The Old Siam Restaurant in York

On entering we were greeted cordially by a member of staff, who smiled and bowed. I mentioned to one of my friends how the aroma in the Old Siam smelt good. Two ladies, who were sat in the window seats next to the door, both looked up and nodded. One of them spoke to me and said, "It is good." This was a good start in my mind.

The meal was absolutely fabulous. Spicy in a way that is hard to describe. It was not so hot that it burnt your tongue. Yet, it was certainly spicy enough to make your mouth tingle while and after eating it. There is a great selection of Seafood, Meat and vegetarian options on the menu. All of those which our group of 5 ordered were a delight. The quality of food and the atmosphere was nothing less than "Divine", as a friend of mine Margaret would say.

The price of the meal including 3 courses and some drinks was just over 100 pounds. 25 a head between 5 of us was what I consider reasonable. There were a few little things that could have been better. But, overall this was an good experience I would like to repeat. We will be going back. Booking in advance is recommended.

The Menu:

The menu at the Old Siam restaurant in York was a delight. There was a good range of starters and several pages of main courses to choose from. Plenty of options for meat lover, seafood and fish lovers, as well as a page full of vegetable / vegetarian dishes.

The Food: Starters

I have a habit of having the same, or at least similar starters, in most restaurants I go to. With Thai restaurants, most of them have a Tom Yum soup on the menu. This is a spicy soup and can make your eyes water.

At the Old Siam, Tom Yum had a chicken and a vegetarian option. The latter was with mushrooms. It was spicy hot, but not to hot. Just right. The chicken was by no means sparse and the flavour a delight. Although it was not the best I have ever tasted, it was high on the list. 7/10 from me, 8/10 from the others with me. One of us went for a satay chicken, which I was told was equally nice. Costs were between 3.50 and 7 pounds per starter.

Main Courses

Yet again a good selection was available for all meat, duck, fish, seafood or veggy. The layout of the menu made for easy reading. 3 out of the party went for Duck, I went for a seafood medley and one other a vegetarian tofu dish.

In mine, the muscles were well cooked and tasty. The squid seemed tender when it first arrived (you have to eat this quick of it does get a bit chewy). The small portions of deep fried fish were tasty. The sauce again was spicy but not to hot. 8/10 from me, 9/10 from others for the duck and 9/10 for the tofu.

Side Dishes

There were plenty of side dishes; fried rice, egg fried rice, boiled rice and a choice from 3 different types of noodle. We shared 3 of these. The noodle dish, with king prawns, was the best out of them for me, with the special fried rice a close second.

Deserts

We were offered a selection of 6 main deserts. There was also additional choices of traditional ice creams and a Banana fritter, which came with a scoop of said. All sounded nice. The 4 we had were nice but, it was going to be hard to top off what we had for main course. 7/10 from me, may skip this course next time I go.

The Atmosphere:

Felt good, smelled fabulous. Pleasant decor and extremely friendly staff. A nice size main room with just enough space per table. They don't pack you in but, elbow room was a little limited. The chatter in the restaurant was at a reasonable level. From what you can hear everyone was enjoying themselves. The background music was just that, in the background.

Little Things That Got to Me

I am a bit picky, as a critic one tends to get that way. There are always little things that could have been better. My plate for my main dish has a chip out of it, this should have been spotted. One of the waitresses command of English was not too good. She had trouble understanding us at times. Some might say it adds to the atmosphere but, to me good communication between staff and customers is imperative. This could be improved. Apart from that, a good all round experience.

Our rating : 8/10

The Old Siam Restaurant
126 Micklegate York,
Telephone: 01904 635162

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