I was up in York for a few days and was looking for a place to eat close to where I was staying. I had noticed The Old Siam when I had gone for a walk along Micklegate. This was a Thai restaurant with wooden floors and batik wall hangings.
When I arrived it was quite busy, but I was given a warm welcome. I was shown to my table. I liked the atmosphere of the place, and there was a real buzz about it. The wooden furniture offered an informal dining experience which I liked.
There was quite a lot of choice of different Thai dishes on the menu, but in the end I decided to go for the salt n pepper soft shell crab as a starter followed by the mixed seafood pad cashew nut as my main course.
The salt n pepper soft shell crab was soft shell crab in a tempura batter with garlic, salt, pepper and served with sriracha sauce.
The batter was nice and crispy and I liked the crab, which had a real crab flavour. Sometimes when I’ve had battered soft shell crab, the crab can be somewhat tasteless. This time I could definitely taste the crab. The sriracha sauce was a little too spicy for me. However, despite that I really enjoyed the crab.
It wasn’t long before my main course arrived. This was stir fried light battered mixed seafood with roasted cashew nut, carrot, onion, red pepper and mushroom. Alongside I had a serving of sticky rice.
This was a nice dish. There was a good mix and portion of battered seafood. I did think the batter as a little thick in places, but there was a nice crunch. The sauce was nice and there was a good amount of cashew nuts. The sauce was nice and it worked well combining all the aspects of the dish together.
Overall I really liked the food here, the service was excellent, warm, and friendly. I was tempted to go again, but I know if I am up in York again, I will try and visit The Old Siam.