Koh Samui

16 Princess Street, Manchester, 0161 237 9511

If there’s one thing that we agree on it’s on the fabulousness of Thai food. Done well, it’s a joyous and addictive combination of hot, sour and sweet flavours. We both experienced Thai food for the first time back in late 1990s at the marvellous Chiang Rai on Princess Street. Their Tom Yum Goong was legendary and set the bar high. Although the Chiang Rai is sadly defunct, the premises are now home to Koh Samui. Feeling nostalgic and intrigued by the menu displayed on the restaurant’s website, we decided to dig out the Gastromanc notebook and give Koh Samui a go. What better way to kick-start our long-neglected blog?

The dining room is spacious with wooden floors, white linen tablecloths, and Thai artefacts and plants dotted around, giving a calm and welcoming ambience. The overall atmosphere was marred a little by the paucity of diners, but this was perhaps not surprising on a cold Tuesday evening in January.

With Thai food, everyone has their favourites. Those dishes you order again and again, while feeling mildly guilty for ignoring the reams of delicious sounding alternatives. For Whoopsi J, no Thai meal is complete without spicy fish cakes. Test-card Girl has a weakness bordering on obsession with Tom Yum Goong, the fragrant hot and sour soup with prawns. Leafing though the menu we ummed and ahhed appreciatively. "Fish cakes?" wailed Whoopsi J, plaintively. "And some Tom Yum soup?" Test suggested hopefully.

The fish cakes were pleasant enough and at least tasted like they had been home made, rather than those frozen, mass produced things often served in Thai restaurants. Finely sliced green beans added a bit of crunch and thankfully the chef had not spoiled things by adding sliced kaffir lime leaves (we're looking at you, Chaopraya). They were, however, disappointingly mild in flavour and we would both have preferred more of a red curry kick.

Tom Yum Goong should be hot, sour, fragrant, and above all fresh and light. Koh Samui's offering fell short on all counts. There was very little heat in the broth and the soup had a red hue and a distinctly tomato flavour (WJ suspected tomato puree). Though reasonably flavoursome, the murkiness at the bottom of the bowl suggested the use of a commercial Tom Yum paste rather than fresh aromatics such as lemongrass and galangal. It certainly did not have the lightness and freshness of the Tom Yum we were so used to at the Chiang Rai. TCG was possibly more offended by the soup than WJ but neither was impressed.

For main courses we ordered the deep fried sea bass with hot and sweet chilli sauce and, from the vegetarian menu, stir fried aubergine with chilli and holy basil. The chilli fish was probably the best dish of the evening. The fish was crisp but excessively so - in fact it was somewhat overdone. The smallish sea bass compounded this error as it was probably not terribly meaty to begin with. The chilli sauce was nicely balanced with a pleasant sweetness, the flavours of garlic and the sour edge of fish sauce coming through. However, not near enough chilli was used for our tastes.

The stir fried aubergine appeared to have been braised rather than stir fried, the texture dense and lumpen instead of light and velvety. It was rather more al dente than melt-in-the-mouth. Despite a sprinkling of holy basil and sliced chillies, the flavours were uninspiring – frankly it was bland.

From the wine list we selected the Montana Sauvignon Blanc, a nice, value wine full of the gratuitous tropical fruit flavours that one often associates with New Zealand sauvignon blanc. These worked well with what little Thai flavours were on our plates. We had no complaints about the service, which was pleasant and unobtrusive.

The bill came in at £67.20 (service not included) with starters such as fish cakes and soup costing £8 each and contributing heavily to this. We sloped off to the Cornerhouse for a postprandial tipple feeling rather deflated to say the least. Overall, Koh Samui was disappointing and a far cry from its predecessor on the site, the Chiang Rai. Whilst nothing was grossly objectionable, the meal failed to put fire in our bellies. There are far better places to get your Thai kicks. Watch this space...

Food 5/10
Service 7/10
Ambience 7/10
Sneer factor 2/10
Value for money 4/10

Visit date: Tuesday 19th January 2010