Manchester, Thai Restaurant Guide

This handy street-food operation has raided the cuisines of East Asia to provide a range of “informal dining at its best – authentic food with friendly and helpful service”. The Albert Square original now has three spinoffs in Manchester and one in London.

2021 Review: The “lovely Thai food” at these reliable cafés is “impressively authentic given that they are a chain” – “excellent value” and “fast”, if occasionally let down by “iffy service”. Founded in 2008 by Saiphin and Alex Moore, who inherited the name of their first East End site, the group has 18 branches in London and expanded to Liverpool, Manchester, Reading (delivery only) and Leeds following the sale of a majority stake to US investors. The couple also have two spin-offs, Lao Café in Covent Garden and the new Chinese noodle bar Hoh Sek in St Katharine Docks.

2019 Review: This Chinatown joint was once a “great little secret” but, post-expansion (adding a Thai-style canopy bar and lavish velvet curtains), it now “gets very busy”, so “book way in advance”; the lunch and early evening deals are “excellent value, but don’t showcase the best of their food”.

‘New Wave Thai’ in Manchester’s Northern Quarter (near a sibling, Tokyo Ramen), complete with hard-edged decor and open grills; and featuring, according to their website, ‘progressive barbecue cookery and liquid intelligence inspired by a future Bangkok’. Two tasting menus are the only available options. No survey feedback yet, but in a June 2021 review, Marina O’Loughlin swooned: having had low expectations, her meal was “jaw-dropping… not an off-note… energising, exhilarating…”.