part of their appeal.

They might have house specials, the odd outlier and the occasional take on a current trend, but you really know what you’re getting yourself, and most of all, what you want to eat.

We all have our favourites, dishes that we make every time, with a mental bingo card of “Best Pad Thai I’ve Eaten”, “Laab League Table”, “Tom Yam World Cup”.

It’s an ongoing process, an ever-changing hierarchy of what hits every time, what hits the hardest, and what wasn’t quite the same last time.

So when a new Thai place opens, I tend to make it a point to go and order along the familiar lines. When Mee Thai opened on Bold Street just before Christmas, it went straight to the charts.

Formerly Jimmy’s, a live music venue and bar, the space is well suited for a bright and spacious restaurant, where the bar is now replaced by an open kitchen. I like my pint to be poured as much as the next person, but not as much as my dinner dancing around the wok in real time.

The glass front gives a view out to the Bombed Out Church and the bustle of Renshaw and Berry Streets, and it also gives passers-by a view inside, as I spotted a Tom Yum soup midway through. It probably beats a billboard.

The space is decorated with all kinds of vibrant decorations, colors and personalized signs and posters that nod to the home. In other hands it might have been overblown and a bit kitschy, a disnified take on Thailand, but I think it’s charming and very inviting.

I sat on a high stool by the window and glanced at the set lunch deal, an insanely generous two-course £12, and while I’m always on the lookout to try the set lunch deals (above for our readers, of course), this time I had to see Mee Thai’s take on a few different things (again, for the benefit of our readers, of course). .

First, forever and ever, the Tom Yum soup (£7.95). I’ve been stung by this a few times, and no doubt I’ll continue to be stung, but it’s good for us to live in the present with an open mind. I’ll take any excuse really. I ordered it with chicken and a pint of Pattaya (£5.95).

This was not shy of the chilli that kicked me halfway down Bold Street, but is described on a scale of ‘tingly’ (1/3). So I would imagine that “spicy” (3/3) transports you to the astral plane. A real forehead dispenser. If I came in with a cold, I certainly didn’t leave with a cold. A great show and an ideal start to things.

I ordered crispy wontons with chicken and prawns (£6.25 for six) alongside the soup. Deep-fried glassy-sharp, crispy and well-seasoned, but juicy inside, they made great use of a combination of toppings that some may find a bit odd – fish and fowl – but which I love for its fatty and tangy nature. A good addition for beginners if you have company, but if you try to fight all six by yourself, I won’t judge.

For the main course I chose something that is actually included in the lunch offer; Pad Pak Moo Krob or pork belly with fried spring vegetables, oyster sauce, garlic and chilli (£13.50). There were plenty of vegetables – cabbage, pak choi, broccoli, peppers, corn, bean sprouts, peas – and it gave me that vague smug feeling that comes from eating something with more than one green thing in it. And at lunch time to start.

The pork belly was perfectly done, I would say; Crisp on top, fatty in the middle, tender on the bottom. Little seasoning was needed, thanks to the broth of the oyster sauce swimming in it all, which when soaked in the broccoli was wonderful. An easy way to eat your veggies, and if you order it off the lunch special, you’ll be rocking the place. Really good.

I think a good salad is one of the things that Thai food does so well. In the West, we tend to see salads as some kind of penance, a hair shirt to put on after you’ve overindulged over Christmas (shame). Either that or we make them all creamy and remove all the health benefits, in which case I just say order what you want and claim credit later.

Southeast Asian salads, on the other hand, are bright, full of variety and punchier than the main dishes of most other cuisines, so they’re always worth a pop. Once again, I’ve had shocking papaya salads and I’ve had amazing ones, it’s all in the dressing if you ask me. Dip it in oceans of fish sauce though, you’ll struggle to get too much stuff in there. Besides, you can always balance it with lime. The Mee Thai Som Tum Thai (£9.95) was fragrant, limey, tangy and hit all the notes you want it to be. I would have just added more fish sauce.

It’s never easy to break into a crowded market in a city with an abundance of Southeast Asian restaurants and stand your ground. Mee Thai, a new place on the block, does a great job. It’s a competitor that isn’t afraid to give you Thai food because they know you’ll like it, spice levels and all. In the Tom Yam World Cup, it advances to the playoffs.

Mee Thai130 Bold Street, L1 4JA