Time Out has teamed up with tastelondon to offer you a fantastic one month free trial
-
Rosa's
-
Budget choice
-
-
By Guy Dimond
No Thai restaurant is complete without a portrait of the king, but Rosa's has a picture of The King. Elvis Presley met King Bhumipol and Queen Sirikit of Thailand while filming 'GI Blues', and a portrait in the window proudly commemorates the event. It is just one sign that Rosa's is a refreshing departure from the norm.
Although the dishes are (mostly) the familiar roll call, there is a freshness and honesty about the cooking. Take, for example, the som tam. The grated green (ie. unripened) papaya of this salad is often substituted with cheaper carrot or cabbage in the UK, to bulk it out. Not here: the Rosa version is all papaya, mixed up with long beans, cherry tomatoes, chilli, small shrimps and, in this case, cashew nuts. The flavour was in the style of central Thailand – that is, sweet and mild, and lacking sufficient sour notes for our taste. This was easily remedied: a waiter brought a saucer of fish sauce (nam pla) on request, to drizzle.
The dish called ta lae pad cha is a stir-fry of seafood, with the clear and distinctive ginger-like flavour of lesser galangal shining through the yellow chilli paste and whole black peppercorns. Pad thai was, curiously, the only slightly disappointing dish we tried, in that it was an average version.
Pad makhuea (stir-fried aubergine) was a stunner though: meltingly soft chunks of aubergine, cloaked in a yellow bean sauce with chilli, garlic and crisp leaves of sweet (ie European) basil. The arrangement of our other dishes was, in the Thai way, quite beautiful, with carved vegetables and garnishes in greater abundance than you might expect for dishes costing around six or seven quid.
Rosa's has a shared table set-up that rewards booking, or early arrival if you're in a small group. It's good-looking for a low-budget place, with wooden architraves cunningly turned into wall sculptures, attractive lighting and a moodier, more spacious dining area in the basement. Go when you’re pining for the tastes of Thailand.Time Out Issue 1988: September 25-Oct 1 2008
Time Out reviews restaurants anonymously and pays for meals. Of course, we cannot guarantee the accuracy or independence of user reviews.
|
|
Advertisement
Details
- 12 Hanbury Street, Brick Lane, E1 6QR
- Area: Brick Lane
- Tel: 020 7247 1093
- www.rosaslondon.com
- Category: Thai
- Travel: Liverpool St tube/rail or Whitechapel tube
- Times: Open 11am-11pm Mon-Thur; 11am-12midnight Fri, Sat; 11am-11pm Sun
- Price: Meal for two with wine and service: around £40
Map
Date of the day
Romain
I'm Romain, a 20 years old french guy who's just arrived in town. I'm here for working, actually it's an internship, part of my engineering...
|
|
More ways to enjoy Time Out
-
Weekly London newsletter
The best of London in your inbox
-
Time Out Widgets
|
|
Since opening this has quickly become a favourite place to eat out in brick lane. It makes a change to visiting the curry houses.The food is simply delicious (I have sampled many dishes now and never been disappointed) my favourite is the Penang Gai ,the service is also quick and friendly. You should pay a visit.
I booked a dinner for 16 people for my boyfriends birthday, and despite a couple of hiccups with the food we thoroughly enjoyed our dining experience. We loved the design and the ambience of the restaurant and the staff and especially the manager were genuinely very friendly and helpful. The food was fab, in particular, the Gai Hor Bai Teay...don't eat the leaves like I did :0). Will definitely be going back.
The food was really terrible - flavourless, greasy. I felt ripped off. We had chicken satay and the speciality spring rolls for starters, and vegetarian pad thai and a beef green curry for mains. Rarely do I not want to finish my food! The atmosphere was good, but not enough to make up for the food.
A group of us had dinner at Roas's recently and were really impressed. The food was reasonably priced, authentic and the portions generous. The staff are really friendly and helpful and gave us advice on what to order. Like the Time Out reviewer, we had the stir fried aubergine which was amazing. We loved the attention to detail e.g the individual tea pots. I'd recommend Rosa's and would definitely return.
I came from HK where there are lots of authentic Thai rest and food. I've been to Rosa and honestly think that their food is very good, food portion is right, food is delicious and the outlook of them are also very good. I've also tried their Pad Thai and have to say I think it is one of the best I had before as well. Anyway, def one good restaurant and secret gem in Ldn!
I heartily agree and have eaten here a few times and Rosa's is now one fof my favorite's in that part of London.
I loved this place. It was all delicious - especially the lamb satay.