Restaurants

By Antonia Bruce

On the night we visited Banburi only one other table was occupied, but a steady stream of home deliveries indicated that this newcomer must be doing something right. The restaurant interior is bright orange with dark wood tables and a Buddha balanced on the brushed aluminium bar. Overall, the effect is clean but not cosy enough to be inviting. The menu is an odd mix of Thai interspersed with oriental takeaway staples such as sweet-and-sour chicken. We stuck to Thai.

Our meal got off to a disappointing start with a chewy Banburi duck roll, similar to the Peking version but with rice paper wrappers and tamarind sauce. Next came a tom yum soup that tasted salty instead of hot and sour. So it was an unexpected surprise to receive a som tam salad that sparkled with flavour, combining long slivers of green papaya with a tastebud-tingling dressing of hot chilli, cool lime and potent garlic and lightly pounded in a mortar with green beans and tomatoes.

Mains took a similar course, with two letdowns offset by an excellent pad thai, a dish that can suffer from being too oily. This one was a perfectly seasoned combination of soft rice noodles, wisps of egg, crisp beansprouts and strips of fried tofu, all topped off with crunchy ground peanuts. Delicious. The same could not be said for a Penang chicken curry that lacked depth of flavour and the Thai basil that's characteristic of this dish. Finally, a lamb massaman curry was slow-cooked to tenderness but far too sweet.

Banburi is clearly capable of producing good dishes; if it gets the basics right, it has the potential to attract a regular local following in an area that has few other good Thai offerings.

Time Out London Issue 1865: May 17-24 2006