It is like walking into a Thai beach bar to have some food (Thaikhun refers to itself as a thai…read morestreet food experience). I had a good amount to eat and 2 cocktails but without the seasonal discount of 30 per cent at £70 it is slightly overpriced. I would go again and maybe try their learn to cook courses.

Thaikhun is a small chain of Thai restaurants, with 9 locations across the country. I decided to…read morevisit their Manchester Spinningfields location to try out some authentic cuisine, after being impressed by their reviews. Sadly, they have only had one review since 2016 so perhaps things have changed since then, as my experience wasn't that impressive. On the positive side, I loved the decor, it felt authentic, with an open kitchen towards the back, and Thai themed decor including a map that shown Thailand on the wall. It just felt pretty cool and authentic. The only major problem I had was how cold the restaurant was inside, it was freezing cold, unlike anywhere else in Manchester that day, I was wearing my fully zipped up coat and shivering, despite it being July - which is supposed to be Summer! I was unimpressed with the service, I was not offered a drink upon sitting down, my waiter just sat me down and left me to it, he didn't explain the concept or even ask about my allergies. Another big negative for me was I didn't feel my allergy was taken seriously, I did advise my server I was gluten-free and I explained I had scanned the QR code on the menu for allergy information, she didn't mention anything regarding their allergy policy, nor do anything to give me confidence eating there, I originally wondered if she even heard me mention I had an allergy. I also found it hard to get a staff member's attention when I needed it, such as to request a takeaway box, or even request some more water or the bill. I ordered the Chicken Pad Thai, it looked pretty impressive, but I found the taste to just be OK, I do think the noodles were very heavy and there was nothing to balance it out, there wasn't too much chicken and some of the chicken was chewy (I did enjoy some of the chicken though). I found the sauce to be a little too sweet too, especially towards the bottom of the dish, it became too overpowering and a little sickly, it needed something a little bit more acidic to give it a kick for sure. The food menu was reasonably priced compared to nearby competitions such as Wagamama, combined with a number of promotional offers including a 20% student discount and a 30% discount for NHS healthcare workers. I also didn't like how they added a service charge onto the bill of 10%, this was stated in the small print of the menu, the staff member didn't seem too happy about removing it, they refused to even acknowledge me, even to say "Cheerio" after that. I did also notice a charity fee of £1 added onto the bill, this also annoyed me as I should be able to judge which charities I donate to and when, let alone having it added onto my bill without any mention of who the charity is, or what they do (Unlike the service charge the charity charge was NOT stated on the menu!) 2* - It feels authentic but in many ways, I was let down, if you consider the optional charges they add onto everyone's bill, it is one of the cheaper places for Thai food in town, but I really wouldn't advise going somewhere else.

After the traditional Christmas food at great excess we've really been getting into our Asian food…read moresince then - and upping the ante in terms of hot, hot, hot! It's with this in mind that with nothing left in our cupboards, Thai was most definitely on the brain in terms of an appealing fill - and it really did hit the spot! I ordered takeout and it took about 15 mins to be ready for collection (they will start delivering from end of Jan 2015 supposedly) and you get 10% off the price of food when taking away. The beef thai green curry was tasty if not as hot and spicy as I was hoping for (it did class itself as hot on the menu so I was expecting a real rip snorter as they say in cricket) and the vermicelli king prawn dish was tasty if not quite what we were expecting from the menu description (time to play spot a vegetable...) They threw in some thai prawn crackers (much better than Chinese ones) and in all 2 dishes and a portion of rice was £18 which was alright. Really hoping to get here again soon, maybe to eat in as there's seating for about 40. Friendly staff on the phone and the chef even brought out our takeaway which was a nice touch.

best thai in many miles around here i go whenever i get the chance when family come to visit etc…read morelovely menu - the tempura prawns are lovely - the massoman is delicious (i dont care for things too spicy) the service is amazing - i would give it 5 stars but the mild dishes vary in spicyness a bit when i go back and order the same dish - would definatly reccomend tho!

