Saras Quality Thai Cuisine (from Scene South)

STEPPING from a wet and windswept Southampton street through the doorway into Sara's Thai Cuisine instantly put a smile on mine and my companion's faces.

The bright, busy restaurant was really welcoming and it seemed from the outset that it was going to be an enjoyable night.

While we go to restaurants mostly for the food, the fact is one of the reasons we pay to eat out is to be somewhere pleasant and the cheerful surroundings of Sara's did make for a more enjoyable meal.

The friendly atmosphere also helped. The staff were very welcoming and Sara herself came to greet us and had a chat about what food would be suitable for me, as a vegan.

The restaurant actually caters very well for vegetarians and vegans with a good range of dishes on offer, from the mild to the super-spicy. That said, as my friend discovered, there was also plenty on offer for carnivores.

I started my meal with a vegetarian selection plate. This included satay tofu and mushrooms with a peanut sauce, spring rolls, tempura (vegetables deep fried in batter) and a sweet corn cake. It was a very generous portion and I was impressed at the range of flavours on the plate. My favourite was definitely the sweet corn cake, dipped in sweet chilli sauce, which was the kind of food you daydream about afterwards.

My friend went for the steamed scallops which came with garlic and ginger, which she assured me was delicious.

For her main dish my friend had green prawn curry - king prawns in coconut milk with bamboo shoots, lime, coriander, aubergine, fine beans and fresh green chilli paste.

I went for vegetables on fire which were literally burning when they came to our table, wrapped in silver foil.

Luckily Sara was on hand to open the wrapper without any unfortunate burning incidents. The dish included stir fried mixed vegetables with tofu flavoured with basil and a special chilli sauce.

We went a bit overboard and shared vegetable cashew nuts - stir fried mixed vegetables with cashew nuts, pineapple, water chestnut, onion, pepper and deep fried chilli. We also shared steamed jasmine rice and sticky rice, which Sara said is a particularly popular choice.

We were really impressed with how different all the dishes tasted. There was a really subtle blend of flavours that I can't imagine I would ever be able to capture if I tried to recreate one of the dishes at home.

Unsurprisingly, our eyes were much bigger than our bellies and we weren't really able to do justice to the large portions. We made valiant efforts though because the food was just so tasty and extremely moreish.

Looking back through the menu there are so many other dishes that I want to try that I can't imagine it will be long before I'm back at Sara's again.

Sara's Quality Thai Cuisine is at 273 Portswood Road, Portswood, Southampton. Reservations: 023 8067 6063. Website: sarasthaicuisine.co.uk

The choice and quality at Sara's was good-to-very-good on 2 visits there, admittedly some time back. The reasons we've never returned despite living within walking distance were (a) the over-friendly presence of (I assume) Sara's other half and (b) loud and decidedly un-Thai music which was changed for something even worse after we complained. Total conversation - and custom - killers.

What are these links for?

If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.

At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.

Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.

Newsquest
Terms & Conditions Privacy Policy © Copyright 2001-2008 Newsquest Media Group A Gannett Company
This site is part of Newsquest's audited local newspaper network