Dinner for 4 BYOB: No idea because Lee paid – but certainly worth every penny

Not surprisingly my friends are always recommending restaurants to me.  I could probably write this blog based upon these restaurants to me alone.  Often these places are really good, sometimes they’re pretty mediocre. Every once in a while they are really special.

My good friend Lee has been telling me about his favorite Thai restaurant for a while now and last Friday night we finally made the trek out to visit it in Leytenstone of all places.  Leytenstone in East London is not an area renowned as a culinary destination.  The insane number of fried chicken places packed into the area gave me a real sense of the options available to most area residents.  It was no surprise then really that Singburi was full of diners – both local and visitors on a Friday night.

A small family restaurant with mom running the front of house and dad in the kitchen Singburi does not at first seem like a restaurant worth mounting an expedition to get to.  But a quick look and sniff around the dining room at the other punter’s meals was encouraging.

Som Tam

I started with Som Tam – papaya salad.  For some reason you can’t see the generous pieces of chilli or dried shrimp in the salad, but believe me they are there.  I like my food hot – seriously hot – and this salad was eye melting.  It was also absolutely delicious and refreshing.  I was wide awake after eating it.

Pork belly with chilli and basil

We ordered a ludicrous amount of food – all of it spectacular.  My favorites were the pork belly with chilli and basil. This was just so so good.  Salty, porky, spicy and fragrant.  I was unable to finish it and I have to admit that I woke up the next morning and finished the leftovers for breakfast.  It was one of the specials but if we’re lucky it will wind up on the regular menu.

Chuchi fish

Another favorite was the chuchi fish.  We liked it so much we oredered it a second time.  There was also a yummy squid dish, stir fried morning glory and all manner of other utterly scrumptious dishes.

Singburi is cooking authentic Thai food without watering down the flavors or heat for a western palette.  If it it had a more accessible location I am sure that every food mag would have it on its best cheap eats list.  I am already planning another expedition to the far reaches of Leytenstone to try their curries which I am sure are going to be marvelous.

Practical notes: You’ll probably need to grab a taxi or bust to get there and back.  There is a mini-cab company just a few doors down to get you back to the station (if you’re coming into Stratford) .  Also bring your booze with you as it is BYOB.

Singburi
593 Leytenstone High Road
London, E11 4PA

Dinner for 1 with beer: £21.00

I wasn’t planning to go to this restaurant.  My original target was a pub that serves Thai food in the same area.  But when I turned the corner where the pub was it was rammed to the rafters with those Notting Hill type guys with collars popped up on their rugby shirts.  There was some kind of football match on and the yelling and cheering did not seem like it would make for enjoyable atmosphere so I decided to move on and suss out one of the other neighborhood Thai restaurants.

I almost ended up skipping the Market Thai as well because it doesn’t look particularly appealing from the street.  Its above a pub and is entered by a somewhat grim looking stair case.  At this point though I was getting pretty damn hungry and just decided to give it a try.

Once you get past the stairs however the interior is actually nice.  The whole place has a sort of distressed, worn look – not in a grotty way at all.  It reminded me of restaurants I’ve eaten in in South East Asia.

I was given a seat by an open window overlooking the hustle and bustle of Portobello road which made for some excellent people watching.

Grilled Shrimp Salad

I started with the grilled shrimp salad.  I hate it when you order a shrimp salad and you get 3 pieces of shrimp.  This shrimp salad had a ton of big plump shrimps in it and tons of fresh shallot and lemongrass and all sorts of other sour, salty, sweet Thai flavors.  It was the absolute winner of the meal.  I ate the entire dish.

Red Curry with Tofu

For my main I had the vegetarian red curry with tofu.  It was a respectable curry – could have used more fish sauce or just some salt but other than that it was enjoyable.

The Market Thai are not doing anything particularly exciting or original with their food but the service was very nice and the food satisfying.  This is a great place to come for lunch if you are wandering around Portobello road on a Saturday – especially if you can get a window seat to allow you to watch the goings on in the market below.

The Market Thai
240 Portobello Road
London, W11 1LL