Stopped in the other night while on a layover for work with my crew (air hostesses/flight…read moreattendants) on the recommendation of another coworker. We had such a nice evening and dinner was delicious. I ordered the Chicken Sateh for appetizer followed by the Green Curry with Prawns and side of sticky rice for my main meal. The Green Curry was especially tasty and had just enough spice/heat, but nothing too overpowering for me. Highly recommend and I definitely hope to return soon. Also note, they do not serve alcohol but it is BYOB if you'd like to bring something!

I really enjoy coming to Phet, I've lost count of the number of times I've been. It seems to suit…read moremost people as they offer quite a few vegetarian and fish options and it's BYOB! So it's quite easy and relatively cheap considering you can bring your own booze. It feels and tastes very authentic, smack bang in the middle of china town. You climb up a flight of stairs and into a fairly small dining space, Make sure you call and book ahead of time, they do tend to be very busy. Hardly surprising! The prawn crackers here are to die for and I tend to go for the pad thai, veg or chicken as a main. This dish is huge so I usually don't get anything else as I can barely finish the pad thai. The food is delicious, fresh and full of flavour. I've had the curries here before and they've not disappointed either. I can't see myself tiring of this place anytime soon :)

Authentic Thai food served by warm and friendly people. What more could you want?…read more What's that? "Free Thai crackers" I hear you say... they do those too!! Blimey. Mainly because I couldn't decide, I went for the mixed platter to start, which was good. The rolls and dips were tasty, some items were a little greasy but the prawn toast was great. The satay sauce was the highlight. I also tried a little of the cauliflower and chicken coconut soup, which was amazingly light but perhaps a bit soapy...? For main I had the masaman. Lots of tender beef, amazingly rich and fragrant nutty, sweet sauce and boiled rice. Incredible. I couldn't finish it as it got a bit sickly but boy, it was good. And meant I didn't need pudding. The Pad Thai was amazingly fresh with plenty of flavour, but didn't live up to (my impossibly high) expectations. Even on weeknights it seems to get quite busy so best to book.

Love my Thai food but have only tried the Thai restaurants in town. Heard a few good things so…read moredecided to tram it out to the burbs. It didn't disappoint. As we went midweek we could take them up on their midweek specials - 2 courses £14.95 3 for £17.95. Not restricted to just a few courses we had the whole of the a la carte menu to choose from. Food was lovely, fresh and good sized portions ( see pics) one friend went for the Thai style fish which was a whole fish served on a platter with separate veg - waitress assisted with removing it from the bone. Had a really lovely evening here - don't be put off by the outside whilst not bad it was clearly an old pub in its former life but a lovely restaurant with nice staff and good food now reside inside. Big car park also resides behind for the drivers amongst you although it easily reachable by tram.

The Royal Orchid is a very traditional Thai restaurant. It is pretty dated all round, the neon…read moresigns outside should give you a clue. It is open late and fully licensed though, it its defence. The food we had their was typical Thai; nice but some was too spicy for my liking. The Royal Orchid did seem a bit lazy. A friend who took my there commented that she hadn't seen the menu change in years. Clearly they have their own way of doing things here and it would take a minor miracle to change anything. Not one of my favourites.

Definitely worth a visit. It's the best Thai place in the area, and its great value. It is, as…read moreSophie says, pretty dated in terms of its décor. In fact its pretty tacky, but that seems to be part of the charm. In fact they've had a little re-furb lately and got rid of the pink table cloths..... but kept the china cats, thank god. The do an excellent red Thai curry, which you can have as part of the £5 lunch deal, available between 12 and 3 on the weekdays. The lunch deal includes a starter and rice. Starters vary from day to day but they're all nice authentic deep fried Thai-ness. My ultimate advice to anyone having Thai, not only here, would be to get on the Pad Kee Mao, a spicy noodle dish. You may have to ask for it specially if its not on the menu, as it is usually sold in its rice form, but here they would be happy to do you the noodle version. I must warn though, its very spicy. Unfortunately they've decided to end the Friday buffet for the time being, but they've assured me that it will be back, so keep an eye out for that. Its an all you can eat, which only has 3 or 4 main dishes, but all of them are lovely and you wont be disappointed. They also do a pre-order sharing thing for large parties. When we did this they really made an effort to look after us and make sure we had enough, so I'd really recommend it for a party.

