Mango Tree

The sister restaurant of one of my favourites, Awana, but serving Thai cuisine. I was definitely looking forward to this.

Food

Like Awana, there is a very interesting cocktail menu, and even quite a few non-alcoholic drinks. I had the Serendipity, with rum and pear being dominant. You got quite a kick from it. If you prefer your cocktail sweet, stay away, but this one certainly had oomph, which seemed to contradict the name really. Slokky had the Exotic ONe - Fresh passion fruit juice, lychee juice, cranberry juice, fresh dragon fruit, coconut cream, lime juice, brown sugar syrup, ONe fizzy drinks which was excellent. Very refreshing. There were 3 or 4 choices on the Awards menu:

• som tum (v) - green papaya salad with cherry tomato, snake beans, peanut and spicy lime sauce - not as good as the papaya salads from Thailand, and a little bit too sweet for my liking…but I do love papaya salad…Don’t be fooled by the description. The salad consisted mainly of papaya and not much else.
• Tod Mun Pla - Spicy fish cakes seasoned with curry and kaffir lime leaf served with sweet and spicy sauce - nicely fragrant with herbs, and with hints of fishiness. Not too peppery and not too spicy. I like it.
• Gaeng Kiew Wan Gai - green curry with corn fed chicken - A little bit sweet and not hot enough for my liking…but otherwise the flavour was great, and certainly much better than the version at Sri Nam. There wasn’t much chicken in it though.
• Pad Ka Pow Pak (v) -stir fried mixed vegetables with chilli and basil - had the required wok taste, but otherwise the sauce was quite plain and boring
• Cheese Cake Lychee Na-Now - lychee and lime flavoured cheese cake with Lychee jelly - really yummy Asian flavours
• Ice Creams - Chocolate & Lemongrass, Very Berry, Banana with Sticky Rice - I loved this, reminds me of all the great ice cream places in Asia.

Rating - 7.5

Atmosphere

Busy cannot even being to describe it, it was absolutely full to bursting, with so many groups and couples everywhere. I usually find myself being one of the first people in a restaurant at 7pm on a weeknight, but not here. The whole place was already filled up when we arrived, with only a few tables left, which were filled by 7:30pm. I was glad we got a relatively good spot by the window, as we got a little bit of privacy. Definitely not a place for a date but great for groups.

Rating - 1.5

Service

Considering how busy the place was, the running of it was much better than I expected. We did have quite a wait for the main course – and they got one of our orders wrong, so we ended up eating one meal before the other. They did manage to fix the mistake quickly. It also took forever for the bill to come. I think if the place was less busy the service would be very good, as they seemed relatively well organised.

Rating - 2.5

C-factor

We went as part of the reward meal through Top Table. I had previously tried the 2000 points reward (twice) before, and it was not bad, not generous though, so I had some doubt on what we would get for the 1400 points reward. I was pleasantly surprised at the generosity. It seems like we dined from a restricted lunch menu, which costs £20 for 3 courses. So as we got it for free… Anyway, they always do 50% discount deals so I don’t think anyone ever pays full price? Looking at how popular the place is, I am sure they’ve got it right.

Rating - 2

Brownie Points - 13.5

Info

46 Grosvenor Place
London
SW1X 7EQ
Phone +44 (0) 20 7823 1888
Website