Enigma: March 2016

If you asked me around four years ago to pick family takeout nights dinner, Thai would never even have been an option. I had sampled it here and there, and always thought it was too much hassle trying to choose something that didn’t resemble a mini jungle.

Over the past few years I have allowed myself to taste quite a few dishes from various different Thai restaurants. Lately a few Thai places have popped up in Glasgow and there is quite a choice – and difference – between them all.

Our girl Zunainah decided to bring in her early birthday celebrations at a restaurant called “Thairiffic” on Sauchiehall Street, across from the O2 Academy. It’s tucked away on the first floor overlooking the busy hustle and bustle of city centre life.

It is a beautiful place with high rise ceilings, dimmed lighting and gorgeous detailed art pieces. This latest venture has a pretty varied menu with favourites such as Pad Thai and other dishes I - and others – will likely never remember.

As a lover of Thaikun, the latest Thai eatery to grace Silverburn – I had high hopes for Thairiffic as the menu seemed to follow in its footsteps.

For starters, I opted for the “Golden Bags” which I was pleasantly surprised with. Most Thai places struggle to make spring rolls of any kind exciting, but the presentation was delightful with the added bonus of the taste and chilli sauce served with it being delectable. Not too greasy, these were delicious crispy fried pastry with fillings consisting of chicken, green peas, potatoes and carrots all wrapped up in a soft curry.

Golden Bags - £6.25

In hindsight, a sharing platter would have been best suited to test the credentials of a new Thai place. I ended up playing it safe and ordered a standard Chicken Pad Thai. Rice noodles with Thairiffics own special sauce, eggs, bean sprouts, tofu, spring onions, carrots and crushed peanuts. I was severely disappointed. The chicken usually adds a kick to Pad Thai with taking on the flavour of the dish- but it was very bland and the noodles sauce was too sweet for my liking. The menu claimed it was the popular choice, but I failed to see how. It wasn’t horrendous, just not up to the standards when compared to other regular Pad Thai’s- the noodles were too sticky and I ended up picking from my friends plate. She had ordered the Pad Prig Khing chicken stir fry, from the snacking I did off her plate it tasted divine and just the right amount of spice made the chicken pieces nice and soft.

Chicken Pad Thai - £9.95

The prices are very reasonable and came to just under £15 per head for around eight of us. I find myself comparing any Thai place with Thaikun as I have yet to find a place I’m more impressed by in terms of having extremely consistent experience and funky surroundings.

I will probably be back to try a second attempt at another main as that was the only negative thing for me. Otherwise the good company made up for that.