Argh! This was not what I expected…read more My friend and I were pretty excited to try Siam Smiles after all the good reviews and were looking forward to some Thai culinary sunshine but both our dishes were seriously sub par. I had a soup with roast pork belly - the soup lacked any depth of flavour; the meat was just ok. My friend's chili and garlic chicken and rice dish looked totally uninteresting and was basically just a pile of raw chilis on top of some boring looking chicken and rice. She really didn't like it. Drinks wise they were out of lychee and regular Coke (my nightmare!!! Jk. But kind of not jk) so I decided on jasmine tea which cost £1.50...for a mug of hot water with a tea bag dumped in it. Hm. There are two menus shown on yelp at the minute - from November 2014 and January 2015. Neither are what we were shown, and I think the prices have gone up slightly again. In fact, the dishes now aren't that far off what you would get in nearby Thai restaurants like Phetpailin or even Try Thai or Chaophraya that have far nicer (and warmer) interiors. Might go back and try it again at some point but certainly not chomping at the bit!

Siam Smiles is neatly tucked away in a Chinatown basement. Word has spread fast about this…read morehalf-restaurant, half-supermarket ever since a critic for Guardian Weekend magazine dropped by to eat here in October. The setting is pretty basic, but very clean, with white tables and simple orange plastic chairs. The menu, on the other hand, is pretty comprehensive given that all of the dishes are made by just one cook in their tiny kitchen at the back of the store. Some of the dishes we tried were as delicious as you'd find in places much more salubrious than these surroundings. Sharing is definitely recommended due to the wait - see above re: numbers of cooks. The drinks you can order (all non-alcoholic by the way) are simply plucked from the shelves by the waiting staff (bottles of soft drink) or made by the cashier behind the till (hot drinks such as jasmine tea). It's not particularly vegetarian-friendly here, and some of what we had could have been presented/prepared a bit better (I'm not a fan of eating raw ginger slices or whole red chillis, for instance) - but for meat lovers who like their spice, this place is worth trying.

Went for tea at nam ploy last night as we wanted to go out for a meal where we hadn't been before,…read moreI have only ever got take away from here and after that being really good thought we would give it a try! We ordered chicken satay and squid for starter but they actually brought out ribs instead of the squid but they looked so good we didn't actually tell them they got it wrong- and they tasted just as good as looked! Then for main I had chicken stir fry with noodles and it was delicious The atmosphere was pretty quiet to say it was a Saturday night it was dead there was hardly anyone in! However there was a magician and called tony and he goes round to your table and asks if you want to see some magic he was so lovely and did a few then went away but we asked him to come back over once we'd eaten because we was so impressed! He works there every Saturday night and it really made our night!

