Thai Afternoon Tea at Chaophraya, Glasgow

Last weekend, Emily and Maria took me to Chaophraya (http://chaophraya.co.uk/venues/chaophraya-glasgow/) for Mothers Day's Thai afternoon tea treat.

I had no idea what they planned for me on the day or where we were going, if we were going anywhere at all. I asked, 'What's the dress code?' They said, 'Smart casual'. So I gathered that we were going somewhere instead of staying at home.

They gave me a box of present and a bunch of Tulip which is one of my favourite flowers.

Yuki being nosy what's in the box .....

When I opened the box, there is a set of lovely teacup and saucer with my favourite Lindor chocolate. This was a clue ... we were going for an afternoon tea. Wonderful! Anything that involves food, that's me!

I still did not know where we were going at that stage. We got into Emily's car and headed toward Glasgow. I listed all possible afternoon tea places on Sunday in the city that we have not been in my head.  We parked the car, started walking on Buchanan Street. I was wondering if we were heading toward Princes Square. Next thing, Emily and Maria pointed at the entrance of Chaophraya. Here we were.

I did not expect this at all. What a lovely surprised and what Thai afternoon would be like!!!

We stepped inside. We checked in at the reception and were taken into our table.

Our table was in Palm Sugar bar lounge. The place was bustling with other Afternoon tea parties already.

A nice corner with my personal throne ....

 

 Table is all set and we were waiting for our food ...

The next thing, our afternoon tea stand arrived!!!

Instead of normal sections of sandwiches, you get Thai style spring rolls, satays and fritter and fish cakes, etc....

These are my vegetarian options....

I had these with a pot of Jasmin tea which went very well with these food... 

We then had scones with Thai infused jam ...

Then moved on to cakes too .... cup cakes, chocolate brownies with peanut butter and mini macaroons.

To be honest, by this time we were full and could not finish all the cakes. We asked for doggy bag ...

That was a lovely afternoon tea. We did not have any cocktails to go with it but we could if we wanted. Maybe next time...  I really enjoyed the afternoon tea.

It was a lovely Mother's Day present - Thank you Emily, Maria, Craig and Dale!!!

And I surely did have a lovely day!

You can also read my earlier blog about the lunch I had at Chaophraya ....

That's all forks!

Thai Cafe, Kirkintilloch

A new Thai restaurant has come to Kirkintilloch recently and we have already been there 3 times! Twice for dinner and once for lunch. It's called Thai Cafe.

The decor is simple (but in a nice way), bright and comfortable and welcoming.  I think the premises might have been a real estate agency before but I am not sure....

I like their menu. There are lots of dishes I want to try....  You also get tasty hot prawn crackers whilst waiting for your starters to arrive.

For starters, we have tried their Thai fish cakes and Hot and Sour Soup (Tom Yum) with seafood.

I am quite particular about Thai fish cakes but I do love Thai Cafe's fish cakes.

Thai Hot and Sour Soup with seafood has lots of seafood and vegetables in it, including crab claws! I like the taste. There is some home cooking feel to it. I envy Thai families who can get to have this soup at home.

For dinner, we have tried stir-fried tofu with vegetables and stir-fried king prawns (but sorry, I can't remember which type of sauce) and stir-fried egg noodles and beansprouts.

I enjoyed my tofu-stir fried vegetables.  As I love tofu, I would like to have more tofu, cut in bigger chunks rather than sliced, however vegetables were stir fried lovely with tasty sauce. 

When we went back second time, my husband had spicy seafood stir fry. There were lots of seafood as you can see including crab claws!

I had steamed Thai style seabass in lime (or was it lemon...?), coriander, chilli and celery sauce. I love this dish. The fish was prepared beautifully but the sauce was really lovely and refreshing. Slices of small celery were sharp, fragrant and flavoursome. I have never tried such lovely celery.  I would definitely order this again.

We enjoyed our meals so much we then went back the following week but for lunch to try their lunch menu.  It is 6.95 for two courses.

You get some hot prawn crackers whilst waiting for your dish to arrive.

As we don't eat meat, we paid £1.50 extra for king prawns as mains in lunch menus are mainly chicken dishes but we don't mind. I wanted to try their Thai red curry anyway.

Here, starter and main come together in the same dish.

My husband had hot and sour soup with king prawns for starter and Thai green curry with king prawns for main.  I think the soup had some coconut milk in it and it was quite flavoursome.  I also tried his Thai green curry. The sauce was very delicious, flavoursome and spicy.

I had Thai fish cake for starter and Thai red curry with king prawns for main. I enjoyed this too.

Next time I would like to try their Chilli Squid for starter, oh but I do love their fish cakes too - this is a dilemma! For main course I would like to try Thai green curry but I also love their steamed seabass.... another dilemma!

We have enjoyed our meals at Thai Cafe and we would definitely go back.

When we were in the restaurant there were lots of take-aways orders going on. We must try their take-away too, so we picked up their take-away menu.

It's great to have Thai restaurant in Kirkintilloch. There are already very good Chinese take aways near-by, and also two lovely Italian restaurants. I have also heard Persian restaurant has opened up too.  Lots of choices! Kirkie is happening!  Now, I hope someone will open up a nice Spanish tapas place please....

