Koh Thai Tapas, Southsea, Hampshire

Koh Thai Tapas in Southsea is another place on my ‘to-do’ list amongst many, many others. Finally, two weeks ago my sister Gill and I paid them a visit using a Groupon voucher. This was to be my first visit to a Thai restaurant and their food – apart from the odd Charlie Bigham red Thai curry ready-meal from Waitrose.

It’s not all tapas, there are also full-sized dishes which we went for. There’s salads, soups, curries, stir-fries, rice and noodles to chose from with a colour coded menu showing which dish is hot, medium, vegetarian etc., to help you make the right choice. This we completely ignored as we didn’t notice it…whoops.

Perhaps we should have looked because our starters, which we shared were really hot making our mouths quite numb and feeling like it was on fire for a short while. You can see for yourselves in the photos the circles of fiery green chilly peppers within the fishcakes!

Not to worry, we survived and our mouths soon returned to normal. The dishes were well presented with pretty flowers made out of carrots.

I’m guessing there’s a kitchen apprentice who has to make these all day long…

I couldn’t taste any fish in the fishcakes but they were fresh with plenty of flavour.

I returned a week later – once the Groupon vouchers weren’t available to buy anymore, d’oh! – with my husband Geoff and my friend Catia. I didn’t make the same mistake again, I checked the colour coding before selecting. Geoff and I shared the 24 hour ribs for starters which were very nice with plenty of meat on them.

We also shared the pan-fried chicken pieces which came with a dipping sauce and chopped onions and peppers (not hot one’s thankfully).

Catia is more adventurous and enjoyed her crispy squid.

I shared the lamb massamann curry and the red Thai curry with Gill on my first visit and this time I ordered the same to share with Geoff as they were really tasty. I really can’t decide which one I like best. The massamann curry had chunks of tender lamb, new potatoes and onion all in a wonderfully tasty sauce.

The red curry was equally as good. This had aubergine, peppers, green beans, bamboo shoots and we had it with chicken although you could have pork, vegetables or tofu and beef or Tiger prawns for a little extra cost.

Catia’s dish was tasty too but she couldn’t manage it all and so took the rest home.

I’ve not had sticky rice before and liked it. Geoff and Catia both had steamed Jasmine rice.

Whenever I visit an Indian restaurant (The Spice Merchants in Osborne Road is my favourite) I never have room for a dessert, I think because the rice fills me up and if I’m honest I didn’t really need one after my meal. With eyes bigger than our belly Gill and I ordered a scoop each of honeycomb ice-cream and coconut cream ice-cream.

The scoops were surprisingly large and came with chocolate sauce as an option. No option for me! Unfortunately we weren’t too keen on the ice-cream, there was some sort of ‘under-lying’ taste we didn’t like. They both tasted the same but one just had bits of coconut in  and the other honeycomb. We left most of it.

Inside is fairly dark but they have lots of candles around for evening time and large big windows which go all the way up to the ceiling – this building was once a bank.

On our second visit to Koh Thai we sat upstairs which is like a gallery where you can look down on other diners. Again, we had good and friendly service.

You can find Koh Thai in Kings Road, Southsea, Portsmouth. Head East and the road leads into Elm Grove where further down you can find Rosie’s Vineyard and Bread Addiction. Keep going to the very end and turn right at the corner and you’ll come across Jam & Bowler, all of which we have reviewed in the past.

Ambience 7
Value 7
Service 7
Quality 8
Return? Yes

Living life, loving curries – but not hot chillies! 😉

A x