Manolys Thai Review!

September 29, 2015 by Rich - Foodie Reviewer

Manolys Thai Review

Food and travel, two of my passions, and go together so well. I've had some wonderful culinary experiences worldwide. You can't beat arriving in a foreign country and diving straight in! Take my advice, get out of your comfort zone, put a brave face on, and eat where the locals eat. You can't go wrong, after all they know the best places! Isn’t that what those wonderful holiday memories are all about? As soon as Lou and I book a trip, the first thing I do is research the local cuisine and where to get it. We've actually just booked a trip to India in the New Year, a foodie paradise, I can't wait. Already I’m spending hours scouring the Internet sussing out the local food scene! Lou and I often chat about the best food experiences we have had on our travels, and one of those places is Bangkok. The street food there is immense, some of the best I’ve ever tasted! Also home to some of the spiciest food we have ever eaten. I love spice, but the Thais are crazy for it. One dish that springs to mind was tom yum soup. This was insanely hot, just packed full of chili’s, dare I say it was almost unbearable, my eyeballs nearly melted out of their sockets, I dread to think what it did to my insides. Lou on the other hand just got stuck in and devoured the lot. I have never seen her sweat so much; she doesn't even sweat that amount after 45 minutes on the treadmill! I don't think any Thai restaurant has ever replicated that experience, maybe it's a good thing; as we had to chill the toilet roll the next morning, know what I mean!! Sorry pretty gross I know, a little too much info! After reminiscing over our Bangkok break, I was in need of some Thai food. So, with the toilet roll chilling in the fridge, Lou and I wandered off to Manolys, one of the more established restaurants along Leigh Broadway.

As soon as you enter the restaurant your senses get going! The lovely smell of Thai food hits you straight away. Lemon grass, coconut, kafir lime leaves, beautiful! So on to the menu, straight away the menu suggests you share, and I just love sharing, no danger of food envy tonight! The starters? All the usual’s are present and correct; spring rolls and satay (chicken, beef or prawn) nothing new there really, but what should the real foodie order? Prawns on toast? These sounded interesting, a little different to the Chinese restaurant staple we all know. But a couple of dishes really stood out, which I just had to give a go. Chicken pandan leaf, which is basically chicken breast marinated in garlic, spices and wrapped in a pandan leaf. I couldn't bypass the Tod Mun Pla, homemade fishcakes to you and me! Just one other starter too, the dim sum. I thought dim sum was more of a Chinese thing, so lets see how the Thai’s compare. Well, the dim sum was pretty good, four plump dumplings filled with minced pork and prawns, sweet soy sauce on the side, not too bad at all. The chicken pandan was a tad on the dry side, in all fairness it can be difficult to cook chicken breast and keep it juicy, but when dipped in the accompanying chili sauce it was tasty. My favorites though were the fish cakes. Clearly homemade, they simply tasted fabulous. Sweet, fragrant and delicious when dunked in the chili sauce! This may sound a little odd, but quite often Thai fishcakes taste almost ‘soapy’! You must think I’m mad, fish and soap, what’s wrong with you man! This is not a criticism, quite the opposite in fact, it’s just the lemongrass that gives it that fragrant flavor and I really like it. But, it is a careful balance not to over do it. I gauge the quality of Thai fishcakes on their soapiness! Manoly’s fishcakes had just a hint of ‘soap’, not over powering at all! I really enjoyed them.

Before I move on to the mains, I need to talk drink. One of my favorite subjects, and one I am very experienced on, through years of research and hard work! This may upset my wine friends, and I am sure I will take some stick over this, but here we go….Wine doesn’t go with spice! There you go I’ve said it. I love wine, but with spicy food, nah, give me a beer any day of the week. So you can stick your Rieslings and Gewürztraminers back in the fridge for another day, its beer with spicy food for me. However, saying that, the Indians are producing some pretty palatable wine these days, and we all know the Indians use a lot of spice. If you ever get a chance to give Sula (an Indian wine producer) ago, its not too bad, so maybe it does have its place with spicy food. But not for me, I just had to have a Singha beer, it was Friday night after all and I hadn’t had a beverage since the regatta last Sunday!

So armed with my beer, we ordered our mains. It’s just got to be a chicken green curry, a Thai classic no less. Squid with chilli and holy basil, sounded tasty, lets have one of them. You cant come to a Thai restaurant and not order Pad Thai noodles, so one on the side with prawns will do just nicely. Just one more dish, weeping tiger, this is marinated sirloin steak grilled with a spicy sauce. I reckon that’s enough for the two of us! All the dishes looked good, one disappointment being the squid, it tasted lovely, but it was a little too chewy, I don’t mind chewyish squid, but it was just a little too much. This wasn’t a problem for Manolys, as straight away they apologized and removed this from our bill. Well done guys, after all, often its not the problem which is the issue, but how its resolved, and we couldn’t fault them at all. All the other dishes were great. Pad Thai with prawns, fantastic, it was packed with prawns, and we all know the secret to a good prawn pad thai? It’s PRAWNS of course! This Pad Thai did not disappoint on that front. The green curry was sweet, sour, salty and spicy, as a good Thai curry should be with a creamy coconut sauce. The weeping tiger was lovely. Tender steak, with a spicy sauce, which was certainly spicy!

Well, I was pretty pleased with all that grub, apart from the squid, but hey, I’m not going to hold that against them, all the other dishes where great. The bill? £88.00 including service, not too bad, it was a Friday night out after all.

Thai food isn’t all about spice, albeit I do sway towards the hotter dishes. It’s the combination of four things, sweet, sour, spice and salt. Get the balance right and you’ve got yourself some great Thai food. Manolys did a good job. So well done guys, it’s a thumb up from me, you certainly sorted my fix for some delicious Thai grub, I shall certainly be back. Oh and just one other thing, I nearly forgot, the toilets! They don’t just chuck any old hand soap in there, oh no, Molton Brown no less, at £14 a bottle they certainly haven’t skimped here!

To book a table at Manolys please call 01702 475513