Nahm

Being fans of Thai food, we went to Nahm last Friday for lunch to have a 'special' experience. Our first surprise was that the restaurant was virtually empty the whole time we were there (four other tables were occupied at the 'peak' time) which contributed to the lack of atmosphere. The style of lunch would have been a surprise but I'd already checked it out as it seemed odd for Thai food: entree, main course and desert 'Western style' instead of the usual Thai and East Asian shared plates. This seemed to be a bit of a mistake (partly the reason for the empty restaurant?) as it meant that most people, including my husband and I, switched our plates half-way through - not a very dignified way to eat.

The food was so-so -- my entree (a mixture of tasty morsels in two small palm leaves) was tasty; my husband's chive cakes (chopped up chives in a 'doughy' covering) were fairly tasteless. My husbands main course (stir-fried prawn in curry spies with coconuty rice and salad - all on one plate) was tasty, but my crab fried rice was very bland: basically a place of fried rice with hard-to-find slivers of crab (though there was also a bowl of tasty duck soup). We had a fruit dessert which was very pleasant - we weren't given a dessert menu and couldn't quite work out what the other quickly mumbled dishes were.

Not quite your average Thai restaurant - either in the variety of interesting food or the price (the fixed price lunch of £26 added up to £100+ for two which included a half-bottle - I don't drink alcohol - of very expensive white wine, water and coffee). A pleasant - though far from memorable - experience. And where was everybody?
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Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 4
Monday, February 18, 2008

I am amazed at the variety of comments about the food at Nahm. What most of the 'reviewers' are really saying is that they do not understand Thai food and how to order/eat it.

Unless you are having a Pad Thai, etc. for lunch alone you do not order individual dishes. You are supposed to order a range of dishes [all served at the same time], ideally a soup, one sweet dish, one hot, one sour, maybe one salty, etc. Then you taste ONE spoonful of a dish, take a spoon of cleansing rice, then One spoonful of a different dish or a sip of soup, slowly rotating around the table. Most Asian cuisines are best enjoyed in a similar fashion but no cuisine on earth has the range of contrasting explosive flavours as Thai.

To confuse matters, small local Asian restaurants [usually family run and desparate to make a good living], quickly adjust to providing the customer with what they feel most comfortable with, a much blander version of everything. Just ask them if you can sit down with them when their family eats and see/taste the difference!
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Kevin Bell
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 8
Sunday, January 27, 2008

I would just like to say that it is most unfortunate that many people on this particular site have not had a great experience of Nahm.

Against the grain I would like to submit this review of an extremely enjoyable experience myself and my partner had there.

My partner and I went there for Valentines Day last year and enjoyed a spectacular gastronomic experience and would recommend this restaurant to anyone who wants to try something very different to the usual upmarket thai restaurant.

Yes the bill was around £230 for the two of us (5 courses inc Champagne) but i have enjoyed similar meals for around the same price that have been inferior to the one we enjoyed at Nahm.

If you are willing to not count the pennies and are able to see that the food here is not what you will get in any of the other popular thai restaurants in london but has its own excellent and unique style and flavour then i would strongly recommend a visit to Nahm.
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mysteryeaterx - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 7
Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Nice atmosphere. The food is good, but not real Thai. Pitty ! Ovedrpriced as well !
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Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 2
Sunday, January 06, 2008

Yet another review from a very disappointed Aussie. First impressions, not so good. I couldn't understand the towering height of the reception/podium. The waitresses had to peer around the obstacle just to greet guests, ridiculous! Anyway, that's not so important. It's the food and the service that matters.

The waiting staff didn't seem to fully understand parts of the menu, they also got a few of our dishes mixed up. Overall service was above average, but not polished as how you would expect from a starred rating.

We were offered some bite size starters, some blended dried shrimp and paste served wrapped in a mandarin and plated on a slice of pineapple, nice sweet tasting. Other starters included a soup dish, the crispy noodles, a Thai salad, again, nice but all dishes we're predominantly sweet in taste. Mains, well, let’s just say, too salty, and uninteresting ingredients.

For a Michelin starred restaurant, I have to sadly say it does not deserve. I feel you'd be better off dining at your local Thai then wasting your money in Nahm. I confirm and agree on the accuracy of the recent reviews of this restaurant.
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Mel
Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 3
Sunday, September 02, 2007

Another slightly disppointed Aussie. The food was good, but not really much better than you would expect from any self-respecting suburban Thai restaurant in Sydney - which is ridiculous at these prices. We had the tasting menu - the main parts of which were a langoustine salad, a southern pork curry and a coconut-braised mackerel. The most jarring aspect of the evening - apart from the eye-watering prices - was being warned repeatedly by the waitress that we had ordered three very spicy dishes: when we ordered them, when we confirmed that was in fact what we wanted to order, when she summarised our order, and then again when the dishes arrived. Which would be fine if they were very spicy - but they weren't.
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Tazz
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 1
Monday, August 20, 2007

Another disappointed Australian, his main restaurant in Sydney, Darley St Thai, was absolutely fantastic with a funky interior. This restaurant is, as other posters mention, a little sterile. The waitress tried to get us to order the overpriced tasting menu, we went for the cheaper a la carte. The food was all very good, but disappointing when compared to the old Darley St.
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Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 5
Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Curry is curry which is basically a spicy stew which is, in my opinion one of the most basic albeit satisfying gastronomic offerings. Posh curry is posh curry but it's still curry. I thought the food and interiors at Nahm were rather nice, but just that. Maybe it's just my unaccustomed palate, but the delicacy of lobster was completely lost in the red curry lobster starter. It was beauifully presented and that's all that stood out in my mind. I was invited for a work dinner where no expense was spared. I still can't get my head around the Michelin star but anyway, very pleasant, some dishes mildly surprising and some mildly disappointing but not much else to say.
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SB-D
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 7
Monday, March 12, 2007

I thought overall the food wasn't quite as bad as recent reviews had made out but I'm still surprised Nahm has one Michelin star. We had the £40 arharn set menu with free glass of champagne.

Starter (more of an amuse bouche) of mandarin and pineapple with a prawn chilli paste was promising. Main dishes of pork with peppercorns and thai basil, and pork with squid in chilli jam were both good and somewhat better than your average HIgh Street Thai. Soup of minced prawn with cloud ear mushroom and asian celery was mediocre.

What really let the meal down was the 'aromatic' chicken curry which had no aroma whatsoever. Any repectable Thai restaurant, let alone a Michelin starred one, should be able to put together a decent curry but this one could have come straight out of a tin. Marks & Spencer ready meals are better.

The Michelin star would be justified if they raised their game and were more inventive but the curry really brought the meal down for me.

I agree that they have a problem with dishes going cold over the course of the meal. They really should invest in some kind of on-table hotplate or something. And the way the waitress clumsily plonked the rice on our plate wasn't really Michelin-style service. Why not serve the rice pre-plated if you're trying to be upmarket?

Overall: A mixed bag that may leave you disappointed. Some dishes are better than your average Thai but avoid the 'aromatic' chicken curry at all costs. For a 'posh' thai, Patara Thai is probably a better choice and better value.
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Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 2
Sunday, March 04, 2007

A complete disaster, typical overpriced London ripoff. Slow service, tiny portions, the Sea Bass has so much salt it could be from the Dead Sea, other dishes mediocre as best with the exeception of the duck salad. Then they topped it off by charging me for a glass of wine I didnt order and a keystone cops routine trying to find our coats. AVOID!
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Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 2
Wednesday, February 21, 2007