Mango Tree, Belgravia *

I love Thai food so any chance to go and chow down on some I’m there, and it’s even better when the option is to eat at Mango Tree in Belgravia! I have been there on a previous visit with a friend so this time Mike came along to give the #XmasWithATwist menu a go!

Sadly, Mike got caught in train mayhem on the way there so I was sat alone for a little bit but the waiters and waitresses kept chatting to me and made sure I felt well at home which certianly helped as I’m always a little nervous sitting in places alone!

When Mike arrived we were given these palette cleaners with cucumber, onion, apple and strawberry.

We then moved on to the meat set menu…

That starter looks pretty amazing right… here’s the close ups!

This was the see krong gae yang nam peung which slow- cooked lamb marinated in Thai spicy honey sauce. The lamb literally fell off the bone as it was so tender.

The goong tod samunprai; deep-fried sweet prawn tossed with garlic, chilli and spring onions was one of my favourites on the starter board. It had a really good kick to it!

My most favourite of the starter was the hoy shell ob noey – kratiem; grilled king scallop served with a butter and garlic sauce. Scallops are pretty much the key to my heart the sauce on these were amazing.

Not individually photographed was also poi’ pia gai nguang; smoked turkey breast wrapped with mixed vegetables in spring roll sheet which was a great take on our traditional turkey!

The main course, wow there was a lot of them, but it was so good to get to try them all.

Starting with my favourite, the panang nuer; slow cooked beef brisket topped with rich panang curry sauce, pea aubergine and sweet basil. Panang curry is something I would have ordered had we not been eating from a set menu so I was super glad to see it on the list of items we got to eat.

We also had the pad ka pow ped; duck breast stir-fried in chilli basil sauce which I really enjoyed. I even poured the leftover sauce onto my rice!

The duck is an added extra, along with scallops that you can pay and extra £10 a head for.

For mains there was also another turkey dish – gai nguang pdd nor – mai farang; turkey breast stir-fried with asparagus, sprouts and parsnip in garlic sauce. I did find the turkey in this a little to dry for me as I’m not a huge turkey eater but I did love the fact that there were brussel sprouts in the dish.

The pad thai jay, which is Thai rice noodles stir-fired with Chinese chives, crushed peanuts, bean curd and beansprouts in a homemade sauce was just as great the second time around as I had these as a main dish when I first visited Mango Tree.

We didn’t quite have enough room to finish all of it and as it was so good I took a little box of it home with us for lunch the next day! And yes, it still tasted good then!

Pla salmon hor bai tong; baked salmon steak marinated with fresh kachai, garlic, coriander and thai herbs wrapped in banana leaf was up next. I have to admit, I didn’t even try the sauce for this! The flavours of the salmon marinade was good enough on it’s own so I just ate that. The salmon was cooked just as I like it; slighty crisp on the outer layer so that was a win for me.

Mango mousse with chocolate crumble dusted with green tea matcha powder was our dessert. This was the only course that wasn’t for sharing and I’m glad as it was so scrummy!

As ever, the service at Mango Tree was exceptional and I’d go back time & time again.