Just a few minutes away from Old Street tube station, down a small side street, is GRAB Thai Street Kitchen! GRAB opened its doors in the summer but it has taken me a few months to finally go visit!

Fresh, tasty, authentic, quality Thai food is what GRAB is all about! The decor is based on creating a scene from the Bangkok markets! Big lightbulbs hanging from coloured wire from the ceiling and wooden tables with small plastic stools make up the casual dining area.

Just inside the entrance are the open fridges, with boxes of salads, iced coffees and drinks. Next to this, is the unit with the tubes of hot food, all neatly labelled!

As soon as we entered GRAB, we were welcomed by the friendly staff! They asked us if we had been here before or if it was our first time! After stating that we were newcomers, the staff explained that all the hot food was ready to go, except for the curries.

For the curries, we just needed to choose the type of rice (white or brown jasmine) and then bring it to the counter for it to be topped with the curry of our choice! I wasn’t sure if the curry would be too spicy but the staff were more than happy to give me a sample of it before I ordered!

The green curry was slightly spicy so I went for the Pad Thai Crispy Tofu! It was great that this came in a mini size as well as regular. The mini portion was perfect and surprisingly filling. It had plenty of rice noodles, tenderstem broccoli, egg, crispy tofu, coriander, beansprouts, crushed peanuts, all topped off with a wedge of lime! Just writing about it now makes my mouth water! The Pad Thai was absolutely delicious! All the flavours were well balanced and had the right sweet and sour tastes going on! It was easy to tell that this food had no additives and no MSG in it!

Instead of the Thai iced coffee and Thai milk tea, freshly squeezed carrot and apple juice was had! A very refreshing drink and there was a slight heat to it due to the addition of some fresh ginger!

GRAB Thai Street Kitchen was extremely busy not only during the lunchtime hours but well into the afternoon! Even so, the staff were so efficient with their service that they seemed to get through the queues of customers very swiftly.

The hot and cold food displays were constantly being refilled with all the freshly cooked food from the kitchen downstairs!  GRAB provides a casual eating experience with diners happily munching on their pots of food standing up, when all the seats were taken!

Even though I was definitely full, I was still intrigued and tempted by other items on the menu, especially the Mushroom Fresh Rolls! So, I decided to have these and the Mango and Coconut rice dessert as a takeaway order, to have at home in the evening!

The Mushroom Fresh Rolls were a big portion of three rice wraps with a chilli and lime dip. The rolls were filled with Chinese mushrooms, cucumber, carrot, lettuce and rice vermicelli. The rolls were jam packed with the fillings and even without the dipping sauce, they tasted wonderful!

The sweet treat had fresh slices of mango topped with sesame seeds! The coconut sticky rice was not too sweet and it had a subtle flavour!

All of the food at GRAB was perfect and it’s going to be difficult to resist going to this Thai Street Kitchen on a regular basis! GRAB has hit the nail on the head with its great food, fantastic friendly staff, clean cafe and relaxed atmosphere!

Speaking to one of the owners before I left, I was told that they had plans to expand the dining area so that it would accommodate more people. They were also going to try and have seasonal specials on the menu! It was nice to see that all the hard work and effort of the management and staff at GRAB was paying off! All the long hours and many months of planning was making this restaurant a success!

GRAB definitely had their regular loyal customers and it’s easy to see why! It’s great that a good honest business has got off the ground and I’m sure that GRAB Thai Kitchen will continue to thrive!

GRAB Thai Street Kitchen, 5 Leonard Street, London, EC2A 4AQ

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When a close friend of mine came to visit from Malaysia and he suggested going out for an Indian meal, Drummond Street came to mind! Drummond Street is just behind Euston Station and has plenty of Indian restaurants!

Massala Hut has recently been refurbished. The decor is dark wooden furniture against a white tiled floor. The chairs were pretty funky with their space age like frame! There was a TV screen on in the background playing Bollywood songs!

There were plenty of staff on hand, but at times it felt like they were just hovering around the restaurant and the diners. Saying that though, they didn’t bother us and didn’t rush us with our meal! The staff were friendly and efficient.

For something to nibble on, we had the vegetable samosas. They were fairly small but tasty! The pastry was crisp and the vegetable filling was delicately spiced.

Rice was what I felt like that day and so I had the vegetable biryani. This dish was cooked with saffron and mostly had potatoes and onions. It was slightly greasy which was disappointing. It was served with some vegetable curry and this did make a good accompaniment.

The fish achari that my friend had was served in a little balti style dish! It was supposed to be a really spicy dish, but he wanted it to be a little less hot. The waiter said that it would be fine, as long as he just didn’t eat the whole green chillies in the dish!

Massala Hut was an average restaurant but maybe it was just my choice of dish that made me think this!

Massala Hut, 161-163 Drummond Street, London, NW1 2PB

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Down a small side street off Lincoln Inn’s Field is this wonderful Thai restaurant! Pu’s Brasserie is a small, cosy, intimate kind of a restaurant. It doesn’t have a huge dining area so it would be better to make a reservation to guarantee a table! The restaurant looked bigger due to a huge wall mirror!

For the starter, the paper rice baby corn was chosen! These were whole baby corn wrapped in a crispy pastry! It was a nice alternative to regular spring rolls!

As it had been a while since I’d had Pad Thai, it didn’t take me long to decide that that would be my main dish! When I asked the waitress if it came with extra vegetables, I was told that it really only had beansprouts. So, I requested extra vegetables in my Pad Thai.

This Pad Thai had the perfect balanced sweet and tangy flavour. The noodles were soft and the vegetables crunchy: a great combination!

As it was a cold day, a hot drink was needed! The jasmine tea was served by the pot and when it had nearly finished, the waitress asked if I wanted to have it refilled with hot water. It’s not often that the staff suggest refilling pots of tea!

The staff were really friendly and efficient. Pu’s Brasserie had a relaxed atmosphere. There was attention to detail such as the menu’s being on wooden boards! The dessert menu was presented in a small wooden case!

Pu’s Brasserie, 10 Gate Street, Holborn, London, WC2A 3HP

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