It’s
absolutely no secret how much I love Smokey Phi Phi’s Thai Street BBQ at The Railway, which is why they
are in my handpicked squad for 2018. I’ve sung their praises in a blog post
before which you can find here, but hell, when a
place is this good, I feel I need to do it all over again…
For a
little while, they played with having a menu that changed almost daily, but
they’ve settled now on a more permanent fixture - changing with the seasons – featuring
a fantastic range of small plates, large plates, salads and sides to suit everyone.
And I mean everyone. I’ve sent many people here off the back of recommendations:
date nights, family gatherings, groups of friends, a girly lunch, a birthday
dinner or an after-work feast, it’s a great place for everyone and for
everything, unless you don’t like Thai food of course, but…whoooo?!
Sorry
to those avid readers of my blog (hi Mum!) if some of this is a bit repetitious
from my first post, but to those who aren’t (hi everyone else!), here goes…
This
is proper Thai food. Not the stuff you find in every other Thai restaurant and
takeaway across the country, no, this is the real deal. Unless you’ve eaten at
The Railway before, I can
guarantee that as you look down the menu, the majority of it will be new to
you. And new means exciting, right?! Damn right. At least it does here.
So,
the menu consists of small plates, large plates, salads and sides. You could
look at that being starters, mains and sides, but err on the side of caution as
food comes from the kitchen as soon as it’s ready, so I think it’s far better,
much friendlier and fun, to just order a feast. And when I say feast, I mean FEAST!
Go round the table and shout out anything that takes your fancy, add a few
sides to it and order the lot. As it arrives at your table, in no particular
order, just pop it in the middle and dive right in. When you order the right
quantity, even non-sharers can be converted into liking this place.
I eat
a lot, so I don’t feel I’m a good one to recommend quantities, but I would
personally order a small plate, a large plate and a side dish per person - plus
some (perhaps a salad for the table and maybe a few extra roti bread, you get
the gist, just pig out and enjoy).
Everything
on the menu is fantastic, but my personal faves are…
The
chicken satay sticks to start with a proper peanut dipping sauce, I think I
then went on to dip ANY leftovers in it! The crispy pork belly with a hot fish
sauce makes my mouth water just thinking about it. If you’re a fan of pork
belly and hot sauce, you’re going to love this. It’s like the Thai version of
pork scratchings, I could sit with a drink and keep tucking into them all day
long – or at least I’d like to try!
As
for mains, I honestly couldn’t call it, they were all spectacular. We tried the
marinated pork shoulder chilli and lemongrass salad which is one for the spice
heads. It’s zingy, deep, fresh and delivers a kick all at the same time. The BBQ
chicken northern styled yellow curry is one to try and grab from the centre of
the table and eat all to yourself, as is the Panang BBQ pork shoulder Bangkok
curry. Both are best devoured and then any leftover sauce mopped up with roti
bread at the end. Usually when you order a curry, it consists of a few chunks
of meat in a vat of sauce, but not here, the meat is very much the main event. Something
Kingsley was very happy about.
Now,
just to give you the heads up, there aren’t any desserts, so if you need
something sweet after a meal like me, just pack a choccy bar in your handbag. And
then, enjoy the last few weeks of summer with a few drinks out in their beer
garden, whilst all that delicious food goes down.
What’s
your favourite dish on the menu?
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