The instruction from my uncle was that he wanted pie and a pint for a post-Christmas catch up so we arranged to meet in the Horse & Groom. However, their kitchen not opening till 6 we wandered Fitzrovia in search of pastry.

It being a fuzzy time of year we mistook the Greyhound for a pie-producing establishment. Which it most definitely isn’t. None of our party were fussy though and we were quite happy to plunge into the Thai street food on offer.

It’s quite an extensive menu and really I could have ordered anything but we took some fish balls and other sharers to start, while I had a prawn pad thai as a main. The starters were excellent – crunchy/crispy with some ferocious heat on the dipping sauce, just how I like it. Mike had insisted on red wine for booze which wasn’t helping to put out the fire in my cakehole but we also had plenty of water at table.

The pad thai was a more restrained affair with plenty of prawns and tofu and a good handful of veg to mix in with the heap of noodles. Even the presence of e*g wasn’t enough to put me off scoffing the whole lot. So enthused were we by the quality of the food that we pushed on to a dessert – coconut sherbet for me, which was a good palate cleanser.

The room was understandably empty-ish at this weird time of year but the service was excellent and I’d be happy to return at a buzzier time.

8/10

Food London Restaurants Fitzrovia Food London Restaurant Review Thai