GILL HARRIS and her pals sample a new addition to the Old Town eateries and finds it perfect from start to finish

Old Town Thai 23 Wood Street, Swindon SN1 4AN Tel: 01793 433924 Website: oldtownthai.com/

LET’S go to the new Thai place! I love Thai food,” said my pal when a bunch of us were planning a night of fine dining and too much wining.

“I can’t eat chilli though. It makes me blow up, like a great big inflatable fish-face.”

Said pal is prone to mishaps so I took her warning seriously and tried to suggest other places to dine - after all, trying to eat Thai food without chilli is a bit like going to a fish and chip shop and not wanting fried food.

But said pal was insistent and so four of us went along to check out the latest addition to Wood Street’s empire of exotic eateries, Old Town Thai.

And thank God there were only four of us - the restaurant had only been open a couple of weeks at the time of our visit on a Thursday night and by 8pm it was already packed to the gills and turning customers away. Good news travels fast, it seems.

Comfortably seated, menus in hand and wine ordered, we set about democratically choosing who would order what so we could taste as much of the menu as possible. After all, the menu advised us that: “Ideally, eating Thai food is a communal affair involving two or more people, principally because the greater number of diners, the greater number of dishes for people to share.” Get in.

In keeping with this concept, Old Town Thai offers Tuk Tuk dishes, which are smaller (all mains have a tuk tuk option) and therefore designed to share, much like tapas. But we decided to go for the traditional menu and just stab our forks into each other’s plates when the mood took us. After all, that’s what friends are for.

After much drooling, nattering and sipping of wine, we finally got round to ordering - and at just one mention of the horrendous fish-face disaster awaiting our friend if she so much as winked at a chilli, our waiter assured us the chef could prepare her dishes without the deadly explosive. Now that’s service.

For starters we ordered prawns in blankets (£4.95), packed with fragrant herbs in a light filo pastry; prawn cakes (£4.95), infused with coriander, white peppercorns and garlic; dim sum (£4.95) of minced prawn and pork with water chestnuts, garlic and coriander served with sweet soya sauce, vinegar and ginger; and a tom yum soup (£4.95) flavoured with a long list of ingredients, including lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime leaves, mushrooms and coriander leaves.

Comments between mouthfuls included “crispy... tasty... mmmm... perfection... lots of fish... delightful.” Success all round, it seems - and Fish Face still looked normal, so the lovely staff had obviously honoured their promise not to poison her with chilli.

So far, so very delicious.

There was a pleasant lull between starters and mains which allowed us to work our way through a drop more wine and rabbit on for a while - which let’s face it, is half the point in going out for dinner with friends.

But then we were on: time to tackle four beautiful plates of food and hope there was no chilli-based Russian roulette to be played.

One pal went for Pla Choo Chee (£8.50), deep fried crispy cod fillet covered with curry paste and coconut milk, topped with kaffir lime leaves. All the wonderful cliches Thai food makes you think of applied: fragrant, delicate, with multiple layers of flavour. And yum.

The Chilli-less One had Pla Neung Manao, a steamed whole sea bass in a robust blend of lemony chilli (or not, in her case) and garlic sauce. I nabbed a bit and it was divine, probably the nicest Thai dish I’ve ever tasted, packed with freshness, lemon zestiness and herbilicious headiness.

I decided to go for something I’d not had before, in this case a yellow curry, with prawns. It was creamy, flavoursome and not as feisty as a green or red curry - and the prawns were perfectly juicy.

The fourth member of our little entourage went what sounded like a Tai Chi move - weeping tiger. Which apparently, is marinated steak served with sizzling veg and a spicy sauce. It looked fantastic and by all accounts was, with veg cooked to perfection and the sauce fantastically spicy. Another winner, it seemed.

Other friends have since visited and all I hear from anyone is how fantastic Old Town Thai is, and how it is possibly the best Thai food they have ever tasted.

And we certainly agreed - amazing food, friendly, polite service, food you can make as hot or not as you wish... and for four of us with two courses each and two bottles of wine, the bill came to just under £100, including the tip. Astonishing good value.

No wonder they’re having to turn people away.