Tasty Thai At A Palatable Price

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We put King Street's 101 Thai Kitchen to the test

Given that Thai restaurants are by no means thin on the ground in W4, you may wonder why I’m frequently tempted to amble down to King Street in Hammersmith in order to sate my craving for Thai cuisine.

The answer is simple. Despite their undeniable popularity with local residents, the only Thais to be found in restaurants such as Fat Boys, The Thai Bistro and Turnham Green Thai Café tend to be those preparing the dishes and waiting the tables. Step into 101 Thai Kitchen on King Street, on the other hand, and you’re likely to feel as though you’ve stumbled into a corner of Thailand tucked away in the heart of West London.

The fact that such a large proportion of 101 Thai Kitchen’s clientele are Thai speaks volumes about the high quality and authenticity of its food. To have so convincingly beaten its several competitors and become the favourite haunt of West London’s Thai community, 101 Thai Kitchen must be doing something right.

On the day I went for lunch with a friend we arrived during the lunch rush and were seated amongst an eclectic mix of young professionals, local families and groups of friends, both Thai and English.

101 Thai Kitchen offers a pretty unbeatable lunch menu; for £4.50 (£5 if you choose to add a soft drink, fruit juice, mineral water or tea) you can choose a main meal from a selection of eleven dishes. For the vegetarians amongst you, all dishes can be prepared using mixed vegetables.

Feeling a little peckish, my lunch date and I splashed out and decided to share a tasty Tom Yum Chicken soup as a starter. There was easily enough soup for both of us and the soup, containing lemon grass, button mushrooms and chicken, was spicy and delicious.

We ordered prawn crackers as a side and I ordered Gaeng Kiaw Wan (green chicken curry to the rest of us), whilst my lunch date opted for the Pad Krapow (chicken with chilli and sweet basil). We washed all this down with lemonade and a pot of jasmine tea respectively.

The portions were generous and both dishes included a serving of plain steamed rice. The green chicken curry was flavoursome and contained plenty of chicken, aubergine and bamboo shoots. My only complaint would be that the curry was a little too visibly oily – I don’t like to be reminded of calories whilst I’m busy consuming them! My lunch date, a bit of a Thai food buff, was impressed with her chicken with chilli and sweet basil.

The service was excellent; the food came quickly and there was no pressure to leave right away once we’d finished the meal. The bill came to a very digestible £15 which, considering we’d had drinks, a starter and a side, we agreed was extremely good value.

We’d both wholeheartedly recommend this superb restaurant and are keen to put their take away service to the test…. We’ll keep you posted!

Lucy Metherall

August 16, 2007