Trying to avoid the tempation for another Indian stye, curry for three months in a row I decided that I could temper my curry fest by switching continents and heading off to Thailand for the delights of Champor-Champor. First things first I have no idea how I got the idea that this was a Thai restaurant because it isn’t! Instead the food was described as Malay (which seems to be a grab bag of all southern Asian food) and while spicey is much more than just curry!
To summarise
Top ingredients cooked with an Asian (or indeed Malayan?) hint of sugar and spice. A great, crazy venue with pleasant (and rather attentive staff) - interesting in all ways!
Ross says -
To waffle
Being one of the few local restaurant I had not yet been to and this being because I was never too sure where it was! However armed with an A to Z (I didn’t actually need it but it clearly calmed my nerves) I found it rather easy - infact easy in many ways; the location was easy to find, the decor inside was very easy on the eye (if not a bit crazy to be sitting underneath a 3D model of a cows head) and the prices were very easy on my wallet :>
The menu is arranged into three courses with the addition of a rather bizarre “inter-course” option (one that I and Gemma decided not to take them up on) from which you choose from to make up your three course meal (or if you are a wimp two courses). Normally I am not one for a “set menu” but really this provided the best of both worlds as the options ALL looked pretty darn good. After a bit of thinking and discussing with Gemma what we should have I went for:
- Free canapes and bread!
- Deep-fried froglegs with shitake mushrooms and truffle oil sauce
- Pan fried coriander seed crusted veal chop; cauliflour puree and taro chips
- Bread, pumpkin and butter pudding with custard and lemongrass ice cream
All my courses we very nice indeed but also got better as the meal went on - the starter was very nice, the main very very nice and the pudding was incredible - I have always said that I am not too much of a pudding man but the mixture of the sugar sweetness of the ice cream and custard and the sweet/savoury taste of the pumkin was awesome; it was pretty filling but I certainly could have ate more! If I have one complaint it would be that while very decedant looking the cutlery couldn’t cut something if their ‘lives’ depended on it - but I don’t eat cuterly was hey, its not a biggie!
As I have said the decor of this place is pretty crazy (check-out the photo’s on their site) but equally interesting, I don’t know what would have happened if the cow’s head had fallen off the wall but it didn’t so all went well. Its not a tiny place but certainly not that big either - weekend booking would always be a good idea and yeah, going there would also be a very good idea, I’ve not seen many menu’s or restaurants like it before (and I’d say thats a good thing!)
Tags food, London restaurants, Champor-Champor, restaurant reviews, Thai food
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