Thai: Pride of Siam

50 Exmouth Market
London, EC1R 4QE
Tel: 020 7833 3383

Date of Last Visit: Tuesday, July 31

The Victim: Me

The Damage: £10

The Background: I’ve just spent about 20 hours traveling. Let me go through the timings just to make sure I’m not lying. I hate it when people do that. A 7 (maybe 8) hour flight from Chicago to London? That’s nothing. I think you can leave your pajamas at home, sweetheart.

Monday, 10 a.m. Cabo Time/5 p.m. London Time: Leave hotel to return rental car, go to airport
Monday, 2 p.m Cabo/9 p.m. London Time.: Leave Cabo for LAX
Monday, 6 p.m. LA time/Tuesday, 2 a.m. London Time: Leave LAX for London
Tuesday, after 2 p.m. London time, but before 3 p.m.: Arrive back at flat in London.

OK, so 21 hours traveling. Yeah, I’m beat. But I’m also not going to bed until midnight. I want to sleep the night through.

So I have this idea–I’ll go up to Nid Ting by Archway, the Thai place that the staff at Kobkun Thai recommends. Now there’s a field trip! That will soak up some time. (Kobkun Thai, btw, is the massage place on the Essex Road, north of Islington Green. It’s great, but I’m constantly worried it will go out of business. Please go there.)

But you know…I can’t make it to Nid Ting. I am SOOO tired. I leave my apartment and find that I can barely walk straight. But I still want some Thai food. So I slowly and carefully shuffle over to Pride of Siam in Exmouth Market. I’ve had stuff delivered from there, but have never actually been.

After dropping an unexpected amount at Bagman & Robin (for the cutest purse ever), I hop on over to Pride of Siam. (Shopping…I am suddently so energized!) The restaurant has just opened. I ask for a table for one, and the woman motions to me to take a seat. It’s a "come on in, take any seat" type of motion. So I take one with a view of the street. (Sort of–there’a  big truck blocking most of the view.) The only problem? It’s a table for four.

And I am SO not allowed to sit there. The woman comes over and tells me to move.

Again, I do my internal math. It’s 6 p.m. on the dot. They’ve just opened. No one else is coming out to eat until 7 at least–and it’s a Wednesday, so it will be a sparse crowd at best. And it’s a Thai restaurant and not a particularly popular one and that. And I, as a single diner, will be done in 45 minutes.

But apparently, I can’t sit here because customers are going to be beating down their doors any second now and they will demand this very table.

Right.

So I am peeved. But I say nothing and retreat to a less scenic two-top in the corner.

Would they do this to Giles? Is it me?

The Food: I order some dumplings and the Pad Se Eu with Chicken. The dumplings are not very flavorful. In fact, they are quite bland. The pad se eu is acceptable, but I’ve had better. And Pride of Siam has made me so very cranky that the only way they can make me happy is to give me free food. 

The Service: The older woman who wouldn’t let me sit down spends a lot of time leaving and re-entering the restaurant, like she’s on a mission. An overly self-important mission. My young server is very sweet.

The Verdict: Eh.