Review: Speedboat Bar, Soho

To be honest, this Speedboat Bar review could be a copy-and-paste of Plaza Khao Gaeng, which is by the same folks. And that’s no bad thing, I’d love a branch of their kind of punchy, authentic, in-your-face Thai cooking down the road from me! I’d love one in every town I visit. Of course, I should probably just up and move to Thailand. But until then I’ve got Plaza Khao Gaeng and Speedboat Bar to keep me happy.

As the name implies, they’ve gone proper kitsch with the decor. It’s all unashamedly Thai gold-and-pink meets sports bar neon and team shirts. The menu isn’t a copy of Plaza, so we enjoyed a bunch of new dishes we don’t see there.

First thing we get is chicken skins with zaep seasoning. These are crispy little chunks of scrunchy goodness with a really kick-ass spicy and citric seasoning on ’em. Loveable bar snacks. Then we have black pepper stone bass. The dark inky colour of the sticky glaze-sauce gives a clue as to just how much black pepper has been packed into this and it’s a lot. The fish is sturdy and carries the hefty punch of chilli and peppercorns well. Alongside this we pick a salad of mustard greens and Chinese sausage, with a fierce dressing of citrus, chilli and peanut. I just love the weird sweet-fake-pork taste of preserved Chinese sausage. Our final dish is a Chinese New Year special (because it’s Chinese New Year this week, duh), some beautifully cubed roast suckling pig belly with golden squares of the scrunchiest crackling on top. It’s dreamy meat, very simple but perfect, just so show how seriously good their cooking chops are here.

I’d say you’d put together a feast here for £25-30 each, before drinks. The drinks are great fun, as you’d expect, though this time we were staying sober and went with their excellent Thai iced tea.