We didn't really want to venture into Manchester for dinner, especially as we would have a very…read moreearly morning the next day, so we decided to give Nam Ploy another go since we enjoyed it so much the first time. It was a weeknight, not busy at all. Most of the business seemed to be takeaway, but we decided to eat in. We wanted to try something different this time... of course we seemed to be having difficulty making decisions on dishes. Eventually we decided on one of the set menus. It is funny that the items Mr. Snarky were excited about, I wasn't, but I was also excited about items that he wasn't. Go figure. We went with Set Menu B, which is a lot of food. The starter was similar to what we had on our last visit, so of course it was a pleaser. Next up was the soup. Our waitress had advised us that the prawn soup was extremely spicy. We asked if the soup could be made less spicy, to which she said no, but said we could substitute for a different soup. So we went with the Tom Tam Gai, a coconut milk based soup with chicken. Mr. Snarky was excited about it, but I wasn't quite so excited, mostly because I have tried a couple of coconut milk based soups and I tend not to enjoy them. I also remember my mom making a dish with coconut milk when I was kid and I always ate something else for dinner because I just didn't like it. However, as an optimist, I continue trying dishes I don't like in the hopes that one day I might like it. The soup came out and it was quiet pungent. However, it tastes much better than the smell. I ended up liking and Mr. Snarky ended up not being a huge fan. The other issue is that his bowl was mostly mushrooms with only a couple of pieces of chicken... he doesn't like mushrooms. If we had to do it again, I would try the spicy shrimp soup. For our mains we had a creamy shrimp curry, stir fried chicken with garlic and pepper, and Beef with Oyster Sauce. This comes with egg fried rice as well, but I believe we did order another bowl of steamed rice... I'm part Asian, I can put away a lot of rice. A word to the wise, try the chicken and the beef first. We made the mistake of trying the shrimp curry first, but because of all the spices and spiciness of it, it just dominated our palette. I will say that I was a bit worried about the creamy shrimp curry, 1) I have never been a huge fan of curry (although we are working to correct this) and 2) because it said 'creamy' in the description and I am lactose intolerant. However, I enjoyed the shrimp curry... the flavor was amazing and the while it isn't instantly spicy, the spice does intensify. We were absolutely stuffed! I think an extra course, even if it is soup probably put us over the edge, however, we were definitely happy with our food (the soup being the exception for Mr. Snarky). And at just under £20 per person, I think it was a pretty good deal.

Dee Thai restaurant is ever so tasteful darling. I was taken there for a birthday treat and the…read morefirst thought that struck me was spookily estate agentesque : major curb appeal!! The interior does'nt disappoint either, it is the epitome of elegance with cream, blue and sea green walls, dark mahogany furniture and mood lighting. Staff wear traditional Thai garb which looks lovely and they just cannot do enough for you. On entering we were led to the small bar area where we had a 10 minute wait despite booking. Now for the food. It is TOO DIE FOR!! Great portions and it is not simply your classic Thai fare. The chicken satay starter was presented with an exquisite salad and peanut dip, then we moved onto the mains. I tucked into the scallops padnam prik prao and would recommend this dish to seafood enthusiasts anytime! It had a subtle chilli sauce and the portion size far exceeded the typically sad-looking three scallops on a plate. Hubby had a dish called weeping tiger which was basically sizzling steak in a spicy sauce; hotter than your usual Thai. I still crammed in the fresh fruit platter for dessert and Dee Thai do a really good coffee- not your usual Costa fare. I adored the food but this was an expensive treat and my main thought was "glad i'm not paying". It cost in excess of £70 for the two of us but I think what pushed the price up was the cost of the side orders. Stir fried veg was £7.50 and beansprouts were £5.50. I guess the prices are reflective of the affluent area it is situated in but I think the Early evening offer of £9.90 for 2 courses and rice would be better value. Weekend booking is essential as Dee Thai is a popular venue. It also opens for lunch weekdays from 12-2.30pm and on weekends from 2-5pm. Great for a splurge and not your usual Saturday night grub. Loved it.

Had high expectations of Dee Thai. Great location, well designed restaurant has a good reputation…read more Food was good, bit not great. The comparison to Jitrada in Sale isnt favourable for Dee Thai. My starter, Emerald Chicken was delicious but the main course, Tamarind King Prawn had a strong flavour of fish sauce in it which overpowered the usual sour/sweetness and spoiled it a little for me. Staff were attentive and friendly which was a definite plus. Wine list was good and we chose one we really enjoyed which was another positive (cant remember what it was though!) However, we'd still take Jitrada over Dee Thai any day.