Tamnag Thai is one of those classic neighbourhood restaurants; everyone in the area knows and loves it and very few people outside of that bubble have ever heard of it.
Tamnag Thai isn’t going to win any awards for originality, but that’s not it’s raison d’etre. The decor is a predictable and dated, and the service is a bit abrupt, though with a smile and despite all that, it is always heaving.
The dishes that Tamnag Thai does best are the ones where they are not catering to their English audience’s classic tastes. Take our starter, for example. We had the veggie tempura. And while the roasted pepper, carrot and other veggies were delicious, there were some strips of regular potato in there. And as much as I enjoy a good chip/french fry (because let’s not beat around the bush, a tempura spud is basically a chip), I felt that it was just a sad and vaguely bland gesture of good will towards pub food.
For mains, Sam and I split a pad thai, a portion of sticky rice and the nam prig phao. The vegetarian pad thai was a little spice, a little sweet, a little salty. I loved it. The nam prig phao had two chiles next to it on the menu, denoting the fact that it was spicy. I’d been to Tamnag Thai in the past and had a dish that was labeled with three chiles. I’m a spicy lover (I think you have to be when growing up in New Mexico) and the three chiles had me in floods of tears, with not a glass of milk in sight to sort me out. I thought I was playing it safe opting for two chiles this time. I wasn’t. It was still very spicy, but this time in a gloriously edible way. The stir-fried onions, chicken, sugar snap peas, thai basil and peppers had the heat that you feel on the back note, burning your throat but being addictively tasty.
Tamnag Thai is located at 50-54 Westow Hill, London SE19 1RX.
