Thai Tiger, E1 6RL
- 96 Brick Lane
Thai Tiger was a Thai restaurant on Brick Lane; it has now closed. As of April 2011 the premises are occupied by an Indian restaurant called Chutneys; we're not sure if this is connected to the Chutneys that used to be a few doors down at number 90 (number 90 is now Mango).
The information below is retained for people who want to know what it used to be like.
We've only tried the delivery option so far; Kake et al. have ordered four or five times between March 2010 and June 2010.
A mixed starter platter for two (£13.20 in April 2010) included good chicken satay (chicken not dry at all, peanut sauce nicely textured and well-flavoured), good Thai fish cake (again, not dry at all, and with a prominent lemongrass flavour), posh prawn toast made on a baguette slice, and decent enough spring rolls and chicken parcels. Sweetcorn cakes (tod man kha pod; £4.10 in June 2010) were a little stodgier and greasier than optimal.
Tom yum goong (£5.70 in May 2010) was pretty good, and almost spicy enough for bob. Som tam (£7 in May 2010) wasn't bad, though the second time we ordered it, it seemed that the shredded vegetables may have been prepared some hours earlier and had lost some freshness. In the fishy-salty-sour-sweet-hot balance that this dish should have, it was on the fishy side and not too sweet; too fishy for doop, but pleasing enough to Kake.
Tofu with holy basil and fresh chilli (tao fu bai kra prow; £6 in May 2010) was quite flavourful, and the tofu cubes had the spongy texture that comes from judicious freezing, letting them soak up plenty of sauce (even bob liked it). Beef green curry (£7 in March 2010) and mixed vegetable green curry (£6 in June 2010) were mild rather than spicy, gently rich and flavourful, though the first time we ordered the vegetable version we thought it could have done with more vegetable content (it was better the second time).
Phad ke mao with prawns (stir-fried flat noodles with holy basil and chilli; £8.25 for the prawn option in March 2010) contained big, well-cooked, flavourful prawns. Coconut rice (£2.50 in June 2010) had a lovely coconutty fragrance and flavour. Sticky rice (£2.50 in March 2010) was fine.
Packaging/handling has generally been fine, but was very poor on our June 2010 order — sauce escaped from both the green curry and the tofu kra prow, to end up in the bottom of the bag. The green curry didn't suffer too badly from this, but the tofu dish ended up bland and dry.
Kake's verdict: Really rather good for a takeaway (if also slightly pricier than average). I'm not sure it'd be my first choice for eat-in if I was in the area, but I certainly wouldn't say no if others wanted to go there. Regarding delivery, the delivery mishap on my most recent order was slightly offputting — and although for a while this was the best Thai I'd found that delivered to SE16, now Thailand delivers to me I'd probably only order from Thai Tiger again if I wanted one of their tofu dishes (which Thailand don't appear to do).