That's all forks!

Chaophraya, Glasgow - Thai Restaurant

We are getting our kitchen done at the moment. This means that we can't cook and we can't store foods as the fridge/freezer is out of action. We have been eating out, relying on take-aways or microwave meals if not inviting ourselves at someone else's house for dinner!

Well, I have finally made it to Chaophraya Thai Restaurant (http://chaophraya.co.uk/venues/chaophraya-glasgow/) at The Townhouse, by Buchanan Street in Glasgow (see my earlier blog about Topolabamba).  According to their website, Glasgow restaurant was opened in 2012, set over four floors and is the largest Thai restaurant in Europe!  Wow! And, its name Chaophraya takes from the main waterway in Thailand.

It was Easter Sunday. We went there just after lunchtime. The reception are was rather clouded with people (tourists?) taking photographs, however we did not have any problems to get seated this time.

Reception area

We were taken to the upstairs restaurant. We thought that the restaurant is just on the first floor but we were wrong about that....

These chairs are really comfortable!

We were seated right next to the Champagne cabinet .... very tempting....

We decided to stick to sparking water instead ...

We also decided to try out their set lunch menu, £13.95 for a starter and main course each.
So, my husband ordered Tod Mun Khao Pode (Deep fried sweetcorn blended in red curry paste served with sweet chilli sauce) and I ordered Poh Piah Jae (Crispy golden spring rolls stuffed with white cabbage, mushrooms, carrots and vermicelli served with sweet chilli sauce).

While we were waiting for our starters to arrive, we looked around our surroundings.

Each table had a small but real cut flower, not plastic, that's a good sign....

With functional cutleries ...

When you look up, you see beautiful ceiling...

We turned around and looked up, we saw what they describe 'the romantic Buddha Balcony for two' behind the clock, which is located on level 2. Well, unfortunately the clock was behind but I guess they may be more for decor ...?

My husband also pointed out to the ornate plaster work with initials of GLC, which stands for Glasgow Liberal Club. The entire building was the Grade A listed former Liberal Club dating back to 1911, which is now a 4 story Thai restaurant!

And our starters have arrived. My husband's Tod Mun Khao Pode (Deep fried sweetcorn blended in red curry paste) are basically corn fritters with spicy chilli and peanut sauce, however with some curry flavour, combined with sweet chilli sauce with peanuts, it was quite tasty. 

Deep fried sweetcorn in Thai style ...

My Poh Piah Jae (spring rolls) were lovely too and were piping hot. What I liked about this was that vegetables inside were nice and crunchy, also they did not have that distinct Chinese spices. I prefer this spring rolls to Chinese ones.

We swapped one of ours each so that we could try each, poured over chill sauce. Lovely and yummy.
Chili sauce was rather addictively spicy but sweet.

 

We enjoyed our starters but I think my husband wants to try Pak Tod (deep fried mixed vegetables in a light batter served with sweet chili sauce) next time.

As we don't eat meat, starter selections are limited for us but if you like chicken or pork, you got other options too (http://chaophraya.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/2-course-lunch-menu.pdf).

Then our main course - I had Choo Chee Pla Tod (deep fried sea bass fillet on a bed of vegetables topped with a creamy red curry sauce, served with jasmine rice) and my husband had Pad Udon Talay (stir fried udon noodles with mussels, calamari, prawn, garlic, chilli, fine beans, onions, sweet basil and green peppercorns).

My sea bass in red curry sauce was tasty, creamy and coconutty as well as spicy, quite flavoursome. I am not sure about half sliced cherry tomato on top of the jasmine rice, which reminded me of a Japanese flag.

I tried a little bit of my husband's seafood stir fried udon noodles which were really tasty.  There were also lots of seafood in it. He really enjoyed it.

By the end of two courses, we were really full and did not have any rooms for desserts nor any tea. We did however enjoyed our lunch very much and would definitely come back and try other dishes off a la carte menu.

While waiting for a bill to arrive, I went upstairs for a toilet check. Buddha are everywhere ....

Going upstairs to the level 2 ....

and being welcomed by sacred elephants ....

turning around the corner and voila, another lounge area with big comfy looking sofas outside of toilets! Actually, level 3 has some private function rooms so I can see these comfy chairs can be quite nice for a break-away area for dining guests ....

Inside is clean, nice and spacious, but I had expected something more Oriental to keep in with the rest of the restaurant's decor .... it has passed my toilet check though.

It is a beautiful restaurant, with extensive choices on a la carte menu. I have spotted that they have Jaew Horn Ta-Lay (Thai Fisherman's Soup Shabu Shabu), which is chef's signature dish.  Sounds yummy, I want to try that! Also for main course another chef's signature dish of Pla Song Pee Nong - Chaophraya duo fish of sea bass fillet deep fried and drizzled with tamarind sauce garnished with cashew nuts and a pan-fried cod fillet drizzled with a Panang sauce. Sounds yummy too.

We shall definitely go back to this restaurant.  Sawasdee.

That's all forks!