Nahm (Thai) revisited – London, England (7.5/10)
Apr 13th, 2009 by admin
I was recently invited for a complimentary dinner at David Thompson’s Nahm. Based at the Halkin Hotel, it has held one Michelin star for several years. I visited last year (see review here), but left not feeling particularly impressed by either the food or the service. I therefore accepted the invitation as an opportunity to see if my opinion could be changed.
At 7pm on a Tuesday, the restaurant was empty, although later on in the evening, there were a few other occupied tables. Naturally, as the visit by my friend and I was pre-arranged, the service provided by both the manager and waiters was faultless, although looking around, every diner seemed to receive a similar level of service.
The manager recommended going for the Namh arharn at £55 per person, which replicates a ‘traditional Thai meal’. You choose five dishes from the menu, one from one section, and share them with fellow diners. Given the steep à la carte prices, this sounded quite reasonable, as it also includes the cost of dessert (around £10).
Before our dishes arrived, we were served a little amuse-bouche of minced prawns and chicken simmered in palm sugar and mixed with nuts, served on pineapple with a sliver of coriander and chilli. You wouldn’t think it contained either prawn or chicken, but it’s lovely as a bite-sized sweet and savoury treat. I remember being impressed by it last year.
Then came a starter of kanom muang gai kem sai lamyai – salted chicken wafers with longans and thai basil (£13.50 à la carte). These were incredibly salty and not very nice, I’m afraid.
Our arharn dishes arrived all at the same time, with steamed rice. It was a little unexpected as we were expecting to have some time to savour each dish one by one. These were:
- yam king orn sai gung mangkorn – young ginger and lobster salad (£17.50 à la carte, set menu supplement £2.00 per person) – this was a lovely and simple, but rather small, salad with generous pieces of succulent lobster
- geng jeut muu bachor sai het horm sot – clear soup of minced pork dumplings with shiitake mushrooms and cabbage (£9.50 à la carte) – my absolute favourite and I managed to make my bowl last the entire dinner. It felt like a nourishing, healthy, home-cooked soup that I could imagine having at home every day. If you eat at Nahm, this is highly recommended
- lon naem – minced prawns and cured pork simmered in coconut cream, with grilled squid, star fruit and white turmeric (£13.50 à la carte) – this wasn’t quite what I imagined it to be. A small bowl of the former arrived, with the latter served on the side, including about five pieces of fresh grilled squid. It was tasty though, with subtle flavouring
- geng gwio warn plaa grapong tort - green curry of crispy seabass with white turmeric and Thai basil (£17.50 à la carte) – in contrast to the salted chicken wafers, this was very bland, and we left most of it behind
- hoi shell pao nahm jim – grilled Scottish scallops with garlic, chilli and lime sauce (£18.50 à la carte, set menu supplement £2.00 per person) – we were served one scallop on the shell each. The scallop itself was large, fresh and plump, but the accompanying sauce was so fiery that we were left with tingling lips. This would have been even more delicious, had the sauce been toned down just slightly
Although we were extremely full after this feast, we couldn’t turn down pudding and fresh mint tea:
- kanom babin – coconut cake with ngor bua lay – rambutan steeped in perfumed syrup (£9.50 à la carte)
- wun bai dtoei – pandanus agar gar with som chun – guava and longans steeped in jasmine syrup (£9.50 à la carte)
I loved the fruit steeped in syrup more than the accompanying coconut cake and pandanus agar gar, mostly because I couldn’t eat much more. Better than pudding, however, was the arrival of David Thompson at our table, who drank a glass of wine with us and chatted about his latest book on Thai street food, out in October, and the history of the Chinese community in Thailand, where he lives half the year.
The verdict:
Some of the dishes at Nahm were lovely, apart from the salted chicken wafers and seabass curry. After dinner, my friend and I tried calculating how much the meal would have cost us. Including pre-dinner cocktails at the bar and service charge (we didn’t have any more alcohol during dinner, only bottled water), it would probably have cost around £170.00. It is very expensive to eat at Nahm, so if you want to sample the menu, it might be advisable to book for lunch instead. David also mentioned that head chef Matthew runs hands-on cookery classes, followed by lunch, which sounds like a really enjoyable experience. And having met David, I’m now eager to read his cookery book Thai Food, which contains a detailed history and role of food in Thai culture (taking up the entire first third of the book) and three hundred recipes, as well as his next one on street food.
