A Taste of Thailand at Thaikhun Nottingham

A few weeks ago we took a little visit to a new restaurant that had recently opened in Nottingham – Thaikhun – a Thai dining experience serving Thai street food.

I absolutely love Thailand and Thai food – we went travelling there during our round the world trip years ago and fell in love with the authentic Thai flavours of Lemongrass and Galangal, and the Massaman and Red and Green Curries. It’s an incredibly beautiful country with an amazing culture and atmosphere and I really hope I get to go back one day. There’s so much I love about it.

Thaikhun is a very cool place – the interior is very authentic and fun, with lots of different areas and levels to eat on. It has a great atmosphere and really lovely staff, who all embrace the traditional Thai greetings which I love. It really does give you a taste of Thailand and I loved the whole place.

The Nottingham venue has a gorgeous outdoor area, that is brilliant on a sunny day, and the whole place would be perfect to go with a group of friends as you’re quite likely to have your own area which is always nice.

‘Thaikhun’ means Your Thailand – their aim is to make you feel welcome as you dine, as part of their home as you would in Thailand. They want it to be a place to remind you of amazing personal journeys or to ignite the dream of exploring a new destination. For me it really did that – the sounds and smells of the food, and the styling of the restaurant really took me back to Thailand and made me long to be there. There are currently 9 locations around the UK with more coming soon.

We were there in particular to try out their recently launched kids menu – you can have a look at the video below to see how they created the kids menu. It’s quite funny…

The whole menu is great, and I was really spoilt for choice. We decided to share a couple of starters and then we went for a Pinto box for the two of us, so we got to try a variety of dishes.

Gai Satay

Pad Thai

The kids menu is brilliant, and I think perfect for little one’s who may be new to trying Thai food. They get vegetable sticks to start and their meal comes with juice, water, or milk which is nice. Then they can choose from Phad Thai, Fried Chicken with Jasmine Rice – or they can choose a Mix and Match Thai Tray, which is what Ava went for.

The Kids Menu

They can pick either Jasmine Rice or Plain Noodles, then Grilled Chicken, Pork, or Mixed Vegetables, and then a choice of three sauces to go with it – No Nuts Satay, Sweet BBQ, or Slightly Spicy Green Curry. I think they are great options and I would think there would be something in that for most kids.

The sauce comes on the side so they can put as much on as they want, or just dip their food in it as Ava did! You can tell they’ve really thought about the kids menu and how to serve it to make it more enjoyable for the children and the adults. They were really accommodating with our polite request to swap the satay sauce for the BBQ one when she decided she didn’t like it any more, and they were really lovely with her the whole time we were there, even when she ran around with me whilst I took photos.

She seemed to really enjoy the food and ate the majority of it before wanting to get back to her puzzles whilst we finished our mains. I think it’s a great introduction to Thai food for kids and at a good price for £5.95 for 3 courses. You also get free creepy crawlies with every kids meal – so how can you resist really?! I was feeling adventurous so I did try a couple – they were gross and left a horrid taste in my mouth – but my Prosecco helped with that! Ava of course wouldn’t touch them – but fried bugs are a fun conversation piece!

Creepy Crawly anyone??

We started with the Chicken Satay which was REALLY nice and I could have eaten lots more of it, and the ‘Tod Man Pla’ – Thai Fish Cakes, which I thought were really good too, and all very nicely presented.

Tod Man Pla

Then for our Pinto Box we chose a Massaman Curry (my favourite type of curry), Chicken Phad Thai and Nua Phad Kra Prao (Beef with Chilli and Thai Basil), which was the boy’s favourite and my least favourite – although it was still very nice. With it we chose sticky rice which we loved in Thailand – it’s so good with Thai curries and it’s nothing like the crappy boiled rice we have at home here.

Nua Phad Kra Prao

The food was all really nice and there was more than enough for the two if us – we couldn’t eat it all which is very unusual for us. I’ll be honest, I don’t think it’s the most authentic Thai food I’ve ever eaten and I thought the Massaman curry could have done with more of a kick and more of those amazing Thai flavours, as well as way more peanuts and more potato. I adore Massaman curry though, and have eaten a lot so I probably do have pretty high expectations. Also, I do realise that the food has got to cater to a lot of people.

The desserts were really nice, particularly the Gluten Free Chocolate Tart and Ava really destroyed her mini milk. There are a great range of drinks too, and lots of cool-sounding cocktails that really fit the theme. I stuck with Prosecco, but I want to try one of the cocktails next time I go.

Gluten Free Chocolate Tart

The food was good and I’d definitely eat there again. It was a brilliant place to go as a family and we didn’t need to worry about Ava disturbing other diners and there was plenty of hustle and bustle, and we also had our own little area to sit in, which was really nice.

The whole experience was great and I really loved the restaurant itself – I’d really like to go back with a big group of friends – it’s a fun and comfortable place to enjoy a nice meal, and get a taste of Thailand in Nottingham.

We were invited to Thaikhun for a meal, but all thoughts and opinions are our own.