Upmarket Thai in Victoria

It’s S’s birthday, so we meet up at The Grosvenor for cocktails before heading to find L at the Mango Tree, at Grosvenor Place.  For a Thai restaurant it is remarkably restrained, modern and low-key. Maybe some oriental music around, but no other obvious national references.

We’ve booked through OpenTable to get a 50% off food offer.  This turns out to be less than it appears, as the “signature dishes” (about 60% of the menu) are only 25% off, and the offer doesn’t cover side dishes at all.  It’s not a good way to put you in the mood for a special evening out.

So we decide to forget all about the offer and just choose what we want.  Starters are a seafood tempura, prawns in tom yum sauce with garlic and chilli, a crab dish off the special fish menu and a prawn, pomelo and coconut snack. All very good indeed – clean, sharp flavours and fresh ingredients.

For main course we share a pork salad (not as hot or coriandery as we’ve had elsewhere), a jungle chicken curry (supremely fiery), stir-fried beef with oyster sauce,  stir-fried king prawns and crispy deep-fried pork belly. The girls go on to have tropical ice cream and banana pudding.

Service has been friendly (after the initial encounter) and efficient, without being charming. With 4 bottles of £20 SB the full total was £236. The various discounts took off £40, but then 12.5% service added another £30 to bring us back to £226.  But it was a good meal, so maybe on birthdays it’s worth doing.