And here’s London Eater’s account of his meal at Nahm, as he was invited on a separate occasion.
10 – Perfection, 9.5 – Sensational, 9 – Outstanding, 8.5 – Superb,
8 – Excellent, 7.5 – Very Good, 7 - Good, 6.5 - Above Average, 6 – Average
All the London restaurant reviews on World Foodie Guide
Contact details:
Nahm
The Halkin Hotel
Halkin Street
London SW1X 7DJ
Tel: 020 7333 1234
res@halkin.como.bz
http://halkin.como.bz
Helen Yuet Ling Pang @ World Foodie Guide
Wow. That seems incredibly expensive for what it is. Well, for what I can see of it through photos anyway. I must say the idea of chicken in a wafer does not appeal. Were they not very nice because it was chicken inside a wafer or because they were very salty? What was the wafer made from? Was it flavoured with anything? It is all nicely presented too but then perhaps it might be possible to visit somewhere less expensive in London and get better Thai food? I don’t know. I have not eaten at many Thai places in London.
Erm…I dunno as I’m still extremely skeptical about this outfit. It’s a case of- if you pay I’ll tag along.
What happened to my comment? Oh well. I just said something about the chicken wafers. Were they horrible because the chicken was too salty or horrible because they were chicken inside a wafer? At that price I would want a really good meal. I don’t know of anywhere in London to get good Thai really. Any suggestions?
Helen! We almost had identical selections, I went for my invite last saturday. I got to agree with you on the salty chicken, it was just too salty, as if the chicken was soaked in brine.
I had the roast duck red curry which was quite nice, although overall, my experience there was so-so. Some dishes were good, but some were just ok, and dinner for £55 is really too expensive imho.
Great review as always! Did you go to the fox and anchor as well by the way? That one is really good
Yeesh! That doesn’t sound good at all. I can’t get my head around Thai restaurants charging so much, especially when it’s so much cheaper at the source.
Addies thai cafe in earls court – really tasty and cheap too. Their pad thai is nice.
i have eaten more thai food than any other single cuisine, and i must say that David Thompson’s food is the pinnacle of the medium. This isn’t the average thai food that everyone knows and loves. This is authentic cuisine saved from near extinction from all regions through Thailand’s diverse culture. It’s not all phad thai, mee grob and fish cakes. Much like chinese food isn’t all about chow mein and beef and blackbean. Perhaps the nahm arharn wasn’t explained to you, or perhaps you should have allready known, but thai food is meant to all come at once. it is meant to be shared. The individual dishes flavours compliment each other over rice. you say one dish was bland, and one was salty. That is intentional, that is the beauty of the true thai cuisine, a marriage of hot sweet sour salty and bitter… NOT, necessarily all in the same dish. I truly believe some people get it and some dont. However please don’t slander something that you dont actually understand.
regards,
You can try to find a better Thai restaurant in London but you won’t in my opinion! I think the cost cost for this Thai gourmet experience is reasonable & you have to remember you are in London (Belgravia)! How many Michelin Star restaurants can you walk away from feeling like you have just taken a trip to an authentic Thai restaurant in Thailand in 1 night?
I’m a big admirer of David Thompson and have eaten well at Nahm but you can only judge as you find on the night. Seems to me that you were careful to analyse what you did and didn’t like about the meal and that’s perfectly legit. Just because you were invited doesn’t mean you should suspend your critical faculties. Their prices ARE steep even for a Michelin 1 star, particularly in these hard times.
d: Complaining that someone didn’t like a meal because they didn’t “understand” it is completely ridiculous. If she had a mediocre experience then she’s every right to say so. It’s all very well having some pretentious concept or a vague nod towards authenticity but if your success relies upon some sort of conjuring trick, or if you have to have your meal “explained” to you so you don’t think it’s an overpriced pile of overthought wank then I suggest you need to rethink your motivations for running a restaurant. It seems like the culinary equivalent of a joke that you need explaining to you before you find it funny.
