The Condiment Queen

Yum Yum Thai Restaurant

Set back from the busy High Street in a beautiful converted school, with a Buddha in the quiet front garden and twin sets of stairs leading enticingly to the front door, Yum Yum Thai exudes a lot of class from the first moment. The large room is divided by carved wooden panels.

Firstly there is the bar area, which is subdivided into a private raised area and couches in front of the bar. The main dining room is divided in two with a huge number of tables with leather banquettes, dark wood tables, pink walls and lots of Thai statues. This is a far cry from the crowded, comfortable neighbourhood favourite I remember from a few years ago. Yum Yum has been reborn as a fabulous ‘destination restaurant’. But its not in Chelsea, or Fulham or Chiswick or indeed anywhere you would expect a joint with this level of design intelligence. Its in Stoke Newington. That’s right, Stokey. Not even Islington. The crowd is excitable, the room positively buzzes on a Saturday night and you know that people are having a good time. And why wouldn’t they? With a fabulous array of cocktails to sip while you wait for your table with exotic fruit nectars and spirits its hitting the mark before we’ve tasted a thing.

The problem is after a twenty minute wait, not the five to ten minutes we were promised on arrival, I’m a little annoyed. I start to suspect that more thought has gone into the ambiance than the experience.

Finally, we are seated, in the middle of the room, I ask to be moved to a quieter table on the side and while surprised, the waitress does so. Quite a lot of empty tables when I’ve been waiting for almost half an hour. No mind. The menu wipes away my irritation. So many choices – there are old favourites like Pad Thai with a huge selection of vegetarian options (pumpkin curry, aubergine hot pot) but we decide to balance out the new with the familiar and order squid with chilli & lime, kwah soy (noodles with coconut and spices) and a som tum (green papaya salad). About 10 minutes later the food arrived. All of it. 10 minutes.

This massive room which is only about 70% full (but with at least 30 people waiting for tables) and the food arrives in 10 minutes. The noodles are terrific covered in a creamy, spicy coconuty sauce with gentle aromas of lime and a sweetness giving the full spectrum of Thai flavour. The som tum is hot, but not so much to make your eyes though tiny, about a handful for £6. The squid is distinctly chewy and so-so. We finish up, I contemplate dessert, and we wait for someone to come and clear the table so we can see the menu which I know has a fondant as the couple next to us appear to be enjoying. And we wait, and wait and wait for someone to notice us. Another 20 minutes, with dirty plates piled up on the table.

The waiters are setting up tables to put punters on but no one seems interested in us. So we decide to skip dessert and eventually hail someone to ask for the bill. I know I sound like a whingeing hag, but we thought the service was absolutely shocking, they need to sort out their staffing levels (and competency) and learn to time the delivery of food.

Maybe I wanted too much of a cosy night in an environment now geared toward statement dressing. I feel like the elements are all there for an establishment that might live up to the promise of its décor and I will return at some point, maybe. Or maybe Ill just keep getting the takeaway.

Yum Yum Thai Restaurant
183-187 Stoke Newington High Street
Stoke Newington
N16 0LH
Tel. 08713320374

Mercado

Stoke Newington is probably better known for its lefty, vegetarian residents than it is for its restaurants. There are actually some really gorgeous ethnic eateries in this corner of North East London, I am not convinced though that Mercado is one of them.

It doesn’t suffer from the “sour-cream&cheddari-tis” that most supposedly Mexican restaurants in London do, but it doesn’t quite inspire either. Immediately, its main failing is to have quorn offered as a substitute for meat in a number of dishes. I am all for meat-free eating, but replacing flesh with fungus grown in vats is hardly appealing. The decor was very bright and quite authentic in that sense, but leaning a appealingly close towards kitsch.

To start we shared a ceviche of prawn which failed on a number of fronts. It was far too sweet and came accompanied by far too few tortilla chips (about 10) for such a huge cup full. Way to many prawns of a sickly shade of pink as well.

Very nice but slightly patronising staff – I had to refrain from rolling my eyes when she told us that the mole my ginger ninja chose would be spicy and that the flavours would include chocolate – Im sure she meant well but I can read that well enough from the menu.

The ginger ninja had the signature enchiladas in aforementioned mole sauce. I didn’t like the sauce – it tasted faintly of soil and was a bit too grainy and hot to be pleasurable. Mean quantities of chicken inside didn’t help matters but he polished it off anyway.

A generously portioned, juicy, perfectly cooked fillet of red snapper came smothered in a brilliantly red, highly flavoured sauce was the highlight of the meal. It came accompanied by new potatoes, spinach and a lightly flavoured rice. Although I question the authenticity of the jersey royals I admire the use of local seasonal sourcing and the presentation.

Disappointing dessert choices – all very heavy on the leche, rice & chocolate didn’t really excite either of us and we skipped them entirely.

We also felt it was ever so slightly overpriced being about the same as Green & Red. It is owned by the same owner of the highly successful thai eatery yum yum (Atique Choudhury) which was formerly on the site and the similar feeling of pricey ness now found at both ventures is not ideal. Concentrating on the overall quality, some more authentic vegetarian choices and better pricing would certainly bring me round.

Mercado
28 - 30 Stoke Newington Church Street
N16 0LU
020 7923 0555
Map