Elliott: Authentic apart from the beyond-cynical prices you mean? From the website – “salad of grilled long aubergines with
steamed eggs and mint”, £15.50
d- What a load of absolute codswallop! I have a few friends who are Thai chefs, not based here in Blighty but in Bangkok. In the twenty years I’ve known them they’ve never made a dish that was intentionally bland. Everything that’s meant to be Thai has an indelible reminder left on the taste. The only thing that’s intentionally bland is the boiled rice. You’re thus slandering yourself!
Elliot- Do Thais actually venture here or is it too authentic for them?
Wow, Michelin food, even Michelin Thai food, doesn’t come cheaply in London, does it?
I have immense respect for what DT has done with regards to celebrating Thai food but I must confess that after the first time I went to Sailors Thai, I did not wish to return. There wasn’t one thing about the experience which actually worked, and I was surprised and disappointed.
I just wanted to add my support to Helen. I don’t think that her review is slanderous, and you seem to conveniently ignore her compliments.
Oh and to the anonymous person, fyi my favourite Thai restaurant in Sydney is “Spice I Am”, where not a fishcake is seen. Does that make it sufficiently “authentic” for you?
Helen – I’m no expert on Thai food, as has been pointed out by ‘d’, but I can still tell when something is overly salty, and Kang agreed with me in his review. For example, you can have salted cod (bacalhau), but if it’s rinsed properly, it tastes wonderful. I eat preserved salted fish in Chinese food, and that’s meant to be a salty condiment or ingredient. As Charmaine said on Twitter yesterday, try Rosa’s. Of course the two restaurants are in a different league altogether! One has a Michelin star and the other doesn’t, for starters, although in general, having a star is no indication of great food by any means.
Kang – just read your review and have linked to it. Lovely photos as always! Somehow I don’t think I’ll be going to the Fox & Anchor, though Diana sent me a really nice email this morning…And thanks for Addies rec too!
Lizzie – see my response below to Elliott, which I’ve already composed in my head!
d – you clearly know more about Thai food than I do, and yes, I do get annoyed when people think Chinese food is represented purely by the cheap Chinese takeaways they eat. I’m also aware of David Thompson’s high standing in the food and restaurant community and very much enjoyed our chat. As a result of our chat, I’m really excited to buy his cookery book That Food and learn more about the cuisine. I would like to point out though that you weren’t present at my meal that evening. And although I understand the principles of balance in a meal (it’s the same in Chinese cooking), the salted (salty) chicken wafers were a starter and not even part of the arharn. I also think that flavours are supposed to complement each other in a meal, not contradict? Finally, I believe the word you’re looking for is ‘libel’, if you want to use it again in the future…
Elliott – I’ve not been to Thailand yet, but I think I’ll spend the money on a flight next time and compare the food for myself…
Fiona – thanks! Clearly many people have had wonderful experiences at Nahm, otherwise they wouldn’t be doing so well. I try hard to write balanced reviews of all the restaurants I visit, whether I know about the cuisine or not. And as I said before, I look forward to reading and learning from David Thompson’s cookery book.
Chris – as you can see, I publish all comments unless they’re stalky! Will chat more with you about this when I see you…
Fat Les – thanks for your comments! I guess you won’t be going to Nahm then…
aptronym – thanks for your comment! Feeling rather exhausted from all this now…
Helen Yuet Ling
I am not a connoisseur of Thai food and I agree that the food at Nahm is not average food. However, I cannot believe that Thai people would eat such a bland, bitter curry with sea bass! The whole taste of the fish was lost, remember? Also, the scallops which were so hot and the chicken which was too salty were not meant to complement as they were both were starters with the bland curry being the main…
d – get over yourself ! I very much doubt these authentic dishes were saved from near extinction. It’s Thai food we’re talking about not the giant panda. We all get it that Thai food is shared but I’d also prefer it if the different dishes arrived if not separately than at least at staggered intervals. It might not be “authentic” but neither is charging £ 55 a head for a tasting menu.
Going back to the review, the chicken wafer thing looks bad and sounds worse – is it really £13.50 a la carte ? The photos of the food also lacked that “wow factor” that you’d expect from a Michelin star restaurant. In general, London’s Thai food scene needs to up its game – its not a patch on Sydney, HK or Singapore (& Thailand of course). I’m looking forward to having my favourite, pla neung (steamed fish) with lemongrass and other herbs bubbling away in a fish kettle at the table when I’m in HK in a couple of weeks time.
Judging by the unfamiliar dishes on which you dined, I can only say that I’m quite dismayed by the fact that nearly all of the Thai food I’ve encountered is apparently just a fraction of that cuisine! Notwithstanding the prices at Nahm or the subpar flavors of some of the food, I wish that I could find such a menu that offered more than mee krob, massamun curry and sticky rice with custard. If food is the doorway to another culture, then when it comes to Thai, I’m apparently still just ringing the doorbell.
Brigitte – thanks for reminding me of the meal! I was beginning to doubt my own memory this morning…
Sung – thank you for your thoughts on this subject. You’re really going to eat well on your upcoming trip! Have you had a look at London Eater’s review and photos? He has some better photos of his meal. And yes, the chicken wafers really do cost that much…
Tangled Noodle – if you’re still ringing the doorbell, then I don’t think I’ve even reached the garden gate yet!
Helen Yuet Ling
Well done, Helen. We all appreciate the time, effort and care that you put into your reviews. As I said to you earlier, a person’s experience at a restaurant IS a valid experience, no matter what. D of course has a right to share his opinion, but not in a way that disrespects you or your experiences or opinions. And isn’t it wonderful that there are so many passionate eaters out there!
Makes me want to go out for some Thai food. I seem to recall the little place near my parents’ house is pretty close to authentic Thai. Used to have another one that was great…until it got popular and quality was sacrificed.
Think I better go back to Thailand and take a cooking class.
Ganga – thanks for your comment! Agreed, there are many many passionate eaters out there, especially when it comes to Thai food…
ChinaMatt – I’d love to do a cookery class in Thailand. My brother-in-law learnt some great dishes when he did it a couple of years ago.
Helen Yuet Ling
Nahm would not survive as a stand alone restaurant, it is never busy probably bank rolled by the owners of the hotel however room service food is very good.
From another Thai person, the food was below average and the dishes are very random in taste and textures. The flavors seem to be overcompensating for the lack of ambiance and atmosphere. The flavors were too strong and did not bring out true signature Thai combinations of sweet, salty and sour. The soups had too many root flavors, masked by chillis, which was indicative of the several hours the soup was made before the dinner rush. The garnishes were a mixture of several random fruits and vegetable leaves that seemed to be thrown together to give the perception of the dishes being exotic and interesting
KL – thanks for your thoughts on Nahm. You clearly know much more than I do about Thai food!
Helen Yuet Ling
The only “authentic” Thai food I’ve ever had in this country is at the annual Sonkran festival out at the Wimbledon Thai Temple. Various food stalls are set up and the food is scrumptious. Sadly, it’s now so popular (mainly with Thais) that it is packed to the point of being uncomfortable. With so many great Vietnamese, and increasingly, Malaysian/Nonya, restaurants, why isn’t there a decent, reasonably priced Thai restaurant in London? Helen, you might be interested to know that my Thai Amah used to make something like the “geng jeut muu bachor sai het horm sot – clear soup of minced pork dumplings with shiitake mushrooms and cabbage” you mentioned. It was sublime – the pork was the consistency of a quenelle and the broth flavoured with corriander.
Mike
admin Reply:
July 30th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
Mike – I’ve heard of that Thai festival, but Wimbledon’s a bit far for me. I wish I knew the answer to your question! But I’m so pleased to hear your amah made the soup I had at Nahm, the best dish of that evening!